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Published: September 15th 2008
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the storm
That's what I rode through, and that is Randy approaching after he rode through. Yesterday I left Quinter and headed to Denver. It was another day of cold riding, but at least it was dry. It warmed up significantly as I approached Denver, and I was in the process of out-running the nearby thunderstorm. I was successful. I ended up staying with Kristin and Andrea in Denver, as Josh ended up having to work. I spent some time at the library in the afternoon, and headed over to their place in the evening. We just talked for a while, then I headed to bed because I was exhausted.
I met some interesting people yesterday as well. I was just getting ready to head into the Limon library, when a couple drove up and parked next to me. They started talking to me for a couple minutes, and I told them what I was doing on my motorcycle. They asked if I had a place to stay, and invited me to stay with them if my plans fell through. How random! I ended up making plans to stay with Kristin and Andrea, but it was nice to know I had a backup plan.
Later in the evening when I was at Dairy Queen, I met another guy about my age named Daniel. We talked for a few minutes while we were waiting in line to order. I found out he is a pastor, and is married with a daughter. I hope I got that right Daniel, if not please correct me. He seemed like a good guy.
Today was quite an adventure too. I set out from Denver in the late morning, and didn’t have any plans for where I would spend the night. I figured I would drive as far as possible, and find a motel when I had enough. Well it played out somewhat differently than that. Going over the Rockies was very cold indeed. I saw some roads that looked like nice twisties on the map, and got great reviews online. When I got there the roads were a little beat up, lots of traffic, and very slow speed limits around the hairpin turns. I was a little disappointed, but oh well. As I was coming down the pass it started to rain pretty hard, and I even got some pea-sized hail. Now that was cold and miserable. And some of the hail hurt that hit me on my fingers and legs.
I stopped in the middle of nowhere to lube my chain since I rode through heavy rain earlier. As I was stopped, another motorcycle rider stops to suit up with raingear. He introduces himself and tells me where he is headed. I told him I might end up in the same town, I wasn’t really sure. We ended up stopping at the same places for gas, and we decided to try to find a motel that we could share the cost of a room. When we arrived in town we realized that all the motels were completely booked! There was somewhere around 20 motels in town, and not a single room available. We found out later that it is the oil industry that books all the rooms. At this point we just wanted a place to stay, we didn’t care what it was because it was getting dark on us. We drove through a couple more towns with no luck. I was thinking at this point I would have to drive another 150 miles to Salt Lake City to find something. Randy and I decided to split up and fend for ourselves for the evening because he was going to start heading south. I stopped in the next town at a local motel, and thought why not try just one more. Initially they told me there was no availability. A couple minutes later Randy pulls in and talks to the people inside and somehow books us a room! What a relief!
We met a couple from Belgium that just booked the only other room they had available. They asked if we wanted to go get some food with them, so that is what we did. The only place open was a local bar. Initially they told me that they were not serving food any more, and only drinks. But Randy worked his magic again and got us some fries, onion rings, and buffalo wings. I don’t know what it was about this guy, but he could get us what we wanted and needed.
Backtracking just a few hours, I hit another big thunderstorm. I was thinking I could outrun it if I left the gas station in time, but I was wrong. I kept seeing the lightening to my side, which freaked me out. It was such a weird feeling riding because it was so dark around me from the clouds. The clouds looked “weeping”, meaning if I rode into them it would be a downpour. I had no choice at this point though. And all of a sudden it just poured buckets of water. I also got hit with some hail once again. I could see to the other side of the storm which wasn’t too far ahead, so I just went as fast as I could because I wanted out of there. The gusts of wind were blowing be all over the road too. I was doing well over the speed limit, I won’t specify exactly though. It wasn’t into the triple digits, but it was close. I was thankful for raingear once again.
The motel isn’t too shady, and it should work well for us. I am sleeping on the hide-a-bed couch tonight. Tomorrow I head toward Hammett, Idaho, and hopefully I can get a hold of Dale to stay at their house. I tried to reach him today, but was unsuccessful. Time to sleep.
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