Day 4: Enjoying Oury, CO

Every trip needs at least one day to get caught up on laundry and wander the town.  Today was that day.  A leisurely morning with breakfast was followed by a 30 minute workout in the fitness room.  While laundry was being done, it was time to clean the bike just enough to ensure that it still looked presentable.  Next came a trip through Ouray.  The city includes many buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The buildings are Victorian and remind you of the cities mining roots.  The architecture is well preserved.  The buildings today are home to various shops and eateries, but still retain their names that tell you their original purpose.  From the opera house to the Beaumont hotel, a stroll down main street says much about the early history of the city.  One shop is also the Historical Society, home to some wonderful pictures that take one back in time.  The Outlaw bar and grill was a wonderful dinner stop.  Included with dinner was a wonderful piano player whose songs ranged from 1940s swing, to movie tunes, to pop.  Just the kind of day one needed to rest up for the adventures that lay ahead. 

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.   

Day 2: Sante Fe, NM to Ouray, Colorado

We awoke early on Sunday thinking we would just enjoy a leisurely morning in Santa Fe browsing the Farmer's Market.  What do bikers do first thing in the morning when they are on the road?  They check the weather. The Weather Channel was showing that rain was going to move into the Ouray area around 2:00 p.m.  Suddenly, a change of plans.  Rather than a nice walk through the Farmer's Market, we packed and check out.  We were on the road again, with similar mission of dodging rain. However, this day it was even more important for us because we knew we would be riding through the winding foothills and eventually the Rocky Mountains.  We headed north from Santa Fe and took

US 84.  One of our amazing finds along the way was Amphitheater Park in Tierra Amarilla.  The area is home to the Hopewell Indians.  The little park provided a great back drop for pictures and provided a clear indication that we were entering the foothills of the Rockies.  From Tierra Amarilla we proceed until we arrived at Pagosa Springs.  Pagosa Springs was the site of our lunch stop.  Here we found the Malt Shoppe and stopped in for a brief bit to eat.  Clearly the Malt Shoppe was a popular place as all of the indoor booths and many of the outdoor

tables were full during our 45 minute stop over.  We checked our Radar app and was sure we would have good weather for the next 50 miles to Durango.  Sure enough we did.  We stopped in Durango at the Harley-Davidson Dealer.  This gave us a chance to check the weather as clouds clearly indicated that rain was in the area.  The Harley Davidson Dealer also owned the next Harley store in Silverton.  So, a quick call to the Silverton store provided us information that it was not raining there yet, but that we should plan for rain.  We donned the rain gear and headed to Silverton.  Little did we realize we would be riding through some of the most beautiful roads in the U.S.  The Million Dollar Highway is amazing.  It also makes the Dragon, in North Carolina seem tame.  The twisty road with steep climbs and steep descents tests the most experience riders.  I must say I found myself nervous and excited all at the same time.  I knew we were high into the Rockies when I began to see snow along the road.  The peaks still showed traces of the heavy snowfall from the winter. 

After a brief gas stop in Silverton, 550 (still the Million Dollar Road) turned even more twisty with hair pin curves that had to be taken at 25 MPH.  Certainly, much of what I learned about turning a bike in a small space came in handy.  The 24 miles between Silverton and Ouray passed quickly despite the slow speeds.  Glad to be at our destination, we pulled into the Twin Peaks motel.