Day 5

Note for day 4: We  stopped in Limon Colorado last night. The idea was to be close to pikes Peak so we could ride to the top.
This morning started out like the others. We woke in camp and began taking down the tents. No storms, tornadoes nothing unusual. We had breakfast of pancakes and sausage orange juice and coffee. This seems to be the new thing at KOA's. Pancake breakfasts. Ok with us. Saves the trouble of looking for a restaurant. Anyway, we headed out rt. 24 west towards Pikes Peak. If I could load pictures, I'd put one right here. But I can't, so I won't. The trip to Pikes Peak was uneventful. It was a relatively boring ride. Pretty in spots, but sometimes monotonous.
We eventually made it to Pikes Peak Highway, then to the Ranger gate at the beginning of the road to the top. It was 19 miles from this point to the top. The recommendation is that you have enough gas for an 80 mile trip because you'll be in low gear almost all the way. This turned out to be true. We figured they knew what they were talking about. We were fine on gas.
At this point those who know me have to wonder if I'm right in the head. Heights bother me.
(Good thing Sandy and Pam aren't here yet, don't want them to see me all whiny and stuff.)
Sometimes a lot. I never stop, or quit doing whatever puts me at an unwanted height, but sometimes I wonder, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
 Jim and Doug don't seem to have any problem with  the winding mountain roads and the heights. I do.
That was today. Winding up the Pikes Peak Highway on a motorcycle. Some places there are hair pin turns, no guard rails, drops of hundreds of feet. Then to top it off, about a mile or two was gravel and dirt. Wet gravel and dirt. I was thinking about turning around when I saw the next stretch of road was back to blacktop. Much better after that. Still not great but at least not gravel roads with hair pin turns and no guard rails.
We eventually made it to the top. We even have photos, just can't post them today.
The best part of the day was that while we were on top, a storm moved in. Isn't that GREAT? We, fortunately, didn't have to ride through much rain getting down off the mountain, but it did make things a bit dicey here and there. The real rain started once we were off the mountain. It didn't last long though. We rode out of it in about a half hour.
Tonight we are in the KOA at Cripple creek Colorado. It has been interesting so far. A storm appeared to be moving in as we were setting up. The rain started a little, so we got the tents up and started covering the bikes. While we were doing this Jim's tent blew off across the field. Once this was recovered, with pictures that you can't see yet, the storm appeared to move past us. That's a good thing.
Not sure how many miles were traveled today. I believe under 300. The trip to Pikes Peak took a goodly amount of time. I'll post that when I get it from Jim. He's the official mileage keeper.


More on day 4
When we can post pictures again, we have several interesting ones.  The ride around the Lake at Scott lake State park yesterday was interesting. The ranger lady said the road wasn't black top but it was a gypsum road and they took good care of it so it should be ok for motorcycles. Turns out gypsum is about as slick as snot on a glass door knob when it's on top of a flat rock or hard packed dirt. That was fun. We tried after Scott lake to go to Monument Valley. Turns out Monument valley only has two ways in or out. Both are not well kept gyp roads. One was about 6 or 7 miles in and out, the other was a 14 mile round trip. No thanks.
Hopefully we can post pictures soon.
Ya'll take care and we'll post again tomorrow.