Day
20, Monday, May 4, 2015
I had the room all to myself last night. I got up when the alarm sounded at 6:30
AM. I didn’t have to wait for my roomy
to finish in the bathroom; I didn’t bump into my roomy as I was getting dressed
and packing either. I could get used to
this. No, it is fun to have a
roomy. Well, I got dressed, packed and
took a couple of bags out to my Motorcycle.
As I uncovered my Motorcycle, I looked at it and it was filthy! I packed my bags in the trunk and saddlebag
and I HAD to clean it. I went to the breakfast area and C.E. and Ken
were already there. The other two came
in soon after. We had a good
breakfast. After we finished, we sat
around, killing time. We then went to
our rooms and got the rest of our stuff and loaded our Motorcycles. It was a cool, beautiful day. We left the hotel at 8:38 AM.
Chuck was in the lead, I was next, then Jan, Ken and
C.E. We rode on Highway 550. This ride was awesome. The road was good and the scenery was
fantastic. All of the surrounding
mountains had snow. We were on the Red
Mountain Pass. We rode for 61 miles and
at 9:59 AM, we stopped in Silverton, CO.
We just so happen to park in front of a Harley Davidson Store. I’m sure that none of you would have
guessed. The store opened at 10 AM. The two Harley riders, Jan and Chuck, went in
and just about bought out the store!
Just kidding, they bought two shirts each. Ken, C.E and I went across the street to a
local store and Ken came out with a nice looking shirt. I’m sure that it was only half the price of
the Harley shirt because it didn’t say Harley.
We got on our Motorcycles and rode around the corner to a coffee
shop. Chuck had to have some
coffee. I had to have coffee also, but I’m
NOT allowed. We looked at the sky
towards the direction that we were going and there were snow clouds. Chuck was done with his coffee so we mounted
our Motorcycles and left at 10:57 AM.
Chuck got us back on Highway 550, “The Million Dollar
Highway.” Not ten minutes passed when we
reached the top of Molas Pass. When we
got to the top, we had some snow flurries.
It wasn’t bad. It only lasted for
about a minute. We continued riding the
Highway and enjoying all of the twisties, curves, hills and scenery. There was snow all over the place, except on
the road. This road was narrow and at
some points, the “drop” on our side of the road was very deep. There were no guardrails. Some of the guys didn’t want to look
down. I took pictures…and a video. We came down from Molas Pass, only to go back
up onto Coalbank Pass. We enjoyed these
two Passes and soon, we entered the City of Durango. Just as we did, at the sign welcoming
travelers to Durango, there was a deer standing by the sign. We rode for 50 miles and at 11:54 AM, we
stopped at a gas station in Durango for C.E. to fill up his Trike. We then rode a block away and stopped at a
Subway for lunch. The temperature was in
the 60’s so we took off our jackets and got our lighter gloves out. We went in for lunch. When we were done, we went to our Motorcycles
and the temperature dropped. We all put
our jackets on and broke out our heavy gloves again. We left at 12:42 PM.
Chuck checked the weather south of us and told us that we
could put our rain gear on if we wanted.
He wasn’t. He thought that it
would be dry. We headed south on Highway
550. We rode for a distance and we
crossed the New Mexico State Line at 1:07 PM.
We rode for 38 miles and at 1:20 PM, we stopped in Aztec, NM to gas
up. We all filled our tanks. We looked at the sky to the south and it was
black. Chuck felt that if we would
probably hit some pockets of rain and that we would ride out of them soon. None of us put our rain gear on. We left at 1:36 PM.
Jan took the lead; I was next, then Ken, C.E. and
Chuck. We headed onto Highway 550. We rode through a couple of small towns and
then we were in Farmington. There were
very little signs posted along the road telling us where we were. Apparently, we took the wrong road out of
Aztec that took us to Farmington. We
stopped at a parking lot after riding 15 miles and it was 2:01 PM. Chuck and Jan were confused with the
map. Jan felt that we needed to go a
certain direction. Jan rode his
Motorcycle to a nearby car and a man was sitting inside. Jan asked for directions. Jan was right. We left at 2:21 PM.
Jan led us on Highway 64 west. We rode to a town called Bloomfield and
turned right, onto Highway 550. We were
back on track. We were headed south and
there was nothing by BLACK sky. The more we rode, the windier it became. It was also raining! Watching Jan as he rode in front of me, he
was leaning, BIG TIME, to the right. We
had no place to pull over to change into our rain gear. On a side note, we spent a lot of money on
our rain gear. They were all protected
in our saddlebags. That means that we
will keep them longer. Jan got a hold of
me on the CB and told me that when we got into Cuba, NM, he was going to look
for a Holiday Inn Express or Best Western.
We were riding and the rain was soaking through our jackets. My right side was soaked. There was a small casino and mini-mart on the
left side of the road. It was 19 miles
from Cuba. Jan pulled in to the
mini-mart. NO ladies, we DIDN’T go into
the casino! It was blowing strongly and
it started to rain again. We left at 3:48
PM.
Jan led us south on Highway 550. It was DARK.
We rode for 22 miles and at 4:09 PM, Jan stopped at an abandoned gas
station in Cuba, NM. Jan told us that he
stopped so that we could put our rain gear on.
After putting on our rain gear, we left, in the rain, at 4:22 PM.
We continued riding and it was raining again. Did I say it was DARK? It rained for awhile. It felt much better to ride in the rain with
rain gear on, although our clothes were wet under our rain gear. We rode for a while and it stopped raining. The road was dry and Jan bumped up the
speed. We were actually able to see the
landscape of the area. It looked
good. We rode for 66 miles and at 5:23
PM, we stopped in Bernalillo, NM at a Holiday Inn Express. I went into the lobby to “make the deal.” I got a good deal and went back outside and
told the guys. We all went in and
checked into our rooms. We got our bags
from our Motorcycles and took them to the rooms. We had parked our Motorcycles under the
awning at the entrance and I went downstairs to make sure it was OK to leave
them there. It was. I went back to my room and Chuck was already
wearing his swim suit and ready for the hot tub. I quickly got ready and we went
downstairs. Jan was already in the
water. We got in and Ken soon followed. We had decided that for dinner, we would
order pizza. We didn’t want to ride
anywhere because it was raining.
We had dinner and talked about a lot of things, including
this year’s ride, the guys, our families and our Motorcycles.
Today we rode 334 miles and rode through a lot of rain,
wind and a little snow flurry. We
protected our rain gear and got wet. We
survived.
Tomorrow is bittersweet.
We will head for home tomorrow.
We are not sure what the weather will bring us, but we will be prepared. Hopefully we will use our expensive rain gear
and NOT protect them by leaving them in the saddlebags. So, until tomorrow…
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