Colorado Cruiser: Colorado Ride

I'm going to spend 4 days riding my motorcycle around Colorado. I have a list of people that I send such emails to, and if this is the first such email you've received, it's either because we talked and you said you'd like to receive them, or because in my infinite wisdom I decided you might want to get them. If you really don't care to be bothered, just send me an email and I'll take you off the list. Feel free to forward this on to anyone you think would care to read it.

Now that the disclaimer is over with, here's what's happening on this trip.

Several weeks ago, my good friend John called to tell me he was going to be riding his motorcycle around Colorado, and would I like to join him. I don't think I let him finish the sentence before I said YES. Well, I said yes if my wife will let me. When I told her about it she course said I should know by now that of course she wants me to go and have fun. Have I told you how wonderful my wife is??

So the planning began. I had allot I wanted to do to the motorcycle before the trip.

First, I have a horrible habit of turning the motorcycle off with the kill switch near the throttle, and forgetting to turn the key off which of course means I walk away from the bike with the key still sitting in it, and the headlight on screaming "COME STEAL ME". Or what's actually happened, draining the battery. The best solution is to develop proper habits, but what I did was to get a little buzzer from radio shack and hook it to the oil warning light. So if the key is on, but the motor isn't running there is a constant squeal from the motorcycle.

Second, my hard plastic saddle bags started falling apart years ago due to a poor design. I patched and repaired them over and over but they've finally gotten so bad I had to do something drastic. What I did was remove them and take the leather saddle bags of my other motorcycle (the one my son and daughter ride) and put them on mine. Hey, I own both bikes, I'll take em if I want to.

Third, the led that shows when my headlights are on high beam blinds me. It is incredibly bright blue. I read all sorts of fancy wiring fixes to insert a resistor or to change the led, or any number of things. Then I found a suggestion that I went with. I tore a tiny piece of tissue paper off and stuck it in the socket just over the led. POOF a soft blue glow rather than a harsh light, and all without touching a soldering iron. Sometimes the simplest things work best.

Last, I have an intercom on my bike that lets me talk to passengers, talk on a radio, or listen to music. It has a voice activation circuit that lowers the music when I talk, but sometimes the wind in the helmet activates the microphone, especially if I ride with my visor up which I do most of the time. I got a switch from radio shack, cut a small slot in my helmet and mounted the switch there, then soldered it in line with the mic. Now I can turn the mic off for most of the time and just enable it when I want it. It's made riding much more comfortable.

DAY 1

The first day of the ride I will do solo as I ride down to Farmington New Mexico to meet John. I asked allot of people their opinions about good roads to ride, and decide to take the freeway for the first 100 miles, then cut down through La Veta pass towards Taos, but turn East on highway 64. Its allot of road that I've never ridden before.

I woke up about 5:30 and looked out the window to see how the weather was. A light cloud cover, but very chilly, probably in the low 50s. I packed the last few things up, grabbed a quick breakfast and loaded the bike. It's only 4 days, so not much to pack. I snapped a few pictures of me and the bike, then headed down the road.

There was a real nip in the air, and with the rain showers we've had for the last few days, it added allot of bone chilling humidity that made the first hour of the ride almost too cold. I was listening to a fantasy audio book called The Sorceress. Listening to book really makes riding or driving seem to fly by. This was a very good book, beautiful weather, light traffic, and great scenery so the miles just seemed to fly by. Before I knew it, 100 miles of freeway were gone and I was exiting into Walsenburg toward La Veta pass. The pass was even colder than the Springs had been 2 hours earlier but I hardly noticed. It just feels so good to be out on the open road (hum your favorite travelling song now. I often hear goofy and max singing the open road interspersed with steel horse).

I stopped several times on La Veta pass to take pictures (few turned out) and just to admire the views. Once over the pass, it was a short way to Fort Garland and some fuel. From there, I turned South and East towards New Mexico. In one small town I was diverted due to a parade, so I stopped to watch a few floats go by. It's fun to people watch. One group was sitting on the lawn of a church and having a spirited conversation about the price of groceries. Suddenly they jumped up and ran to the street, but they'd missed whoever or whatever they had come to watch and felt pretty embarrassed. No one got a picture of whatever it was and they slunk back to their chairs.

I continued my ride down through the towns and gassed up again before hitting the long empty roads of New Mexico. I probably had enough gas to make it all the way to Chama, but I'd feel pretty dumb running out of gas just because I was too lazy to stop. As my father was always fond of telling me, "The motor runs just as well off the gas at the top of the tank as it does the gas on the bottom". I'm not sure that had allot to do with me cars on empty as a teen ager.

The road across the San Luis valley (that's the big valley in the middle of Colorado with the city of Alamosa in the middle) was flat, straight, and boring. I'm not sure how people live in Alamosa when it's hotter than Colorado Springs in the summer, and colder in the winter? I was crossing at about 9:00 am, so it was still in the 70s and felt great. But every time I stopped, the sun beating on me would quickly warm me up and start me sweating. About 30 miles into New Mexico I hit highway 64 and turned West. The road quickly climbed up into some hills and cooled off even more.

There was very little traffic on road as it wound gently along creeks, around hills, and up valleys. It's one of the nicest roads I've ever ridden with gentle sweeping turns and mild climbs and descents. I finally climbed up onto a pass and saw a sign showing picnic tables along the road. I pulled off and found a dirt road that led up to drop with beautiful views out across yet more rolling hills. I took a few pictures and just sat admiring the view. For over 10 minutes there wasn't even the noise of any other cars passing by.

Finally I figured it was time to continue on. The descent was just the same, gentle and beautiful. By now the temperature was into the mid 70s, but clouds as started to gather and I heard thunder in the distance. I felt a few drops every now and then, but no stop materialized and I continued a relaxing ride through the pines and aspens.

I stopped in Chama New Mexico for lunch. I had ridden through Chama 3 weeks ago and had a great lunch at a small restaurant. I decided to try a different place this time. BIG MISTAKE. The service was very slow. Me and 2 other tables and it took 15 minutes to get a soda, then another 10 to take my order. I ordered a chicken burrito with green chille on it (I'm in New Mexico, so of course I order something with green chille). When it came, the chicken was dry, tough and tasteless. The green chille taked like it was straight out of a jar. I ate about1/3 an gave up. So for the record, DO eat at Elk Horn Cafe in Chama. DO NOT eat at Foster's Hotel Restaurant.

I left Chama just after 2:00 with just over 100 miles to Farmington. I hit a major road construction just a few miles out of town and waited for 15 minutes with the sun beating down on me and no cooling breeze. It was only in the 80s, but the sun made it feel allot warmer. From here the road straightened out allot and and began descending. After 60 miles I dropped off a bluff and could feel the temperature swiftly rising. Soon I was in the high 90s and riding through parched landscape with typical barren bluffs on each side of the road.

I stopped for a quick drink in Bloomfield, then made the last 20 mile dash into Farmington and the La Quinta hotel. I wasn't checked in more than 5 minutes when John arrived on his bike. I was all prepared to tell John just how hot and miserable it was, when the first words out of his mouth were "Wow, what a nice ride and the temperature is not bad at all". I guess me riding from Colorado Springs, and him riding from Phoenix makes for a very different perspective on 98 degree motorcycle rides. I told him anyway just how hot I felt it was. I'm a real heat wimp since leaving Arizona.

We checked in, rested a bit, then rode the bikes over to a nearby BBQ place for dinner. Serious Texas BBQ is where we usually eat when we ride through Durango. There is also one here in Farmington so we ate there.

After dinner we gassed up, grabbed some drinks for tomorrows ride, then chatted and looked for a hotel room. There is something big going on in the area because all of the major towns are sold out of hotel rooms. We got a room in South Fork for tomorrow, then had to figure out a ride that would lead us there. Its 11:30 and I'm trying to get this email out because I know that if I leave it for tomorrow, I'll feel overwhelmed and never get it written. I'll attach some pictures, then off to sleep.

All packed up and ready to leave