On Thursday October 7th, I woke from my restless night's sleep at the Butte Motel in Wray, CO. I was happy to be up early. I got my things packed and was on the road before 8:30. I thought I had seen a McDonald's in town the night before and was going to stop there for breakfast. Well, that McD must've been a night-time mirage because when I went back to where I thought it was, it wasn't there. I decided that rather than try and find someplace else that I'd just go on and soldier ahead until I needed fuel again.
That brought me to Ft. Morgan, CO where I stopped at a 7-11 for coffee, a donut, morning phone calls and fuel. It was also about 100 miles of riding with the bent shifter peg. It seems pretty manageable so I'm going to leave well enough alone until I get back home. I'm afraid that if I try to pry it back where it should be that I'll break it off of the shifter linkage and then have no shifting peg.
When I went to leave Ft. Morgan I got a little turned around and ended up riding in circles for about 20 minutes before I sniffed out the right direction to go. Anyway, the morning's 200 miles seemed to fly by. Once I got about 20 miles away, I let the AT&T Navigator app on my phone guide me in the rest of the day to Uncle Dick's house. I even hopped on the Interstate for a short bit (Speed Limit is 75 MPH w00t!)
I arrived at my uncle's place at about 1:30 mountain time. He had lunch already laid out for me, which was great because that donut wasn't doing it anymore. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, got cleaned up, and situated and we were off to the mountains. It's amazing how close they are to his house. A quick drive through Boulder and we started our ascent. There were lot's of mountain bikers and motorcyclists on the way up the mountain. It REALLY twisty and I'll bet would be great fun on a bike.
We arrived at the Pawnee Pass Trail and went for a short hike by Long Lake. I thought that the elevation change affecting people was a bunch of BS and hadn't planned on it effecting me, but as we started walking the trail, I was definitely a little light headed and had to stop no fewer than four times to catch my breath. I really wanted to keep walking the trail, but I'm trying to use my head these days and didn't want Uncle Dick to have to carry me back to the car.
Once back at the car we started back down the mountain and drove through Gold Hill which recently gained national attention as it was ravaged by a forest fire. It was a sad to see all of the burned trees and I can only imagine what those who lost their homes are going through. It was also very interesting to see trees that were totally untouched by the fire.
Once we were the rest of the way down the mountain we were back in Boulder and took a stroll through the Pearl Street shopping district. There were lots of fantastic shops and restaurants. We ended up meeting Aunt Jan for dinner at a place called Rio Grande. They are famous for their margaritas which was right up my alley. We had chips and guacamole for and appetizer and I ate flautas de pollo for dinner with rice and beans.
With my belly sufficiently full we went back home where I promptly made my airline reservations for Saturday and went to bed by 9:00.
