Vancouver British Columbia - Day 2

It's Sunday and I'  m on vacation far away from home.

But rather than sleeping in and relaxing, I got up at 6:30.  After a nice breakfast in the hotel, Mike and I headed for the Mormon chapel about 15 miles away to attend church.  We actually arrived almost 15 minutes early because we had no idea how the roads would be.  There is road construction everywhere in this town and we were worried that one or more of the bridges would be closed causing us to reroute all over the place.

We were so early in fact that neither of us wanted to go in yet.  When strangers arrive at a Mormon church, they don't look at you with suspicion.  No!!  It's worse than that.  They look at you like they really want to be you friend.  They ask where you're from.  In fact, they welcome you with open arms and caring.  And who wants that at 9:00 in the morning??

We drove around some of the nearby neighborhoods admiring the beautiful homes.  We saw everything from old Victorian style homes to very modern homes.  Green GREEN grass was everywhere with full trees, hedges, and many flowers.  It looked like a paradise of living things.

BUT OH MY THE ROADS!  They were tiny.  Many roads were just filled with parked cars lining each side of the road and barely leaving 1 lane of traffic space down the middle.  I'm not sure a full size American truck could have fit down those roads.  There were a couple times where we saw an oncoming car and had to wait at the far end of the block until it had come past us before we could proceed.  I remember roads like this in many parts of England, but they were usually in tiny villages, never in major cities.

After we wasted some time, we returned to the chapel.  We sat out in the foyer as the meeting began.  We saw a few people glance out at us, but we'd left them no chit chat time.  The missionaries especially eyed us and we waved a cheery greeting to them.

After church (or at least, after about 45 minutes of the first part of church), we took a couple pictures, then headed to our fist stop of the day, Granville Island.  Its not really an island, it more a large protrusion into the bay, but it's filled with small shops and a large market.

The first thing we passed was a broom store.  Yes, a real honest to goodness store where they hand build and sell brooms.  The girl was in the middle of building a broom as we glanced in, so we entered and chatted for a while.  They buy their bristles from Mexico.  Some sort of corn stalk, and they get most of their handles from Arizona.  I'd bet this place was very popular during the Harry Potter phase because many of the brooms looked like a witch's broom.

From the broom store we walked over to an area where they carve totem poles, but the workers weren't there today.  There were some interesting shapes on logs, but without the colors, some where hard to identify.

The market we'd come to see was packed with people.  There were cheese shops, trinkets, sausages, fish, jewelry, sushi, tacos, crepes, and about every other booth you could imagine.  We wandered up and down the isles oggling the food, but not really buying anything.  We did buy a couple crepes at one point because I've been bugging Mike about one of our previous trips.  We were in Paris.  We'd been to the Louvre and were walking past some crepe stands.  I was hungry and said I'd like a crepe, but he said they weren't very good and we'd get better crepes later.  I never did get a crepe and we left the next day.

So here, in Vancouver Canada, he bought me a crepe.  He got one with pure maple syrup on it and I got one with free squeezed lemon and sugar on it.  The girl that made them wasn't very good at it.  She tore mine a couple time and had to pour more batter on it to fix it.  But they tasted great.

We continued browsing for a while until we heard singing.  After the Jazz Festival yesterday, we thought it might be another venue, but it was just a young couple who'd setup a microphone and a keyboard out by the water and were playing for donations.  We listened for a few minutes, but they weren't very good so we returned to the marker.  It was after noon by now so we started browsing for something to eat.  Mike has picked for the last few meals, so I picked some Sushi and Thai.

We walked to a raised platform with tables and chairs to eat and listen to yet another group of musicians playing.  The sushi was great, but the thai was dry and not very good.  Since I'd picked, I tried to eat everything but wound up so stuffed I almost felt sick and we still had to throw a few california roll slices away.

Next we thought we'd go to a park just north of the city.  We found ourselves in a huge traffic jam where we'd only move a couple car lengths per minute.  It turns out  that there is only one road out the North side of town and everyone was trying to go that way.  After 30 minutes we gave up and turned around.  Instead of the park, we decided to return to the Jazz Festival.

We parked on the street at a parking meter.  It cost $10 (can) for 1:40 worth of parking.  Once Mike bled into the meter, we walked over to the festival.  A group was just starting their set and they were great.  It was true Jazz finally.  Lost of improv with a great Saxophone, Drum, and Base behind the vocals.

We sat listening for 30 minutes until the sun really came out and started to heat us up.  We walked over to some shaded chairs and sat for a while longer, then decided to get a drink and go check out the next band.  I'm not sure just what type of music the other band was playing, but it appeared to be the type where every musician plays whatever they feel like as loud as they can, and with no coordination with any of the other musicians.  I'm sure my kids would love it.

We returned to the first band and listened until their set was done, then left to find some dinner before our show.  We wound up at a greek place where I had a simple salad because I was still stuffed from lunch.  After that we then returned to the hotel for a rest.

After a short rest, we set off to walk around China Town. It was a little disappointing. Nothing really eye catching or inviting to any of it. As we were meandering around, we spotted what looked like an open market. But what it turned out to be (or seemed to be) was a swap meet for the city's homeless. There were obviously some people that paid to be there and show their wares (very poor ones), but there were many many who simply had a bag or shopping cart filled with junk and were swapping amongst themselves or trying to sell some ragged coat or shoes.

The farther we walked, the more I held onto my camera and cell phone because I was being pocked or tugged to look at this item or that. Nothing threatening, just people hoping that I'd buy their stuff. We hurried along as fast as we could to the end of the street, then has to work our way out of the thick of the pack and finally got across the street.

A little more walking brought us to some Chinese gardens. They were very pretty and restful. We took a break among the ponds and discussed the relative beauty of lilly pads. Mike doesn't get the beauty or fascination of floating flora.

At 6:00 we drove to a park South of town to watch a Shakespeare play.  We had tickets to watch A Mid Summer Night's Dream.

The play was fantastic.  They used allot of modern music to emphasize various comedic elements of the play and to set the mood.  Just short snippets of songs and just long enough to call to mind the rest of the words and make you laugh.

The venue was called "Bard at the Beach" because the stage had no back wall and you could see a beach and waterway behind the actors.  I thought it might be distracting with the bright light behind the actors, but it wasn't.  Every so often you might see a yacht cruising past, or see someone jogging, but it really wasn't noticeable, and as the evening wore on and they sky darkened, it added allot of drama to the conclusion of the play.  I'm a fan.

I've loved watching Shakespeare plays ever since I watched my first in England after my mission.  I don't know that this was was better or worse than any others I've ever seen.  It was different than all the others and it was great.


Vancouver Chapel


Broom Store


Closeup of the broom weaving


More Brooms


This is for John, a Giant Rocking Dog


Vancouver


Lunch


Jazz


A "Hobo" swap meet


Chinese Gardens


Koi pond filled with lilly pads


We found the gates into China Town as we left


Entrance to the theatre


View behind the stage


The stage

Vancouver BC Day 1

I'm spending the next 9 days with my buddy Mike in and around Vancouver British Columbia.

He and I have done a lot of power touring over the years. England, France, Italy, Oregon Coast, etc. We've been trying to get a trip planned for several years, but Mike's change of jobs and other factors have prevented us from actually going anywhere lately.

About 8 weeks ago I was chatting with Mike when the subject of a trip came up again. He asked me where I'd like to go and without having to think much I said "Vancouver" because it's been on my mind. He said he's always wanted to go there as well, but never been able to get anyone to go. So plans began to form for a guys trip to Vancouver.

Of course, a few days later my daughter's boyfriend asked if he could buy me lunch and discuss an important topic with me. Oh sheesh, not this again, I thought.  It's either Amway or he wants to marry my daughter.  I was almost hoping for Amway  (just kidding David).

Well, both sets of plans came together. Kadi and David were happily married on May 31st. And today, Mike and I flew to Vancouver to start a long dreamed of trip around Canada.

My flight left at 8:10, so of course, I got up at 4:30. Nannette had thrown a few clothes in a bag for me earlier this week, just before she left on her own vacation to Arizona. She's been gone for 5 days now. She'll fly back the day after I leave. So we won't see each other for 15 days. That's a long time for us, probably the longest we've gone in our married life without seeing each other.

It reminds me of times when our kids were little and we had a cabin in Northern Arizona. In the summers, Nannette would get 3 or 4 other young mothers and they'd take all of the kids and go to the cabin. I was self employed at the time, so I really cherished that time so I could work really long hours on my projects without interruption. The first day they were all gone, I'd work from 5 am to 11 pm and get a huge amount of work done. The same the next day. But by the 3rd day I'd be down to maybe 10 hours of work, and by the 5th day only about 7 hours. By the 8th day I didn't feel like getting out of bed at all. I wanted my wife and kids back so bad I couldn't stand it.

After a few years of this, I was sobbing wreck any time I was away from my wife and kids for more than a few days.  I learned to drive up to the cabin every few, at least for a night (I'd tell myself), then I'd stay for 2 or 3 days and to heck with work.

After 30 years, I've gotten over it, at least for the kids.

This time isn't as bad, but I do miss Nannette. Once she's back home we can skype every day.

So where was I...?

Oh yeah, packed and at the airport by 6:30. I parked the Highlander in long term parking and texted the car's location to Nan. She flies in tomorrow and will drive the car home.

I flew to Salt Lake and met up with Mike before boarding the plane to Vancouver. When we arrived, we started the process of passing through immigration. They directed to a huge are of switchback lines where we began moving like cattle. But when we reached the end, all they did was direct us to another full set of switch backs and again moved along till we reached the end. And once again we were directed to another even bigger set of switchbacks. In all, we were about 40 minutes of line dancing till we finally reached the immigration window. He asked me a few questions then waved me on.

We picked up my bag from luggage claim. Mike NEVER checks a bag. He's a travel guru and knows the ways to get a weeks worth of clothes in a carry on, but I don't.

We rented our car, plugged in my GPS and fed in the address of a good Chinese restaurant. It was a very authentic Chinese place. They offered deep fried duck webbing, chicken tendon, and allot of other interesting dishes. We settled for pot stickers and a few other Americanized dishes.

Once we got checked into the restaurant we grabbed a few cameras and walked into downtown Vancouver. There is a Jazz Festival going on right now and we thought that would be fun to visit. It wasn't a long walk and the air was nice and cool. As we got closer the crows began to form a visible flow and we were swept along with it.

We grabbed a pamphlet for the festival and a couple of lemonades, then headed to one of the stages. A band named Lady was just stating. It was ok, but we weren't really impressed, so after a few songs we walked around to the other stage. I don't remember the band's name, but it was very latin. It reminded me of Santana but without any guitar. Again we stayed for a few songs, then headed out to find some dinner.

This time is was Japenese. We had some great sashimi, shrimp, lettuce wraps and a few other things.

After dinner we walked back to the Jazz Festival. We arrived in time for the last 4 songs of a retro 50s band named Company B. We really enjoyed their music. Enough that Mike bought a CD.

Back at the hotel we discussed the plans for the week, I uploaded photos and wrote this blog.

Oh, you can follow my current location on my spot GPS web page.  I'll try to keep it turned on.

http://tinyurl.com/claysfindmespot

Selfie in front of the hotel room window


Mike by the window, trying to get hotel reservations straightened out


Jazz Festival


Food Trucks and fresh squeezed lemonade


Panorama of one of the stages and audience


Salmon Sashimi


Lady


Towering buildings around us


Company B

Loosing the Race

Sunday June 8th, 2014 - part 2

This is the last day of my 8 day vacation.  I stayed in Pagosa Springs with my wife Nannette, 2 friends from Arizona, 2 sisters in law, and a niece.   John, Angela, Nannette, and I have been riding motorcycles to various destinations and back each day while the in laws did their own thing.  Everyone but me left earlier and I'm just heading home now.

In the first part of this blog I wrote about my attempts to find a way north using some of the scenic roads but but a large storm constantly herded me back onto the main highway and eventually it even blew dust across my path.

The main highway eventually crosses a minor mountain range over La Veta Pass, and as I approached the pass, the rain finally caught me.  I was forced to pull over and put on my riding gear with cars going past, wind blowing, and rain building.  I must be a slow learner because I've had to do this same "rain gear" dance many times over the years.  I always seem to put it off until it can't be avoided, and almost as many times, I get the gear on, ride 5 miles and find myself in sunshine and warm weather.

This wasn't going to be one of those times.  There was no way those clouds were going anywhere any time soon.

With my gear on and bike ready, I waited for traffic to clear.  Not just clear but be WAY clear because I don't want to have to accelerate the bike too hard with rain just starting to fall.  I've heard statistics over the years saying that most motorcycle accidents in the rain happen in the first few minutes of the rain falling.  It's because oil that has driped from cars onto the road is mixing with the new rain and making the road especially slick.  Once the rain has been falling for a while, it cleans the road taking much of the slick oil with it.

When I got my huge gap I carefully guided the bike out onto the road and slowly accelerated up to about 25.  I flipped on my hazard lights as I crawled along, slowly accelerating and feeling my way up to 45.

Not far up the road I saw 2 harleys pulled off the road.  They were the same 2 harleys that had previously followed me across San Luis valley.  They were trying to re-arrange things on the bikes while fighting the wind just as I had done a few minutes ago.  They didn't have much gear on their bikes and they were probably putting on every bit of clothing they had.  They weren't even wearing helmets, just dew rags.  They weren't going to be very comfortable in this.

A little farther and I saw 4 bikes pulled over, but no riders.  Right next to them was a small RV.  The RV must have pulled over to let the riders in.

The rain was coming down heavy now and I experimented with my speed.  So long as I kept about 45 miles an hour, the windshield would throw the rain over me and I stayed fairly dry, but any slower and I'd get blasted with rain.  So I kept my speed just above the splash level and rode on.

I saw my first lightning about this time.  It was high above me and so far away that I couldn't hear any thunder.  It might even have been cloud to cloud, but lightning always scares me on a bike.  I was at the bottom of a small valley so hopefully the walls were keeping me safe from the lightning.

Then the valley ended and I rode out onto the flat of the pass.  No walls to keep the lightning high, nothing to block the wind, and the rain turned to sleet and finally to hail.  It was coming in from my left side and my speed wasn't enough to keep it off me.  I really didn't want to go faster and I was already getting wet, so I slowed way down and flipped my hazard lights on again.  I couldn't hug the right side of the road because a heavy gust could push me off the road, so I stayed in the middle of my lane and tried to puff up like a peacock and look big to any cars coming behind me.

The hail built up on the windshield and on my visor, so I had to lift the visor a bit and stretch to look over the windshield.  My heavy gloves have a built in  squeegee on the left thumb, so I was able to clear the visor, but then the visor fogged up with the cold.  I had to hold my stretched position looking over the top of the windshield for about 5 minutes as I crossed the pass and began to descend down the far valley.  The mountain grew beside me and began to block more wind, or maybe just funnel it down the canyon behind me.  I now had a bit of a tailwind as the road turned south and finally the temperature began to drop.  I'm not sure how cold it got at the top, but I suspect it was in the 20s.

I have heated gear for the bike.  Not only do I have some, but I have it with me.  But I didn't have it on and even if I did have it on, I couldn't have plugged it in.  A few days ago I did some maintainance on the bike, and as I put the seat back on, I took the plug that would feed the heated gear and tucked it away thinking "I don't need my heated gear for the summer".  Dumb me, I live in Colorado and I like riding over mountain passes.

I continued riding down off the pass and it continued to warm up.  After all, 36 degrees IS warmer than 29, right?

Once I got out on the flats and away from the mountains the hail and slush turned back into rain and the rain reduced to just a small splatter every now and then, but the wind, oh my, the wind.  It raced in across the open flats and slammed into the side of my motorcycle throwing me around.  There was no speed at which I could ride that would keep that wind from whipping rain in on me.  After just a couple minutes I could feel a regular flood coming in the left side of my jacket right around my neck.  I couldn't tell what was going on, so I found a spot to pull off and check.

I pulled down to a small parking lot, turned the bike somewhat into the wind and started fiddling.  It turned out that my coat collar was folded under and wasn't blocking the rain.  It was hitting my neck then running down.  So I straightened it out, then got back on to continue riding.  I pulled from the little parking lot up a small embankment to the road.  Just as I started to accelerate and turn onto the road, the bike went from pointed into the wind to side on  and a massive gust hit me.  I didn't have the centrifugal force of the spinning wheels to help me counter the force from the side and the bike just lay over on it's right side.

The armor in my jacket absorbed the impact as I fell on my side so there was no real damage to either me or the bike.  The Goldwing has some awsome crash bars that prevent the bike from ever laying on the rider and even prevents damage to any of the bike's body, but now it was laying on it's side, slightly downhill with the wheels higher than the seat.

I know John will be disappointed in me for not taking pictures, but it was cold and raining and I just wanted the bike up and going.  I walked around and extended the kickstand.  Many people have lifted bikes up just to have them fall over on the far side.  I really didn't want that.  I came back around, positioned myself with my butt nearly on the seat, a hand on the handle bar and another hand on the passenger grab bar.  I bent my knees, set myself and tried to lift the bike.  No go.  Laying downhill like that, there was no way I was going to brute force 800lbs of bike up.

I've lifted my bike several times on level ground.  It's really not hard at all.  But the slope away from the road wouldn't let me roll it up.  The first foot or so would be brute force lifting.

I stood back up to take stock of my position, and as I stood there thinking, a pickup truck pulled off the road.  The driver got out of his truck and walked across the road.  His first question was "are you alright".  I assured him I was fine.  Then he asked if I needed a hand getting the bike up and I said I'd love one.

Once again I got in position facing away from the bike, butt on the seat, hands set, knees bent and started to lift.  I'm not sure how strong he was, but the bike came right up.  Easily.  We set it on the kickstand, then he held onto it as I walked around and got on.  It started right up and he headed back to his truck wishing me luck.  He must have been freezing because he only had on a tshirt, but it had only taken a minute.  I yelled my thanks, then wondered if I was really sure I was OK.  The bike had been down for no more than 3 minutes.

I waited for a HUGE gap in the traffic, then I rode straight into the wind up into the middle of the road before starting my turn.  I revved the engine near redline and feathered the clutch like a fiend to keep power strong and ready all the way through the turn.  The wind hit me again but this time I was ready with a little steering and power to keep the bike upright and accelerating.  I pulled back to my side of the road and sped up and away.

The ride into Walsenburg wasn't very hard.  My hands were cold, but the rest of me wasn't too bad.  I stopped at a KFC/Tacobell to get something to eat and to warm up.  When I started this vacation last Sunday I'd stopped here and the place was packed.  If anything, it was even more packed today.

I picked the warmest thing I could find on the menu, then found myself a table as far from the doors as possible.  Looking outside, I could see allot of rain and wind still coming down, but it wasn't a vicious storm, just a good rain storm.  The worst had already blown past.  I looked at the weather map on my phone and saw the squal line that I'd been racing this whole time.  It was lined up almost perfectly north to south right along the I-25 corridor, so I wasn't going anywhere for a while.

I sat enjoying my original recipe chicken, mashed potatoes and bbq beans while I did a little people watching.  A large family obviously waiting out the storm sat at 4 tables.  They'd long since finished their meal, but they sat there speaking spanish and trying to keep the little kinds from going bonkers.  Another single mother with her 2 year old sat waiting for food.  The mom coloring and playing little games with her daughter.  She'd been in line just behind me and had put her daughter at the table to hold her place.  The little girl kept hopping down and running around.  It quickly became a fun game for her to hop down and have her mommy chase her around all these people.  When my turn came, I let her go ahead of me and I sat with her daughter a minute till she was done.  Everyone in line let me back in which was nice.

There was a guy on a sport bike with a severely injured leg.  He'd ordered, then hopped to his table with crutches.  I wondered how you ride a bike in that condition, but obviously he was.

While I sat there, a young couple walked over and sat down opposite me.  "That was exciting" the man said.  I cocked my head and said "yeah it was".  "How'd you fare?" the guy asked.  "Pretty cold" I said, "But not as cold as a few of the other rider".  "That was us" he told me, "We're the 2 harleys that followed you across the valley".

I chucked and we sat talking about that whole race.  They had the same ideas and feelings I'd had - "if only we can stay ahead of it we'll be OK".  They'd stopped and put on ever ounce of clothes they had, but they'd still gotten soaked and freezing while they crossed.  They'd both spent the last 20 minutes in the bathroom running warm water over their fingers to thaw them.  I told them my side of the story and they shook their heads in wonder about dumping the bike.  She had done the same thing but while still climbing toward the summit.  It had taken them and another guy that stopped to get the bike up because of the mud.  They'd had to drag the bike around so the wheels were downhill before they could raise it.  I still wonder at how strong that guy that helped me must have been.

After 40 minutes the map showed the storm blowing east and the freeway was clearing.  I decided to go try to fish my heated gear feed out from under the motorcycle seat.  It was allot easier than I'd thought, and a few minutes later I'd put on the jacket liner, plugged my gloves in, and the whole thing was nice and toasty.

I fired up the bike and rolled out for home.

The 100 miles home were pretty easy.  The wind wasn't blowing, no rain, and I was comfy cozy in my gear.  Again, it occurred to me that I should have done this 200 miles and 4 hours ago.  Get warm and let the storm blow by.  I'd let "get home disease" catch me even while telling myself I was going to ride some pretty roads.  When the pretty roads became impossible, I should have stopped.

Once I got home, I parked the bike and hauled my stuff in.  Then I found a nice comfy recliner and covered myself in a blanket.  My grand daughter Jessie came over to me with a book to read and I settled in to have the last part of day in the best possible way.

------------------------

Let me just add that I've described much of the ride in more drama than I actually felt at the time.  There were only 2 scary moments for me.  One was when the lightning struck a few times because there is nothing you can do about lightning on a motorcycle.  The second was when I slowed way down crossing the pass.  I was afraid that a car coming from behind wouldn't see me in time to slow down.  Other than that, it was just a motorcycle ride.  A little cold and frustrating, but not really scary.



Spot GPS track of my ride (once I found the Spot)


Weather map showing the storm I'd raced and lost to


Sitting in a chair holding my granddaughter. Safe and sound at home


This is La Veta pass in better weather.

Racing the Storm

Sunday June 8th, 2014

The Gaggle of in laws left 4 days ago, John and Angela left 2 days ago, and Nannette left yesterday.  So I'm all alone in this huge 3 story, 5 bed, 10 person timeshare.  I woke up at 6:00 but just lay in bed reading and listening to music.  Animals tend to move around during the early morning, so it isn't safe to ride the bike.  I don't want another close encounter with a deer.  Once, 7 years ago, was enough. (read about it in this blog)

Eventually I got up and showered, then made myself an omelette.  I sat on the deck enjoying the cool morning air and the not so subtle honk of the geese around the lake.  The geese and ducks were very active this morning.  In hindsight, maybe that was my first hint of the storm coming.

My first goal today was finding my GPS.  Yesterday before my ride, I'd noticed that my Spot GPS was missing off the bike.  I left it parked all day Friday when Nan and I went to Chimney Rock, and at first I thought maybe someone had stolen it.  The Spot uses GPS to figure out its location, then using a satellite modem, transmits that location to a website.  After my brain got working, I realized that all I had to do was check the website to see where the GPS was, and sure enough, it had fallen off the bike 3 days ago while returning from Lake City.

I had a few roads I wanted to ride today, but picking up the GPS was more important, so I figured I'd just head home via Lake City and get it.

I packed the bike and headed North toward Wolf Creek.  The ride was beautiful but chilly.  It was the coldest morning since I've been here with the temperature at 65 degrees and dropping as I climbed up toward the pass.  By the time I reached the top, it was a chilly 52.

When I reached South Fork I stopped to gas up.  The gas station had a Blimpy sub shop in it, so I bought a sandwich, thinking I'd stop at one of the overlooks for lunch rather than an expensive restaurant in Lake City.  As I headed North East toward Creede is when I first noticed the heavy clouds over the mountains.  I wasn't too worried about it because storms don't usually develop until later in the day after the sun has warmed everything up.

I stopped in Creede for a quick picture by the FireCave (it's like a FireHouse but in a cave).

The GPS showed that it was about 15 miles outside of Creede so I kept going toward the mountains and those heavy clouds.  I could see rain was falling but it wasn't very close to me and seemed to be headed West so I didn't worry about it.  I hoped my path would skirt it all.

I had to stop a few times to check where I was relative to the Spot GPS.  I found a wide spot to park the bike near the last position and started walking along the road looking around as I walked.  I hadn't gone more than 20 feet when I saw the bright orange of the spot.  It was just sitting in a bunch of weeds about 3 feet off the road.  I'd been so afraid that it had fallen on the road and been run over, but there it was safe and sound.  The leatherish case had torn causing it to fall off.  I took a gallon ziplok, dropped the Spot into it, then tied it onto the bike.  I turned the Spot back on and sent out an "I'm OK" announcement.

With that all done I took stock of the weather.  The road had turned north east and was now headed directly into the middle of the black clouds.  I could see heavy rain falling only a couple miles ahead.  If I waited long enough it might clear, or it might descend on me even worse than it was now.  It didn't take long before I decided to turn around.  Maybe I'd take those roads I'd originally planned to ride after all.  I was 35 miles off the main highway, but it was 35 beautiful road miles, so I didn't mind backtracking.

As I got near Creede again I could see the rain was coming down the mountains and into town.   Heavy sheets of rain were hitting the hills just above town.  The road through Creede turns North for a mile, then makes a sharp turn in town and comes back out South.  I hurried through town and got spattered by slushy rain.  The temperature dipped and the wind really blew as I brushed the front edge of the storm.   Once I was headed South again it quickly warmed up and the wind stopped, but I could see it boiling behind me in my mirror.  Within minutes the town virtually disappeared behind a wall of water.  I had really flirted with a major storm back there.

Once back in South Fork I turned East on highway 160.  I only stayed on it for 16 miles till I reached Del Norte, then I turned a bit north toward the town of Center which would head me toward a great riding road and eventually to Gunnison.  I could still see those dark clouds over the mountains, but I couldn't really see where they were heading.  I hoped it wasn't toward me.  At center I turned again, almost due north.

I hadn't gone more than 5 miles north out of center before I saw the wall of clouds rapidly descending and crossing right in front of me about 10 miles ahead.  A car came out of the cloud bank toward me and as it got near, it started flashing it's lights.  When the 3rd car did the same thing, I took the hint and quickly turned around.

Back in Center I stopped for a bathroom break and to look at weather maps.  It showed a huge storm north of me and trailing back to the west.  It looked like I could easily get east of it and around because it wasn't moving too fast.  But it was expanding south some too, and by the time I headed back for highway 160 the wind was blowing pretty hard.  The San Luis valley is a big farming area, so the storm was picking up all the bare earth and starting to form a dust storm.  I rode south out of the leading edge of the storm....again.

I picked up 160 in Monte Vista and turned east toward Alamosa.  I could see the storm off to the left and building.  I talked to Klair and Nannette on the phone a couple of times as they advised me about the weather alerts north of me.  I have my motorcycle setup so I can fully interact with my iPhone while riding.  I can answer incoming phone calls, and using Siri, I can listen to incoming text messages, respond to text messages, and make phone calls.  The only problem is that I can't tell who's calling when I answer the phone and it's really annoying to get a salesman trying to talk to you while riding a beautiful stretch of road.

So anyway, there I am on highway 160 heading east with this massive dust storm off to my left.  I was quickly pulling ahead of it and (I thought) I could easily outrun it to the mountain pass 80 miles ahead of me.  There was very constant 2 way traffic and a 4 lane road.  I wasn't speeding or pushing it very hard, it just seemed like an easy ride.

A pair of riders on harleys came up behind me riding side by side.  I do see that often, but these 2 were really parallel to each other on the highway with a good gap between them.  It meant they took up their entire lane and even just a bit outside their lane.  They passed me and a few other cars, but I didn't follow or speed up any, I just let em wind through the traffic.

We were way ahead of the storm when we reached Alamosa, but of course, the speed limit drops to about 35 through most of the town, and traffic really seemed to get thick.  It felt like I hit every stoplight in town.  When I got into the middle of town I could see the storm had nearly caught up, but I couldn't do anything about it with all the cars around me.  I did pass the 2 Harleys that had passed me earlier.  They'd picked the wrong lane and got caught behind a car trying to turn left.

I should have found a good restaurant to stop and eat for a 2 hour lunch to let the storm blow by, but I didn't.  I kept thinking about all the rain that was coming and I wanted to stay ahead of it.

Just as I left town the 2 Harleys caught up and fell in behind me as the road narrowed to 2 lanes.  And then the leading edge of the storm caught us.  The temperature plummeted from 68 to 55 and the wind whipped up.  It's hard to tell how fast the wind is when you're already going 65, but it was really whipping around.  The dust storm that had just been forming back in Monte Vista had now bloomed to a multi thousand foot high monster.  The dust storm was trailing the leading edge of the storm by a few miles, so even though I was in the storm, I could still see clearly down the road...for now.

10 miles out of Alamosa the dust storm blew in.  Walls of dust rushed at the road suddenly cutting off all sight of the cars coming toward me and I had no choice but to squint my eyes and push through it.  2 times visibility dropped to nothing for a few yards and I had to just hold my course.  I'd seen the road was dead straight and all I had to do was ride straight.  The wind blasted me from the left side and I had to steer to the left to overcome it and just hope I didn't over-steer.  I couldn't even see the lane markers to guide me because the dust was so thick.  These dust outs only lasted for a second or two but it was unnerving to say the least.

Several times we'd clear the dust and wind, then the temperature would rapidly rise again.  Then another arm of the storm would push ahead and envelop us dropping the temperature and increasing the wind.  The up and down temperature was really odd.

After 5 minutes of this I blew out the other side into clear warm air.  I'd gotten ahead of the storm and the 2 Harleys were still right behind me and still riding side by side.  In the mirror I could see the mess behind me as cars continued to emerge from the dust and other cars continued to plunge into it going the other way.  A few cars had pulled off the road but there was almost no shoulder to the road and if you pulled of too far you were in soft dirt/sand and would probably get stuck.

With clear air ahead of me I twisted the throttle and tried to get farther ahead.  My 2 escorts followed right behind.

We were easily leaving the storm for about 15 miles.  I'd passed a couple cars and thought it would all be smooth from here when we came up on a line of slow moving cars.  Slow meaning they were only going a couple miles over the speed limit.  At the head was a big RV.  I passed a few cars to get near the front and saw some other motorcycles behind the RV and wondered why they weren't moving around.  It was 2 lanes, but it was dead straight and there were large gaps in the oncoming traffic so it shouldn't be hard to pass.

I dropped in behind the other bikes to evaluate my chances of passing, and after a minute I saw one of the bikes pull over to pass the RV.  And the RV pulled the left, crossing the line and blocked him.  He literally wouldn't let the bike pass.  This happened a couple more times with the bikes and once with A sports car.  Any time someone came to the other lane, the RV "wandered" over the center line.  It wasn't violent or agressive, he just sat right on the center lane and would wander a foot or two across it.  Very unnerving.

Another pair of sport bikes came up form behind, passing cars till they were just in front of me, then the lead bike opened up and started to pass the remaining bikes and the RV.  When the RV wandered over the line he just kept going and laid on his horn.  He got beside the RV, horn blasting and the RV went back into his lane.  He and his buddy blew past and kept going, but none of the rest of us wanted to try it.

I watched the storm slowly catching us as we reached the 2 little towns at the eastern edge of the San Luis valley.  Once again I should have stopped, but I didn't.  I did stop for 5 minutes to let the traffic clear and let that idiot in the RV get WAY ahead of me.

By now the dust storm has subsided.  It couldn't keep going with all the greenery in the foothills, but now I could see the clouds building as they were pushed up over the mountains.  It still looked clear to the east, so I pulled out onto the now clear road and headed for La Veta Pass.

I'd only forgotten one fairly important thing.  The road doesn't go east over the pass.  I wasn't far into the valley when the road turned almost due north and  started to climb.  Suddenly I was headed straight into the teeth of the storm.  The wind whipped up and the temperature dropped.  I kept riding and climbing and hoping that I'd beat it over the top.  I was pretty high up when the first big fat raindrops hit me, It was time for some protection, so I found a wide shoulder of the road and stopped.

No matter how many times I do this, it never gets any easier to put on rain gear while standing beside a road with cars streaming past, wind blowing, and rain starting to pelt me.  I removed my heavy riding jacket from the right saddle bag, but as it always does, the velcro grabbed other things and threatened to pull everything out onto the muddy ground.  I separated it, took off my mesh jacket and tried to stuff it back in place of the heavy one.  Wind whipped everything around making it a nearly impossible task but I got it done..  I put the heavy jacket on, then started trying to get my oh so stylish green rain pants untangled and over my boots and pants.  Lastly  I put on my heavy riding gloves.

I was sure that I was only a few miles short of the pass by now so rather than turning around, I was determined to keep going.  I looked around the bike one last time to be sure everything was closed and nothing was hanging out.  Then I mounted the bike and waited for my chance to rejoin the dash for the top.

You know, this is a pretty long blog, so I think I'll end it here and finish it tomorrow...



Panorama from the deck of the Timeshare


Storm clouds over the mountains as I head toward Creede


Creede Fire Department


My lost and lonely Spot GPS sitting beside the road


Getting gas in Center. The very beginning of the dust storm east of me


A few miles outside Alamosa as the dust storm approaches the road

Nearly to Taos

Saturday June 7th, 2014

Nannette was heading home this morning, and I was going to take a ride.

We packed the car, kissed, and I waved goodbye as Nannette headed home.  Then I got on the bike and rode off myself.

On Tuesday we had been planning to ride over toward Taos New Mexico, but we shortened the ride so that Nannette could ride with me.  Today I'm going to ride the road we missed on Monday.

Just east of Pagosa I turned South on highway 84 toward Chama.  Just like the last 6 days, the weather was perfect and cool.  It was a great ride down to Chama.  I stopped a few times just to admire the scenery.

I turned south at Chama for about 15 miles until I reached highway 64 and turned east.  This was the highway I'd come to ride.  The road crosses the mountain range here, and does so with allot of twisting and climbing.  It's a very fun road to ride.  I cruised along admiring the increasingly better views as I rose higher and higher.

Eventually I reached a pullout near the top and pulled over to take pictures and enjoy the silence.  Every so often I'd hear a car coming, but they were few and far between.  I must have stayed there for 30 minutes watching the clouds slowly building around me.  There is rain forecast for this afternoon and I don't want to get caught in it.

Finally I got back on the bike and continued east.  Once I crossed the mountain, the road began descending but much more gradual than the climb up.  I weaved through the valleys and forests on the east side for about 30 miles.  I kept glancing at the building clouds and wondering if I shouldn't just turn around now, but part of me wanted to reach my destination.

I stopped when I reached the ranger station.  It is on the very edge of the forest and has some nice picnic tables beneath the trees.   The last time we came here, we stopped for a bit, then continued on to Taos.  The 30 miles to Taos was flat, hot, and no fun, and Taos itself wasn't very impressive, so the ranger station was my destination for this ride.

I sat at a picnic table listening to music on the motorcycle speakers and eating doritos.  It was relaxing and peaceful, except for the distant sounds of thunder reminding me that if I sat there too long, I'd be doing so in a down pour.

A guy in a blue pickup pulled into the parking lot and went to check the door on the ranger station.  It turns out the ranger station is only open Monday to Friday.  He came over and talked with me about the ride and the area.  He lives nearby and wanted to get a permit to get wood.  We chatted about bikes and fun roads for a while, then he left and I followed a few minutes later.

The wind was picking up and a few sprinkles of rain hit my windshield.  While I'd waited at the ranger station the clouds had slipped around me to the west.  The clouds were building and darkening quickly.  The temperature was also dropping.  On the way in, it had dropped as low as 61 at the top, and now it was 58 as I started the climb back up.

I would have liked to stop at a few of the pullouts for more pictures, but thunder and lightning made me very nervous about stopping, so I stopped for only a few short glimpses.

Once I crossed the pass and began descending, the temperature quickly rose and I didn't feel the imminent threat of rain so I slowed down and enjoyed the views while I could.

Once I reached Chama, I started thinking about lunch and pulled up to High Country Restaurant.  I'd eaten here a couple years ago and liked it.  This time I got a BLT and really liked it.  As I ate, a group of 18 motorcycles pulled up with nearly 25 people.  They came in to eat and the staff quickly made room for them and got them fed surprisingly quick.  It was a group riding up from  Albuquerque for lunch.  I asked if they'd seen any rain and they said no, but they expected to get wet on the way home.

I finished out my ride with the 50 miles back across the border to Colorado and into Pagosa by 3;30.

Nannette had given me a brochure about a Bluegrass Music Festival, so I rode over to see what it was about.  I found all the parked cars, but I couldn't find anyone to tell me where to park, whether it cost anything, nor where the actual festival was.  I wandered a couple parking lots and eventually gave up on it.

Instead, I went to the Malt Shop and got myself a great strawberry shake.  Then I rode around town trying to decide what to do for dinner.  I spotted a Thai restaurant and figured I'd go there if I didn't figure out something else.  I went to the local grocery store and wandered the aisles looking for something I could cook, but I had none of the extras I'd need to cook most things, so i returned to the Thai place and ordered some ginger chicken to go.

I spent the evening eating my Thai (it was very good), watching TV, and writing my blog reports.


Nan and I in front of her Highlander


Nannette heading home


Beautiful road between Pagosa and Chama


Wildflowers and views


More wildflowers


Parked at the Ranger Station


Clouds building


More views


More Views


Lunch

Chimney Rock

Friday June 6th, 2014

This morning John and Angela are headed home.  They're not enthused about the 110 degree temperatures they're returning to, but John needs to head home for some family issues.

They left by 8:00, then Nan went to sleep a bit more and I wrote some more on my blogs.

At 10:00, Nan and I left to go see Chimney Rock.  I've seen the turnoff for years, but I've never gone to see what it was actually all about.   The turnoff to highway 151 is just a few miles west of Pagosa Springs,  and the turnoff to Chimney Rock is just a couple miles South on 151.

The road to Chimney Rock is gravel, so I won't be coming here on the motorcycle.  Just 1/2 mile up the gravel road is a parking lot and a small cabin/store.  We stopped and talked to the volunteers.  They said there was a guided tour leaving in just a few minutes.  It was $12 per person.  You drive your own car 3 miles up to the top of the hill, then you climb 1/4 mile and 200 foot elevation to the very crest where the buildings were located.

We paid our money and I bought a baseball cap to wear.  When the time came, we followed our guide's car up to the upper parking lot along with another lady that was also coming.

As we climbed, our guide told us he was a retired college professor.  He was a political science instructor, but since retiring he has become very interested in history and volunteers to lead tours a couple times a week.

The whole of Chimney Rock is run by volunteers.  Even though it is a "National Monument", congress hasn't voted any money to operate it, so volunteers from Pagosa Springs take turns doing everything.

We slowly climbed the trail and took allot of breaks.  The first half of the trail is very easy, then you reach a very rocky step that almost looks like stairs that wind up and around.  The views became more and more spectacular until we finally topped out and had nearly a 360 degree view all around us.

The guide told us the buildings on the top seem to be related to similar ruins at Choco canyon in New Mexico.  They think they were there to view the moon and stars because of some special alignment of the chimney rocks.

I'd go back any time.  It was that beautiful up there.

By the time we got back down the temperature had risen to 85 degrees and we were hot.  There is a whole other area you can walk around, but we were pooped and ready to go.  I looked on the map and saw that highway 151 meandered through the area and eventually led back to Durango, so we decided to follow it.   It was a nice road and very scenic.  I'll have to come ride it some time.

We stopped for lunch in Ignacio.  I got a Navajo taco, but Nan was afraid it wouldn't be very good, so she got a club sandwich.  The taco wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.  I'll just have to keep looking for a good place to get a Navajo taco in the area.

We went to the local casino and bowled a few games in their bowling alley, then headed back to the  timeshare.



John and Angela packing to go


My Goldwing has reverse, so does John's, it's called Angela


Photos of a real gaggle


Writing my blog


Views from the hill by Chimney Rock


More


Climbing the lower trail


Climbing the upper trail


Stopping for a breather


View from half way to the top


Final climb


Just a bit left to go


Up on top of the building, by the big Keeva


Looking toward Chimney Rock. Every 18 years, the moon rises between those rocks


More rooms


Nan taking a break while we descend


Beautiful. And the scenery isn't bad either


My sparkling bride