Farewell Tour The Sequel

Last Fall when I went on the ride to Colorado and Wyoming ( Nebraska doesn't count) before my surgery I had been planning a ride like the one I recently returned from. Last year I was short on time and afraid that doing long rides like the ones I have done this year might not be in my future. Well, I am here to tell you that the long ride is alive and well. I should take that back about Nebraska, as the first day out I had a fun run down to North Platte where I spent the first night. From there it was a drone down I-76 to Denver where I dodged traffic and finally got out into the mountains. I spent the second night in Buena Vista, where Phil and I stayed a couple of years ago. There is a diner in town that we all ate in in 1985 while passing through and Phil and I ate breakfast there every day we were there too. Jan can tell you that the omelets were and are still terrific. From Buena Vista I headed over Cottonwood Pass to the Taylor Lake area ans I'll throw a couple pictures in to show you how beautiful it is this time of the year. You will have to guess in what order to view but I think if you start at the bottom and work up they should be in proper order. Anyhow next up was Crested Butte another trendy town kind of like Aspen was years back that is also in a beautiful area. From there it was over Kebler Pass to Delta where it was 101. These two passes are gravel roads, the main drawback is this, they were grading and treating the road surface with magnesium chloride for dust control and it was like riding in mud for miles on the way down from these two passes. The next photos up from the bottom are from Kebler Pass. From delta it was a long run over the Umcompagre Plateau on a pretty desolate road, I don't think I met more than 3 vehicles on the east side of Columbine Pass. On the west side it was much more tree covered and more people were evident. From Nucla to Moab was another great ride through canyons and over hills. It seems that every time that there is some semi-flat land it is irrigated and growing alfalfa, oh, and another thing, all of the time going over these three passes it was in the 60s and 70s for temperatures. For most of this trip I thought that the idea of a helmet camera would have been cool, but when do you turn it on or off? For hours on end the scenery is so incredible I would just have to force myself to stop to snap a picture, which never does the scene any justice, you just have to be there. As usual in Moab I ran into interesting people. A couple from the Twin Cities that winter in Arizona and both ride down in the Fall and they were on their way home to Minnesota when I met them. He said that he owns 8 bikes and when people ask him why he says "because I can". I had to tell him that I was ahead in that category with 10. I said the biggest problem with a collection like that is walking into that garage trying to think who wants to go riding today, and they're all waving their mirrors at me going "pick me, pick me". It is a problem. From Moab I went south to Blanding and around over Lake Powell to Hanksville, as desolate a town as any I have seen lately, then west to Loa and north to Price, Utah. I will add two more or so and end this first installment here. Check back for part two of "Farewell Tour The Sequel". I will be on Patriot Guard rides to Fallen Hero's grave sites in this end of Minnesota.