Day 54 Friday June 21/13 Grand Junction, Colorado 17130 kms

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Before getting into todays ride and experiences I want to acknowledge how serous the fires are in Colorado at this point. We are 50 miles away from the nearest fire at Canon City and can see so much smoke, and overnight our bikes were covered in ash. We can appreciate why residents here are very concerned. It is the main topic of conversation in restaurants and coffee shops and everyone wants the latest updates.

We enjoyed our own private car show last night. This weekend, Pueblo is hosting the 49th annual Rocky Mountain Street Rod Nationals, and many hot rods and restomods were parked at our hotel. By early evening, tailgate parties (without the tailgate?) were in full swing around us with car enthusiasts grouped protectively around their pride and joy, beers and dogs in hand. It is a sign of the economy that almost everyone that has brought a car to the event is a senior. The cost of travel and the upkeep of a expensive toy requires a large investment.

It has become a common occurrence at the hotels we stay in, when we come down for breakfast in our gear, or we're packing up the bikes at the hotel, other travellers are interested in us and want to know our story. Quite often they leave us with "have a great trip", but without fail they tell us to "stay safe". It's heartwarming.

Today was the most beautifully scenic trip we have had in the last 52 days. Yes it replaced route 12 through Idaho and the Irish Loop in Newfoundland. With smoke on the horizon for the first 20 miles, hiding the Rocky Mountains that we knew were there. Once past Canon City, the smoke cleared and we could now see around us. What a drastic change in terrain and landscape features from yesterday. There are small pockets of newer homes that are spread out between Pueblo and Canon City. Housing styles have a southwest American feel to them. There were ridges and valleys made of sand stone and clay, featured against a backdrop of mountains. As we left Canon City, we immediately started to climb the foothills of the mountains. We passed several signs for river rafting, horseback riding and camping. We soon found out why, as just a couple of miles up the road we came to the Arkansas river. The highway followed it for most of the morning and it was stunningly beautiful. The temperature was around 24 and the inviting river wound its way through the canyon. It is one of those days that we wished we had more time. Another trip maybe? Heading into the mountains, we rode on serpentine roads, traversed switchbacks slowing to 50 km/h to get around them on the bikes. High in the mountains we came to a man made lake that again the road followed the shoreline. There were plenty of viewing and rest areas. With the sun shining and the water glassy calm we took advantage of several stops along the way. I can,t believe we have been in Colorado for an entire day and I haven't used another John Denver song. "Rocky Mountain High" anyone?

We are writing this blog over a late lunch at the Texas Roadhouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, our stop for the night. I am still shocked at the size of the towns we encounter. Grand Junction is quite large, I expected smaller. When I expect large like Lexington, Kentucky it was quite small. Expectations!!!! The bikes are across the street at Grand Valley Power Sports for service. We dropped in without appointment, to ask about a new back tire for my bike, and a service/point inspection on both bikes. For the second time on this trip, we were welcomed immediately, and told they would get the bikes in right away so we could be on our way. Yesterday Helli's engine guard snapped again in the same spot. Not much they can do about it other than to replace it with moto guards they prefer to use that are stronger and bulkier. For now, the duct tape came out to play again. It's extremely frustrating that it keeps breaking. The shop is also replacing Helli's split grip with a makeshift smaller grip (all they had in stock) to get her home.

Starting to see some headway on the map. Getting closer to home. I think we could hitchhike from here.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Interesting observations
Interesting that some towns are bigger than expected and others smaller. Until you travel around the U.S. you can't dispel the misconceptions. Glad everyone is friendly.