Colorado Cruiser: Ride to Arizona

I woke up at 6:00 so I could get on the road early. The temperature was in the low 40s when I got on the road at 7:15. I recently installed heated grips on my motorcycle and I turned them on to about medium and felt nice and warm within a few minutes.

I was hoping to get some nice pictures as the sun came up, but it turned out to be cloudy and bland lighting.

Eventually I'm headed to my Aunt's house to the South, but I started by riding 50 miles north to Grand Junction where I picked up highway 141. The road turned south west following a river down into the bottom of a series of canyons.

The trees were just turning to fall colors. I loved following the road through the twists and turns, but riding beside the river lowered the temperature another 5 degrees. I was riding about 5 miles below the speed limit enjoying the scenery and the twists.

I stopped a few times to take pictures along the road. There are some really interesting historical events along the road.

Half way down the road is the Gateway resort. It used to be a small town, but now it's an expensive resort, and in the middle of a resort is an automobile museum. The museum holds the car collection of John Hendricks who is the founder of the Discovery Channel.

The cars are all either original mint condition, or fully restored to mint condition. It cost $15. It was worth one visit, but probably not a second. I liked all the muscle cars and especially the Shelby Cobra 500 mustang.

After the Museum I arrived in my home town of Naturita Colorado. I stopped for gas and some water, then turned West toward the town of Boulder, then up onto Lasal mountain.

I reached Blanding by 2:30. My first stop was the Patio diner for lunch, then off to my Aunt's home to visit. We were waiting for my friends to arrive before we went to dinner, but by 6:30, they texted to say they were still 85 miles away. We told them we were heading to get dinner without them.

For dinner we went to Blanding's only restaurant, the Homestead. I got a Navajo taco.like I always do. We were just about done with dinner when John and Eric called to say they were finally in town so we switched to a bigger table and sat with them as they ordered. Eric and the waitress started joking back and forth with snide comments, then John joined in. The waitress was a friend of my aunt's so we weren't "tooo" worried about our food being spit in.

We finally finished eating and headed back to my aunt's to chat and sleep.

Sunrise on highway 141