Day 3: Ouray, CO to Gateway, Co

     A Monday away from work is a wonderful day.  A Monday on the bike is a fantastic day.  The weather forecast called for 30% chance of showers. So we made sure we had our rain gear packed and headed out.  The destination today was Gateway, Co.  Gateway is home of the Gateway Car Museum, which contains a collection by John S. Hendricks, chairman and founder of the Discovery Communications, Inc.  As a historian, I have come to appreciate popular culture as history, so you  can't find any one item more influential on popular culture and history than the automobile.  Beside, as someone who grew up in Michigan, the automobile capital of the world, the love affair with cars comes natural.
     We began our ride with clear blue sky.  We started north on U.S. 145 toward Telluride and Norwood.  This stretch of road to Telluride is known as the San Juan Loop.  The road was beautiful with sweeping curves.  We were able to maintain a pretty steady 60 MPH.  Wildlife is abundant in these areas and we were treated to a full array of animal life along the way.  We saw deer near the side of the road that ran away as we slowed and jumped on our horns.  I'm sure they heard us coming before we saw them.  We also saw our compliment of snakes, lizards, and squirrel in the road. Most were alive.  We also were introduced to the cattle gate signaling the presence of range cows.  We even saw a heard of those walking along the side of the road.  
Just past Telluride we continued on US 145 and veered onto US 141 where we entered a stretch of the road through the canyons.  The red canyons provided a beautiful backdrop to the continuation of the sweeping curves.  I could feel any lingering stress from work escape my body as I took in the breathtaking beauty of the canyons.  One hundred and twenty five miles after leaving Ouray, we arrived at the Gateway Car Museum.  What a wonderful gem tucked away in the canyons of Colorado.  The

beautiful adobe exterior masked the modern displays that awaited us inside.  The modest $15.00 entry fee ($10.00 for military or seniors) provided us a few hours of enjoyment as we explored every inch of every car organized by the eras beginning in the 1920s through the mussel car area of the 1970s.  The star of the displays was a concept car, the Oldsmobile 88.  This beautiful vehicle was worthy of a room of its own.  I was impressed as the car spun slowly to show off all of its beauty.
  Just past Ouray via US 141, US 50 and US 550.  The canyon stretches along US 141 were equally as beautiful as the morning route.  Here we stopped to see the Driggs Project, a reclamation and interpretation project that involves stabilizing the remaining structure of the Driggs home.  Located on Bureau of Land Management land the project attempts to preserve a 1914 structure built by Lawrence Driggs, a lawyer and entrepreneurial during the early 1900s.

Lunch involved a stop at the Gateway General Store.  There we discovered a wonderful little dinner parked along side the store.  The typical fare included chicken sandwich, burgers, hot dogs, fries, Tatar tots, and shakes.  I ordered the bison burger and sat back with my 32 oz Gatorade to
rehydrate.  A relaxing moment before mounting up to complete the 135 mile ride back to

     When we arrived back to the Twin Peaks Lodge, we were tired, but highly satisfied with a wonderful day on the road that touched my historic nerves.  The beauty, coupled, with recollections of my history readings about the West proved to result in a very satisfying third day on the road. By the way, we never had to dodge showers or rain during the day.  While we could see the rain in the distance it always seemed like we rode where it wasn't.  That made a fantastic day just perfect.