There were two things I forgot to bring on this trip: my toothbrush and an alarm clock. The toothbrush was just a complete dumb-out. The alarm clock was something I didn't realize I'd need.
The room I stayed in at Bucket's house did not have a clock. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way complaining about Bucket graciously opening his home up to me! My original plans were to be on the road by 7:30, however I hadn't intended to stay up as late as I had the previous night. So I revised my plans to wake up no later than 7:00.
There was a clock down the hall I could look at, but I needed something else to help trigger my exit from slumber. I opened the curtains on the window completely, hoping that the light would wake me up.
When I woke up, sure enough there was sunlight streaming in from the window. I plodded down the hall to check the clock, and discovered it was only 5:30. I happily returned to bed hoping to catch another 1.5 hours of sleep.
The next time I woke and checked the clock, it was 6:45. I decided that was close enough, and got up and started getting ready.
I made it to the kitchen at 7:30. At about 7:45, Bucket walked in the back door. He had run to the store and bought everything he needed to make biscuits and gravy. We sat and talked and ate a great breakfast, until around 9:30. I finally decided I should hit the road and reluctantly said my goodbyes. Sometimes enjoying a friend's company is more important than keeping a schedule.
At the edge of Greely I stopped and gassed up. When I went to leave, I slipped on my sunglasses but they didn't seem to feel right on my head. I pulled them back off and examined them, and discovered that the earpiece had cracked just next to the hinge. I suspect the bee hit might have been the culprit, but I don't know for sure. In any event, the crack was now severe enough to render them unusable. It was annoying because I had just purchased this pair two days before I left, and while they weren't the ultra high-dollar kind, they weren't $2.00 cheapies either.
I had an old pair along as a spare, but they were in bad shape. I decided that they would work for now, but I didn't want to finish the entire trip with them. I also was being driven nuts by the ever increasing film on my teeth.
So, I rode the 20 miles or so into Loveland and found the place we all love to hate: WalMart. I purchased a toothbrush, toothpaste and another pair of sunglasses. This put me behind schedule even more, but I resigned myself to it being a necessary stop. As I brushed my teeth in the WalMart bathroom I started to feel human again.
Back on the road, it was now nearly 10:30 which was a full three hours behind my "schedule". I decided that I would have to make up some time if I was going to make it to Colorado Springs by suppertime. Up ahead I could see the mountains.
I rode through Loveland. On the west side there is a very pretty lake, so I had to stop and snap a picture.
The road between Loveland and Estes Park is a great, twisty ride through a canyon. It was very pretty and I made a few stops to snap some pictures.
Along this road was a dam. Next to the dam was the dam store (the best dam store in the world, according to the sign) which had an old rickety wooden tower you could climb up to see the sights. I climbed up and took a couple of pictures. This old tower was probably the scariest part of the trip as it swayed as you went up the steps.
Once I arrived in Estes Park, I made my way through downtown to the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, there was a Scandanavian festival going on, which meant that the entire downtown was gridlocked. I sat in traffic for quite a while before I finally got through. This wasn't helping my schedule any.
Once I entered the park, the traffic was steady but not too bad. Some of the views are tremendous. I rode through the park, stopping to take pictures whenever I saw something of interest. Very few of the roads had guard rails, which would have driven my wife up the wall had she come along.
Up near the peak was a whole heard of antelope.
Also, just beyond the peak was the restarant/gift shop. The parking lot looked jammed full and I remembered from the previous year about trying to get a meal inside of Yellowstone, so I just passed it by and kept riding.
I left the park on the southwest side headed toward Granby. At Grand Lake, I decided to stop for a break and a quick convenience-store meal. This is where I had my only close-call with a cage (a "cage" is a car for you non-motorcycle people.) Interestingly enough, I wasn't even on my bike.
I had parked the bike in the parking lot to the side of the store. In front of the store were the gas pumps. As I walked towards the storefront, I suddenly felt a bump on the back of my left leg, which caused it to buckle. I made a quick hop on my right foot and managed to stay on my feet. When I turned around to see what had happened, I was surprised to see a white minivan standing there with an older gentleman behind the wheel. He appeared to be saying something to me and gesturing for me to get out of the way.
I could feel the rage welling up inside of me, and rather than blowing my top I just turned around and walked into the store. A minute later a woman approached me and apologized for her husband. She said something about him being 75 and not seeing very well anymore. I don't remember much about what all she said, as I was just focused on keeping my cool. I told her "no harm done," and she left.
I picked out a sandwich and a bag of chips, and as I was standing in line the old man came up to me and apologized. He said he thought I had heard him pull up. I probably seemed rather stand-offish to him as I didn't say much, but again I was trying to keep myself from throttling him. He and his wife then left the store and drove off. I don't even think they got gas.
With that incident behind me, I sat along the lake and ate my lunch. The view was beautiful.
A few minutes later I was back on the bike heading south towards Granby. At Granby the road "T"s and I took highway 40 east. This was a very pretty road that went up a cool mountain. On this mountain was the only time I scraped my floorboard (once) on this whole trip. After last year's trip to Yellowstone where I scraped so often I thought I was going to grind both boards down to nothing, I figured I'd really be set for some great curves in the Rockies. I don't know if the roads were straigher or the traffic moved slower, but that was the only grind I made on the whole trip.
And now for a short rant: if you own a camper, RV, 5th wheel or any similar recreational item, please stay out of the mountains. I don't care if you have the biggest, most powerful truck in the world, you're slow and you're annoying the tar out of the rest of us. Numerous times I crept at 10 mph around a 40 mph curve behind somebody trying to pull a 40 foot camper through the twisties. Park your camper at a campground and leave it there while you tour the mountains, then go back to it to sleep. You'll make the world a better place. End of rant.
South of Granby, I picked up I-10 heading west. A few miles down I-10 I stopped in Georgetown for gas. The things I most remember about this stop were that it was quite warm, and that while I was at the gas station about five different emergency vehicles went by with sirens blaring, all heading in different directions.
Between my late departure time and the slow moving traffic, I was nearly four hours behind my original schedule. Normally I wouldn't have worried too much about this, but this day's stop was at my aunt and uncle's house in Colorado Springs, and I wanted to arrive early enough so I could spend some time with them in the evening. My original plan was to get to Colorado Springs about 6 PM. Well, it was now around 3 PM and the route I had planned left me with roughly 300 miles ahead of me. Clearly there was no way I could keep going on my original course and still make it to Colorado Springs by six.
Looking at the map, my original route was to take me west on I-10 until Dillon where I would swing north up to Kremmling, west to Toponas, then back south down to Wolcott and then eventually Buena Vista. I decided to modify my route and cut out the loop north. Instead, I would stay on I-10 west until Breckenridge, then head south on highway 91 to Buena Vista. This would shave around 150 miles off my trip. I still wouldn't make it to Colorado Springs by 6 PM, but 7 PM was a realistic goal.
Heading west on I-10, I came to one of the sights I had been wanting to see on this trip: the Eisenhower tunnel. On last year's trip to Yellowstone, I had caught a "Modern Marvels" episode about how they built this tunnel. It was very interesting, and I made a mental note that I would like to go through it some time. Well, that some time was today.
As I approached the tunnel, traffic was thick and moving slow. Entering the tunnel, traffic picked up speed. The tunnel is 1.693 miles long. I decided I had to take a picture while I was going through the tunnel.
After exiting the tunnel on the west side, the road takes a long, 7% descent. The traffic was really moving on this side of the tunnel and I made sure to stay alert as in this situation a minor error can quickly multiply into a major problem. I made it down the hill without incident, and stopped to check my map. The scenery in Colorado is beautiful, and I must say there is a lot of money floating around the Vail area. The cars, houses and stores all reflected the economic prosperity the residents of this area apparently enjoy.
I came to hightway 91 and headed south. This was a smaller highway that wound up a mountain, past a very ugly mine (lead, I believe) then down the other side of the mountain until it intersected with highway 24.
On 24, I headed south to Buena Vista. Traffic on this stretch of the road was light, but it did seem to move slow. Thankfully it was pretty easy to pass as there were often straight stretches of road between the curves. I could see some dark clouds forming in the west and it looked like a storm was rolling in. Thankfully, I was heading east and I figured I could stay ahead of the moisture.
At one point, I did feel a light spray on my face. I thought it was starting to sprinkle until I realized the clouds were still too far off, and the spray stopped right after I passed an old Winnebago I was following. I really don't want to know what that was.
At Buena Vista, highway 24 merges with highway 285 and goes north for a while before it branches east again. At this point the storm from the west started to catch up with me. In addition, I could see a storm in the east that was forming. I started to think that I was going to get drenched.
Once highway 24 branched off to the east, traffic got very light. The next 70 mile stretch of road proved to be quite boring. You don't think of the middle of the Rocky Mountains as being dull, but this area was flat and uninteresting, much like eastern Wyoming. The temperature started to drop, and I was torn between stopping to dig out my jacket, or pressing on to get to Colorado Springs as soon as possible. I opted to press on, as at this point my left shoulder was really starting to hurt bad. In fact, it was hurting so bad that I was glad I had shortened my day's route. I've got to hurt pretty bad to want to spend less time on my motorcycle!
I arrived at Colorado Springs right at 7 PM, as I had calculated. Now I just had to make my way across town to my aunt's house. Before I left on the trip, she had given me directions to get to her place. I was to follow highway 24 through town. The only problem was, highway 24 was closed for construction, and the detour routed me all the way around town. I found myself on the east side of the city heading out into a rural area. I realized I had missed something, so I turned around.
I was still on 24, so I figured I could just follow the signs backwards and eventually get to the right place. Unfortunately, I discovered that the signs for highway 24 in Colorado Springs aren't marked very well. I took a wrong turn, and found myself heading out of town on the south side.
Once again I turned around. I found a sign that said "to 24" and an arrow pointing east. I followed the road, and soon I discovered I was back on the east side of town where the detour had first diverted me.
I was starting to get very frustrated. It was now 8 PM. I had blown an hour riding back and forth through town and was still at the same place I was an hour ago. This time, I ignored the detour sign and followed 24 into town. Once again the signs weren't very clear and after I had ridden a while without seeing a "24" sign, I decided I had better call my aunt.
For a variety of reasons, I don't own a cell phone. At this particular point in time, however, a savy salesperson could probably have convinced me to buy one. I searched and searched for a pay-phone. You don't realize how scarce they've become until you need one. I finally found one in a seedy looking part of town, only to learn it was broken. More searching of the neighborhood turned up two more broken phones.
I finally came upon a working phone outside of this little bar. I called my aunt and explained to her I was lost. She asked me what street I was on, and I told her. Not recognizing the street name, she asked me what bar I was at. I couldn't see the sign from where the phone was, and I doubt she knew where it was anyway. She then asked if there was anything nearby, and I said there was a porno shop across the street. Yes, I was in a fine neighborhood.
To make matters worse, every time my Aunt's cell phone clicked, she thought the call had dropped and would hang up on me. I only had a few quarters, and used them all up. I decided I didn't want to go into the bar or the porno shop to ask for change so I pieced together some of the landmarks she had mentioned while talking with her, and headed out again.
After about 20 more minutes of hunting, I found their house. I was now after 8:30, which was well past my original plans of being in town by 6:00. In addition, I had cut 150 miles from my original itinerary. Boy, I really didn't plan this one well.
Later that evening, I got a hold of a map of Colorado Springs. Once I had that, I could see exactly where my "tour of the city" had taken me and what I had done wrong. To make matters worse, I discovered at one point I was about four blocks away from my aunt's house and didn't know it!
By the time I got to Rosalee and Ames' house, I was pretty frazzled. My shoulder pain was becoming rather intense, and I was clearly showing signs of fatigue.
I took a quick shower, downed some pain killers and changed clothes, and felt remarkably better. Rosalee had made a wonderful steak supper, and after I'd eaten I started to feel human again. After calling my wife to give my daily status update, we drove over to my cousin Laura's house to see their new baby.
We got back around 11:30, and I crawled into bed and crashed immediately.
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018