Moab, Arches, and back to Colorado!

I woke up this morning after the best sleep so far this trip!  I felt fantastic and ready to see Arches National Park!  We wandered over to have some breakfast. Only Sue was there. Bill and Ron took a stroll down to he Verizon store so Bill could get some help with his new smart-ass phone!  After Bill was hooked up with his phone we set off!  

Arches National Park is absolutely incredible!!!!  

It looks like the moon!  Or Mars!  Or Mars' moon!

The rock formations were astounding!  One was called "sheep rock" but Tom and I insisted it looked more like a bull.  We renamed it Bull Rock!  

We rode and stopped at various spots to take pix. I was amazed!  

We rode some more to a spot called the Devil's Playground. There were signs warning to have at least 2 liters of water per person before hiking to see the arches there.  Um. We had NO water!  But we decided to take a walk anyway!  (Oh boy!)   We took some pix along the way....

After walking to exhaustion and still no sign of arches, Tom and I decided to wait under the shade of a big ass rock and take pictures of lizards whilst Ron continued on!  I told him to make sure he takes pix!  At his point I was ready to just buy a nice postcard at the visitor's center!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!  I was getting dizzy and was running out of spit to swallow!  Ron returned some time later, carrying his shirt!  Tom surmised he was wringing it out for something to drink!  

OK.... I hate to do this but I'm gonna fast forward!  This daily blogging is almost impossible with our adventure-filled days!

We left Arches,had lunch lunch at the Moab Brewing Co, cooled off in the hotel pool, then got cleaned up for dinner at Bucks Grill House.  I had the duck tamales and they were DELISH!  I also had the best margarita ever!  No crappy sour mix!  Fresh lime juice!  

We woke bright and early this morning.....what day is it, anyway!?!?  Oh yes!  Wednesday!  We've been on the road for 1 week as of today!  We made our way back into Colorado on the secondary routes!  Hooray!  Desolate and scenic!!!!

We stopped at the Colorado state line for pix. There was an elk head in the beginning stages of decomposition laying there. Gross. It photobombed our pic. Double gross. 

Not this pic.....it photobombed our group shot. Tom has that one on his camera still.

OK....Sorry to cut it short right here but Tom just got back from fetching coffee in the lobby and informed me that it's SAUSAGE GRAVY AND BISCUITS day here at the Hampton Inn!!  So I'm gonna jump in the shower now and get me some!

(It's now Thursday morning, by the way!)

Next time I'll catch you up on the rest if our AWESOME Wednesday and I'll tell ya what we did today!  

SEE YA SOON! 

Over the Rockies and into Utah!

I last left you in Denver.  The Mile High City!  Denver sure is awesome!  It reminds me quite a bit of Chicago. In fact, there were a couple times when I caught myself thinking we WERE in Chicago!  Next trip back we'll have to stay longer. There's so much to do and lots of friends to see out there!

We planned on pulling out fairly early and meeting Ron's son in Frisco for breakfast at a Denny's there.  It was a beautiful warm morning and even though I knew I'd have to bundle up before the Rockies, I wasn't ready to do so quite yet. Just after Idaho Springs we pulled off to don jackets. I planned on throwing the chaps on after our breakfast. 

Onward we climbed, up the beautiful Rockies!  What an incredible ride!  I was starting to get REALLY hungry by this point and I really needed more coffee!  Luckily Frisco wasn't too much farther.  We exited and searched for the Denny's. And searched a little more.  Hmmmnn.  There doesn't seem to be a Denny's anywhere.  In fact, from what I see as my first impression, Frisco doesn't appear to be a "chain-restaurant" kinda town!  We parked the bikes and went in search of food.  The first place we found was called the Butterhorn Cafe and Bakery. JACKPOT!!!!  This place ROCKED!  

The menu was AMAZING and our server was awesome.  The day we were there was his one-year anniversary in Frisco.  He relocated from Atlanta.  We told him where we were coming from and where we were going.  He was very excited that we were going to Moab.  He said he's always wanted to get there.  Back to the amazing menu!  Here's a glimpse....

I opted for the Eggs Butterhorn...their version of Eggs Benedict.  Tom got the biscuits and gravy, while Ron, Bill, and Sue got French toast in some form or another.  Check these out!

French Toast

More French toast

Biscuits and Gravy

Eggs Butterhorn!  Under that croissant is 2 poached eggs, avocado, Canadian bacon and a roasted red pepper sauce.  Their croissants were so fresh and fluffy!  This food was amazing!

Oh, Ron's son?  Never got to meet up with us.  He got called in to work!

After filling our bellies and taking some pix, we bundled up and headed on up the mountain!

I'm glad I put my chaps on because there were a few spots I really needed them.  Overall it wasn't NEARLY as cold as when we were through there last year.  I was able to take many more pix this time since I wasn't wearing gloves! 

On the downhill side, we stopped at a rest area to lose some clothing!  As we were pulling in the guy standing by the car next to our spot was wearing an Ohio State shirt. I gave him an "O-H"!  Either he didn't hear me or he forgot what shirt he was wearing but his wife/girlfriend picked up his slack!  "I-O"! She answered!  Buckeyes in the Rockies!  Then, I go into the restroom and see this in the stall....

Hahahaaaa!  Someone was creative!  All kind of Ohio references. At this stop!

We were soon back on the road.  Utah-bound!  But not before lunch and a stop at the Harley dealer in Grand Junction!  

Gassed up and back on the road, we motored on into Utah. Just as the Rockies weren't as cold as last year, Utah wasn't nearly as hot!  Perfect temps!  Unfortunately my camera was acting wonky and setting itself to certain settings....like macro.....so a lot of my riding pix didn't go as planned. Bah!  

Here's a couple, though.....

We left I-70 and opted to take route 128 into Moab.  WOW!  This road is incredible!  As we were approaching the canyon area I could see what appeared to be a pretty good storm brewing over it.  They just got slammed in that area over the previous couple days. I was hoping to avoid the really bad stuff. Especially when they get the roads washed out and whatnot. Don't need no whatnot!  

See it here?  To the right?  Yep....that's where we were heading!  

This road is so beautiful and desolate.  Then we approached the canyon area where the river ran along side the roadway.  WOW!  There are no words to describe how beautiful and awesome this canyon is! It's amazing how small I felt!  

Shortly after these pix were taken it started to rain.  While we opted for no rain suits as a group, Tom & I opted to put on the full-faced helmets. I didn't know how nasty it was gonna get and the full-facers are great for the rain!  No need to worry about foggy glasses on these twisty road with those things!  Luckily it didn't get too bad. We passed several areas where you can see the road had been washed out from the previous storms. They were pretty well cleaned up when we came through though. I'd hate to be in the middle of THAT!  

We arrived at the Hampton Inn Moab a little damp and a little tired!  

They let us park our bikes under the unloading overhang, too!  I love when they let us park there!

After unpacking and showering, we found a Mexican restaurant within walking distance.  The food was tasty and the waitress was friendly. Here's my Carne Asada tacos and my local brew from Moab Brewery...

So far, so good in Moab!  

We wandered back to our rooms and planned for an 8-ish breakfast, then Arches National Park!  i was WAY excited to see Arches!  I hit the pillow where I had the BEST sleep so far this trip!  

Stay tuned for Adventures in Arches! 

Last day in Denver.....

We woke this morning to another sunshiny Denver day!  We moseyed down to the restaurant to meet Bill, Sue, and Ron for breakfast. They were already there waiting for us.  The waitress came by to give us coffee and water and she called Ron "Brian"!  I thought I may have just heard her wrong.  She was quite chatty and fun and called Ron "Brian" about 5 more times!  Bahahahaha!  We all just went along with it!  We opted for the breakfast buffet again since it was so yummy the day before.  I didn't partake in the evil jalapeño-laden sausage gravy this time.  No way!  Poor Bill came back with some on his plate.  (We don't call him "Just Plain Bill" for nothing!)  I warned him!  He took a bite anyway.  His reaction?  He reminded me of Tom Hanks in "Big" when he ate the caviar at the party!  HAHAAHAAAAHAhaaaa!!!!  The stuff was all over his bacon and potatoes so he had to scrap the whole plate and get a new one. He also made sure to have our waitress pass along to the chef that it was waaaay too spicy.  

We formulated a riding plan over breakfast and our fun, chatty waitress gave us her input.  We opted to head through Boulder and on into Estes Park. She told us that the Elk were close to their "bugling" days. They "bugle" during rut and we may get lucky enough to hear them!  She also said they have the right of way on the roads.  (Like I would challenge an Elk!). She said that you have to stop and let them cross.  Like a magical crosswalk!  No serving around them or you get a big fine!  

So on we went!  Estes Park was beautiful!  It's home to the Stanley Hotel...from "The Shining". (I have not seen that movie!  For real!)  I even saw Elk for the first time ever!  

The ride up and back was amazing!  Great weather, too.  Lots of motorcycles out and about!  I snapped a few good shots!  

After a beautiful day of riding we returned to the hotel to get cleaned up.  We had plans to meet our friends Kelly and Jay for dinner!  And Sue's high school pal was joining us too!  We met up at a place called The Hornet. 

PHENOMENAL food!  Small world time.....Bill & Sue bought Kelly's family's house in Solon!  And Kelly went to school with Sue's younger sister!  And that night was the first time they met!  Between all us gals it was like old Solon night!  Tom & Jay talked cop stuff and swapped stories. Jay had some pretty crazy tales to tell.  Unfortunately we had to call it an early night.  We had to get back to the hotel with enough time to do laundry before going to bed!  

We rode back to the hotel and gathered our dirty stuff.  We hung out by the pool while the washing machine was doing it's thing. Check out this sign by the pool.....

BAHAHAHAAAAAAhahaaaa!  Too funny!  I can only imagined what happened to prompt them to put this up!

After doing 2 loads, Tom & I head back up in the elevator with arms full of folded clothes.  A young guy gets on with us and eyes up what we're carrying. "Are you guys staying here long?" he asks!  I can imagine that it looks like we're living in this hotel with all these folded clothes!  We explained that we're on a motorcycle trip for over 2 weeks so we have to do laundry when we can!  

I gotta apologize....I'm a day behind!  We left Denver this morning and had an AMAZING ride through the Rockies and into Moab, Utah.  

I'll write more about today and tomorrow...tomorrow!  

Stay tuned!

Saturday in the Mile High City

Saturday morning in Denver!  We awoke to a beautiful sunny day!  It was nice to look out the hotel room window and not see corn!  Unfortunately, we have a view of Mile High Stadium. 

The hotel restaurant has an awesome breakfast buffet!  The even have sausage gravy and biscuits!!!!  Unfortunately, they loaded the sausage gravy with jalapeños!  Wow!  Surprise!!!!  That's just mean!

After filling our bellies we saddled up to do some exploring.  We headed up to Central City and Blackhawk.  What a beautiful ride!  I had the ol' GoPro camera going to catch some great video!  We stopped along the way to don our jackets and I'm glad we did! 

...jacket stop...

As we were heading up I kept seeing signs for a beer fest in Central City!  They even had painted the lanes on the road every few hundred feet.  "Lager" with an arrow pointing up the road, then "IPA" with an arrow, etc...  Pretty funny!  Hooray!  Beer fest!  Boo! I cannot indulge because of motorcycle!

We arrived in Central City with it's tight, hilly, twisty streets.  What a cool little town!  It reminds me a lot of Deadwood, both the terrain and the cool old buildings. As the signs promised, they had a beer fest going on!  They had the Main Street closed off for the vendor tents.  I was sad that I could not partake. I love beer tasting events!  

Ron thought they were giving away free samples!  He stood in line at one of the tents and was surprised when they asked him for money!  Hahahaaha!  We were hungry so we made our way over to the Dostal Alley Bar, where we split a pizza and I had one of their house-made brews. Some kind of summer ale.  Not bad!  While we were waiting for our pizza Tom & I occupied ourselves with some bartop video poker. Tom was playing Deuces wild and ended up hitting 4 Deuces!  Hooray!  He ended up playing it down to $265!  When he went to cash out.....QUARTERS!   Bahahahaha!  Old school! He drained the machine and had to wait for the bartender/waitress to refill it.  If course by this time it was starting to rain outside and we wanted to get going and make our way back down the mountain!  Ron left ahead of us to meet up with some buddies at a biker bar.  After finally getting our loot and a fresh cup of coffee for Bill, we saddled up to head on down. 

By this time the rain picked up quite a bit.  Bah. It was a cold rain with big raindrops. My glasses were starting to fog so I was having a hard time seeing. Bah again!  Finally the rain eased up a little and I remembered to turn on the GoPro again.  I think I got even better footage on the return trip. Rain, sun, tunnels, river, more rain, lightning, more sun.....  Finally the weather settled on "sun"!  At the base of the mountain we split off from Bill & Sue.  They headed back to the hotel and we set off to find Ron.  By this time I was hot out again!  Amazing weather out here!

We met up with Ron and his pals at a place called Piper Inn Bar. Lots of nice bikes were parked outside. They had 2 outdoor patios in front.  One allowed smoking, the other did not.  Pretty cool!  We stayed and chatted for a bit with Ron's pals and then had to say goodbye.  But not before one of his friends spilled his drink in my lap!  Gaaaaa!!!!  And I finally had just dried off after our soggy ride!  Crap!  

We had an uneventful ride back to our hotel to get showered and changed. Tom, Ron, and I were heading to Ted's Montana Grill to catch up with the other Terwilligers, Tom & Dawn.  Bill & Sue had plans to catch up with one of Sue's high school pals at a Celtic song & dance show in Arvada, so we parted ways for the day.  

The restaurant was walking distance from the hotel.  Hooray!  It's in a really neat section of downtown Denver.  It kind of reminds me of East 4th on steroids!  It was great seeing Tom & Dawn again.  And the food at this place was fantastic!  I had a buffalo filet that melted in my mouth!  After eating and chatting, Tom & Dawn had to leave to head to a birthday party. We took some pix before saying goodbye, of course!  

Tom, Ron, and I wandered around looking for someplace to stop in and grab a drink.  Most of the places were too high-end for my state of mind and attire.  When you're traveling by bike, it's hard to get fancy!  Tom consulted the trusty Yelp app and it told him there was an Irish pub on the next street over called Nallen's Irish Pub.  Perfect!  We headed over there, got carded, (yay!) and got the last available table right by the font window!  Yay!  People watching!  The Broncos had a pre-season game at home that had just finished so the crowd was really picking up.  Lots of young people...I felt old but didn't really care!  The bar was perfect for us. Loud and a little bit gritty. I had Guinness and Red Breast Irish Whiskey, of course!  

 Red Breast is delightful!  

After having a couple rounds of those while watching the post-football crowd, we decided to mosey on back to the hotel.   Our plans for Sunday were more riding, dinner with the Beliveaus, and laundry.  It's been a crazy week and I needed some sleep!  

Stay tuned for Sunday's happenings!