NxPhotos

Wanted to follow up on the trip and post some of the stats. I am going off of what my Google Location tracking is giving me, for those curious. Day 1 -1 934 miles taking 14 hours and 7 minutes  During this time, boredom set in and I noticed that we were about to have 77,777 miles on the Jeep. So how many 7's can I get on this screen? It was 8 in total! In 7th gear going 77 mph with 77,777 miles. Day 1 193 miles on the bike for about 5 hours 50 minutes Day 2 222 miles on the bike for about 6 hours 27 minutes .8 miles walking for about 25 minutes Day 3 Remember this was the hotel issue so it was a little more miles. Also some this time was on dirt road, cutting down the travel speed. Along with night driving and watching for 4-legged animals! 349 miles on the bike for about 9 hours and 49 minutes Day 4 320 miles on the bike for about 8 hours 13 minutes Day 4 +1 927 miles for about 13 hours 29 minutes Interesting enough the trip home was 7 miles...

I bet the suspense has been killing you! Had another great day out riding. With the hotel fiasco Salida was about 1 hour closer which made the planned ride better. I wasn't pushing my time frame as much.  So from Salida I headed north to Buena Vista and on to Fairplay. Along the way I stopped for gas and some hot chocolate and bumped into the Touring Rally coordinator Bill and we continued north to Grant, where I headed north through Guanella Pass. It was here I got to see a mountain goat and kid, casually standing in the road, along with numerous other spectators. There was a beautiful stream as I drove towards the pass. As I was going through the pass I was thinking to myself this is quite a popular pass and the more stops I came to the more cars were here. At that point it dawned on my that it was Saturday! There were more photo opportunities to see the beautiful Fall Colors of Colorado. I was going to try to go to the top of Mt Evans only to find out it was a...

It is starting to feel more and more like the Colorado I have come to known. This morning when I woke up it was 43°. However the high is supposed to be 83°, but not until 3-4 PM. I will be heading to Gunnison, whose current temp is at 30° with a high of 74° around 5 PM. Looks like I will be bundled up! Even though it said 43°, I passed some farm land with the sprinklers on and it was a winter wonderland of ICE...last I checked it does not do that at 43°. Today had some good scenery, but bad luck. One of the pull offs that I stopped at, I dropped the bike. I bought it with damage on the guards on that side, so don't know that any more has been done but honestly haven't looked it over much. Next I noticed a couple of nice scratches on the tank, don't know where they came from and doesn't look like I could just buff them out. Leaving Black Canyon, the GoPro memory was full and got to see my first actual wildlife. There was a herd of about 12 Elk, assuming, they weren...

After yesterday's sites and ride I figured it was down hill from there. However, today new roads and new sites that did not disappoint! Around every corner was another jaw dropping wow of a site. I stopped so many times, which was more of a pain today, because it was cooler. I started off in Denver at 61° and got into the mountains and the same 61° had me shaking. I only had on a long sleeve shirt, vest, and jeans accompanied by my mesh armor jacket and that was not enough anymore. I added a neck gator, leather jacket, insulated chaps, and cold weather gloves. I was perfect after this, until, as mentioned above, all the stops. With every stop the helmet and gloves came off, and most of the time this was fine, other times I quickly started to sweat. But I couldn't take any of it off because as soon as I started moving, I was cool again. The trees were amazing, some had already lost the leaves, others in full color, and some still green. Was very interesting to see all toget...

So today for them was just a check-in/registration and a little later a welcome reception. Since I got in the area last night, I'm starting my riding today. I decided to stay in Colorado Springs on Fort Carson, and that worked out perfectly because Pike's Peak is right in the back yard. So to start off my morning, I'm going to head up to the top. Going to jump on I-25 to HWY 24 to Pike's Peak Hwy. After making it to the top and seeing all there is to see, going to try and check in at a few Harley Dealers and get some more Poker Chips to add to the collection I have going. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise! Before breakfast After breakfast After that I played what can I forget when packing everything on the bike. Would get almost ready and forgot the 12v USB charger...that would not have been good. Then it was mounting the GoPro, and I believe there were a few more but cannot recall. The one thing I did have to go out and re-purchase was a USB for the GoPro! Vi...

Go up bright and early and left out of Little Rock and headed to Colorado Springs. Trip was nice and uneventful, very long but I made it and the fun will start tomorrow. I had plenty of stops, to ensure I was staying properly hydrated. I usually don't drink anything to keep from having to stop so much, but since I will be on the road the next couple of days I didn't want to start off that way. Tomorrow the Rally starts off with a Registration/Check in followed by Welcoming Ceremony and dinner. I plan on starting the day with a quick ride up to Pike's Peak. It is right here next to where I stayed so will start off my day with some beautiful scenery, hopefully! The weather forecast at the top is low tonight of 35 and high of 50 with 20% chance of Snow and Rain and a 40% chance of Thunderstorms... Wide Open and Straight! The first sign of mountains...or hills Some actual mountains The train 8 7's... Visitors at the base Visitors at t...

Yesterday was nice weather and upon meeting Kristen for lunch she stated that she wished we were out riding. With a quick weather check today was supposed to be a little warmer, so upon returning to work we both out in for a day off. Call it a mental health day! With neither of us putting much time in the bike lately we decided to take it easy. I plotted a course down HWY 5 to 7 and around Lake Ouachita. We slept in a little, dropped little bit of at daycare, and headed out. Thought some sugar before the ride would be great and headed towards Benton to grab Dale's. However about the time we got to Salem the rain started, made a quick U-turn and checked the radar. It was a rather large cell coming up, so much for 10%. Most of the rain was south of I-30, so we headed north. Went up to HWY 10 and then HWY 300 towards Roland to head up to Little Italy. This new path was clear of rain. After this we got back on HWY 10 and went further north to Morrilton. For the sake of time we w...