Before I get you caught up on the trip back to Colorado, I wanna backtrack to when we were riding through that incredible canyon to get to Moab! If you remember, I put on the full face helmet because of the rain. after the rain stopped, there were bats everywhere!!!!!! It was sooooo awesome! At first I thought they were swallows but a lot of them came close enough to my head that I saw they were bats. Good thing I had the helmet on, huh? That's another thing it's good for...cold weather, rainy weather, and bat protection!
OK...now back to your regularly scheduled programming!
We stopped at the Colorado state line on route 46 for the pic where we were photobombed by the dead elk head.....
See it there? Behind Ron? Ick.
After taking a couple pix, Sue had to visit the woods. "Watch out for rattlesnakes!" Tom cautioned her! There was zero traffic, but as we were getting ready to leave a truck came down the road. He stopped and Bill chatted with him for a while.
He informed us that there's a bear that's been hanging in this area for a few weeks. He said he sees it just about every morning and every afternoon "right about there"... And he pointed to the area of woods that Sue had just visited! Gaaaaa!!!!!!!
As when we traveled into Moab, I could tell that we had just missed some serious bad weather. there was standing water in what were normally desert fields and evidence of road wash-outs. We've been incredibly lucky! Mother Nature's been very kind to us!
Here's some more shots of yesterday's ride.....
We made a lunch stop in Ouray before heading onto the Million Dollar Highway! This stretch of route 550 between Ouray and Silverton is famous for its narrow twisties, sheer drop-offs, and incredible views. Unfortunately for the REALLY awesome views I needed both hands on the bars and couldn't take pix. Here's some that I was able to snap though.....
I had the GoPro going for a lot of it, hopefully some good video footage comes out of that! (The GoPro is the video camera mounted to my handlebars.)
This road was everything I hoped for! Exhilarating! The drop-offs were insane! I couldn't look down or my stomach would flip-flop!
After the ride of a lifetime we ended up in Silverton, where we were just in time to see the Durango-Silverton Narrow Guage Rail depart. Fun stuff! Oh! As we were waiting to see the train leave, I felt a little pinching feeling in my wrist. My first thought was "did some hot coal go up my sleeve?" I looked.... BEE! BEE IN THE SLEEVE! Crap Crap crap crap crap!!! In an instant, everything was in a heap on the ground at my feet....jacket, shirt, camera, keys, phone! I dropped everything and disrobed in a split second! (No worries, I was still wearing a tank top. This didn't turn R-Rated!) the people on the train got quite a show! All was OK though. Thank GOD that thing didn't sting me! I got stung ONCE before...about 10 years ago....on my ribcage....It so happens I was on my bike then, too! .... my side swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe and I felt sick for the rest of the day! I imagine I'm allergic to bee stings. I'm allergic to everything else!
Silverton's a very cool little town. Gritty with a lot of old west character! We stopped for a cold one at a place called Handlebars.
The bartender was super nice! We talked bikes and such with her. I wish we could've stayed longer but we still had to get to our final destination, Durango, which is about 50 miles away.
OK.....I'm gonna get us all caught up here! We're here in Durango, which is another really cool little town. Lots of bars, shops, and restaurants in the downtown area! They're having a "Four Corners Bike Rally" nearby this coming weekend so the motorcycles are starting to pour in for that. Good thing we're leaving in the morning! Too many people in one place for me at those Rallies!
Tom and I took a ride today to the Four Corners Monument, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all meet. It was a long, scenic ride! To be honest, the monument area itself was underwhelming! We took the obligatory tourist pix.....
We then saddled up and headed for Cortez, Colorado, where we found lunch at the Main Street Brewery. OK food with GREAT beer. Too bad I could only have one!
After lunch, we headed back to base camp, where we swam in the pool while doing some laundry. It's tough fitting 19 days worth of clothes on the back of a bike! Doing a load of laundry here & there makes us much more socially acceptable!
Ok...that's it. You're caught up! I left a LOT out, I know! It's tough keeping up with this blogging thing because we're always on the go!
We leave Durango in the morning....destination, Taos, New Mexico!
See ya there!
OMG, there was a ELK HEAD there, and you didn't pick it up for me.. holy crap, that would have been so awesome for my skull collection.. HELL000000, how bout' a souveir for yer stay at home pal?????
ReplyDeleteIt was just BEGINNING to decompose! Ewwww! Still lots of fur on it. Gross! That thing was NOT coming with me!
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