Day 5 - The San Juan Skyway

Ever since I started doing these long motorcycle trips, I have always loved a loop in Colorado called the San Juan Skyway. It connects little town that I think are beautiful - Silverton, Ooray, Telluride ... It"s just one of the most beautiful rides in America. And I did it again today! Yes, we had to dodge fires but all the roads were open which made for great ride! And we stopped for a great little picnic in a gazebo watching rain pass us by.

I booked a hotel room in Mountain Village which is a free gondola trip away and about $200 a night cheaper. Done! It was a perfect set up. Took the gondola over the mountain and into town, walked about, then had a great dinner, gondola back home. What a day!

Day 3 and 4 - Amalia and the Colorado fire

You know things are special with you and your child when you can come to visit for a couple of days and be good with just lounging about and relaxing for the day. I mean we went out a couple of times but no need to run around to keep ourselves entertained. Instead we watched soccer (the World Cup is awesome!), made a trip to CostCo for some essentials we didn't know we needed, and then just hung out and ate some of the essentials.  Good times!! Thanks you Amalia - I am ready to hit the mountains!

The drive to Telluride, this day's destination, was beautiful and interesting. I saw two (2) of the major fires here in Colorado and as I was looking it began to rain on me and the fires. Not enough to do much good but better than more heat and tinder dry days!

July 4th and 5th in Telluride then off to Moab, UT. Should I buy my 5th Moab t-shirt when I am there? These are the big questions I face this holiday.

Day 1 - Technical Difficulties

***  The "new and improved" blog site means I don't know how to use it.  Please be patient. This is also why I like old timey postcards.

Saturday June 30, 2018
Well, here goes nothing! I left this morning around 7 am and rode through Chattanooga, Nashville, Paducah KY, Marion IL (hello Woody Harrelson's father), St Louis, Kansas City and landed in Bonner Springs Kansas. That means I rode about 830 miles - a new record for me!! I am exhausted but excited too! The sooner I get to Denver the better.
Going over the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee was especially beautiful tjis morning.  I was hoping to see horses in KY but alas. And what the hell is Illinois doing in between Kentucky and Missouri?
Tomorrow it's off to Denver, a mere 588 miles.  Amalia (my daughter) is making the dinner she gave me for fathers day. Yum!! She is an awesome cook.
Ok, this is a short one. But I am on my way - beautiful country, here I come!!

Day 2 - Major milestone 2

Sunday July 1, 2018

I arrived in Denver CO at about 4 pm local and got the biggest hug from Amalia (my daughter)! OK, I can go home now, it was worth it just for that hug.  I love her home and she has really decorated it well - it looks so nice! And if I may so myself, my hat is off to her mother and me for helping her along. Its nice to see her establishing herself a nice permanent home.

The ride was brutal - 614 miles of flat nothingness. But thats fine as I knew what I was getting. I am here and staying oput for 2 days! Maybe my ears will stop ringing after about 17 hours on the bike these past 2 days.

I am having a hard time adding pictures. Every time I do the blog crashes. But I will figure it out! Patience please as I figure this out.

T-minus 23 days!

I love how the last month leading up to my departure for one of these trips I get so nervous and excited and anxious. This will be trip number seven (7) and I will be, for the most part, traveling to places where I have been before. But the nerves are still tingling and my stomach is still fluttering. Its time to get back on the motorcycle and head west!!
This year will be very similar to my first trip back in 2012. I will first head up to Colorado to see my daughter, then spend a few days doing the Ooray, Durango, Telluride loop. From there its up into Utah (Arches National Park, here I come again!), in through Idaho and Wyoming (Tetons and Yellowstone!) and then up into Montana and Glacier National Park where I will spend up to a week just playing, hiking and perhaps looking at real estate. From there it is up into Canada to revisit Banff and Jasper, over to the BC coastline, down across the cascades, across Washington, down along the western shores of the USA from Seattle to southern California, over into Arizona, back up into Utah and Colorado and then home. I am imagining somewhere around 10,000 miles again.
If you know me you know I love the ride the motorcycle as much as I like to stop and visit places. This time I plan to do a lot more hiking than I have in the past, and maybe look at some real estate up in Montana (a small house on 20 acres with a river about 25 miles from a medium sized town).
Nervous, yes. But oh how excited I am getting just thinking of departure!!