Day 8

Waking up in the Elk Meadows campground was easy, after all, we were woken up by someones car alarm going off. This was 0530. We were so happy we didn't oversleep. OK.....

Taking down the camp went well. No issues other than the tents blowing away if not weighed down.
Pam and Doug seemed to have problems staying on the air mattresses overnight. No real problems, just going to sleep on a mattress, waking up an hour later in the corner of the tent somewhere. Not a problem for me any way.
Naturally, the mornings entertainment was watching me bungee all my stuff to the bike.

I'm actually getting better with time.
First stop of the morning was new underwear for Doug, cough drops for Pam to feed the local wildlife with, and a quick gas stop. Then it was breakfast at the Other Side. The other side of what we don't know, but the food was good. Pancakes, eggs, corned beef hash, all the good healthy breakfast foods.
After breakfast, it was back on the road. Sandy and Doug headed to the fudge place so Sandy could pick up some fudge. When she bought the stuff, the salesman asked if she wanted some plastic knives, forks or anything. She said no, she was just going to pack it up. The salesman asked if she was going to share it with her friend, and said you're on a bike right. To this Sandy replied "yeah, how'd you know that?" The clerk just pointed to the helmet still on her head. Alrighty then.....She will be joining Pam wearing the helmet off the bike.

Then, there was this one;

Anybody notice the problem?
Like maybe the helmets on backwards?
From there we left for the next stage of our journey. Into the Rocky Mountain National Forest.
We were headed first, to the Chasm Falls on the Old Falls River Road. We parked in the Endovalley picnic area and hiked up the dirt road to the falls. 

Above is the hike up to the dirt road from our picnic area. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but they didn't provide elevators so.....

The hike up the road was worth it. There were some interesting views from the road.

Above and below: The falls themselves are just off the dirt road about a couple hundred yards. It was a very rocky climb.

We're here!
Next, back on the road.
We left Chasm Falls and headed for Waldon Colorado to spend the night in a KOA there.
We drove over the Iceberg Pass, past the Lava Cliffs, and across the highest point on the road at 12183 ft. A tad on the chilly side it was.
There was some interesting wildlife on the way, and we stopped for a quick romp in the snow.
Doug and Jim in the snow

 My foot in the snow. There you go folks, snow in August.

The road was filled with  spectacular views.
Here is the view from a scenic overlook.

 The crew at the overlook

 The road we took to get there

We rode through the Kawuneeche Valley, through the Arapaho National recreational area to pick up highway 40. We decided to take 125 across another pass to save some time. Not the best idea of the trip. The weather started turning as soon as we were in the mountains again.

About halfway across it started raining. Jim and Pam were quite a way ahead of the rest of us. We didn't see them as we headed toward Waldon. Doug saw the turn off to the camp ground so we turned around and went back to the turn. Here we found Jim and Pam in the yard of a farm house talking to the owner. They had turned in to ask if he would let them stop long enough to don the rain gear.  He was happy to oblige. Doug, Sandy and I pulled right in behind Jim and Pam. We stayed there about a half hour to forty five minutes talking with Him. He was very informative about the area and the best way to get where we were going. As we spoke the sky cleared somewhat and the rain almost stopped completely. We thanked him for his hospitality and the information, and saddled up again. The road to the campground was weaving through the rain for us. We were thankful for that.

We finally arrived at the campground office. The clerk didn't seem too happy to see us at first. Sandy, of course, bought an ice cream, then Doug bought one. As I was checking us in, Sandy noticed the pictures of moose in the campgrounds and asked the clerk if they had moose just walking around the grounds. The clerk replied "only when they're not driving" That broke the ice, we were ok after that. I have to stop and here and thank Pam and Sandy, they went right to work. They got our laundry done and Pam reorganized Jim's pack. He really needed that. It was getting really disheveled looking.
Here is home for the night with the bikes tied to the hitching post and blanketed for the night.

As I will be in just a minute or two.  Until tomorrow.

Day 7

Day 7 started pretty good. Last night was nice and cool, not cold, not hot. We had a gravel campground. This might seem bad, but if it’s the small pea gravel, it’s actually very comfortable. All of us slept very well. I was up at 0530 getting ready for the day. Doug and Jim followed shortly after that.

Today is the day that Sandy and Pam arrive. Doug’s and Jim’s life on the road will now change  for the better. Now they’ll have somebody to do their laundry, cook and clean, all that good stuff. Don’t worry, no one believes that. 

Right now I’m writing this while Doug and Jim are in the terminal waiting for the ladies to arrive.

Denver’s airport is fairly large, but things are easy to find, so there will be no problem meeting up.

Alright, The ladies arrived and we packed up and headed out. We headed to Golden Co. for a tour of the Coors Brewery. 

At the Brewery the tour was pretty good. We parked our bikes and rode the tour bus over to the Brewery.During the tour we had a sample of the Coors lite. Only about a shot. At the end of the tour you were allowed to have three regular sized beers from the selection that was brewed there. Naturally we didn't have three. We did have the equivalent  of 1 beer.

Pam and Jim, of course found just the right things to top off the visit to the brewery:

 The Kleeman Crew

After the tour it was back on  the road again.

From Coors we headed to Estes Park by way of Boulder Canyon.

Before I go on I received a special request....Neal and grand kids...Sandy says to tell you she loves you.

And for Maggie, Grandma says after only a half day of riding, her butt hurts. 

Thank you for sharing that Sandy.

Ok back to work.

Yes... Now we're headed to Estes Park. 

We traveled up 119 and continued to Boulder Canyon. From Boulder Canyon we took 93 to 72 to 36 in to Estes Park. The scenery throughout this trip was fantastic, snow capped mountains in the distance, blue skies, good roads to travel.Lots of hair pin turns, even more gentle sweeping turns.  All in all a good ride, till we got to the campground. We tried the KOA at Estes Park but they were booked. We ended up at Elk Meadows Campground. It was seriously crowded. We were in a overflow campground with no facilities, not even a table. Prairie  dog holes every where, and several red ant nests inside our camping area. 

This was where I moved my tent after finding the ants all over the ground where I originally set it up. Jim moved his also. 

The views from the campground were terrific. The only problem was that every view had about a hundred motor homes in it.

Jim and Pam had dinner at the Sun Deck restaurant, while Sandy, Doug and I had dinner at a restaurant just outside the campground.  Food was good.
Afterward we went to the campground pavilion where we talked to a couple about the local area and the sights.
While there we discussed  the next days plan. I think Jim was looking forward to staying one more night at Estes. He asked if anybody wanted to stay and hike or do anything else. My response was "I think all the trails are 9 miles long" Pam's answer was to do the gagging thing, Sandy said " I think I can get some fudge on the way out of town. Jim said " I guess that's a no then" The next days plan was settled. We would leave Estes Park and search for the next stop on our travels. 
From then it was time to turn in. The campground was quite noisy for a while but did eventually settle down.
Sleep was good.
On to day 8

Day 6

Today's mileage was 292  I believe this puts us right around 1800 miles. I'll confirm that with Jim in the morning.
Last night was another miserable night for all of us. We were at the Cripple Creek KOA. It is at 10000 ft. At 10000 ft. It gets really chilly at night. It dropped into the low thirties. Needless to say we were cold. But, we survived, as always. I know Marie, I know...we're all nuts. Be that as it may, we did survive quite well. We got up around 6:30, made tea and coffee, and started to warm up a bit.  By the way, if anybody is interested, Jim's tent, after it's tumble through the field, was ok. Only missing a few tent stakes.

We broke camp, packed up the bikes and off we went back to highway 24 west. We traveled 24 west south of Denver to 91 north on the west side of Denver. We rode 91 up to Interstate 70 then took 70 east to the camp ground we're at tonight. Somewhere east of the airport.
Tomorrow Sandy and Pam will join us and, my guess is, a whole new adventure will begin! Stay tuned

More pictures

 This is Rt. 4 as we traveled through Kansas. At this point we were headed to the Pueblo ruins at Scott Lake State Park.

 This picture was taken at the Garden of the Gods, Colorado City.

Below is Doug at the g=Garden of the Gods

  This is also taken at the Garden of the Gods. This is  a view of Pikes Peak.

 Here is the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway. The highway is 19 miles one way.

 See this? And you wonder why I say this bothers me! Look at the sides of the road, see how far I'll have to fall before the rocks break my fall? Yeah, there's a slope there, that just means I'll be able to hang onto the bike till I crash into the rocks at the bottom.

 This isn't much better. Nope, not much better at all. I'm going to need new hand grips after this ride.











     Below is another view of one of the switch backs                                                                                                                                                            
We stopped about half way up to take in the view. Got to admit, it is an awesome view from nearly any location.

 The Cog Railway at the top of Pikes Peak. This is how many people arrive at the top. Not us...we're bikers! We rode  here on motorcycles! Actua;;y there were a lot of bikers on the mountain. More than I had anticipated.







 Below, our bikes at the top of Pikes Peak.

Below is an information sign at the top of Pikes Peak

 Another view from the road to Pikes Peak. That's Crystal Lake in the distance.












Below are two pictures of another view from the highway with Doug and Jim. We stopped here to take in the view for a few minutes. Here we talked to a fellow biker who had ridden all the way from Montreal Canada. 

.

 See this view of the road? Notice...no guardrails! Don't know if you can tell, but that's one steep slope next to me. Notice where I'm riding? As far away from the edge as possible!

 One of the many hair pin turns on the highway. Notice the guard rail IN the turn, nowhere else!

 Here we passed the timberline at 12000 ft.












Below is our campsite at Cripple Creek Colorado. We
are at 10000 ft. The highest KOA in the U.S.

Above is the headwaters of the Arkansas River.

This is a view of the snow on the mountains as we rode across St. Rt. 24 west. This was on Friday.

More pictures

Here's more pictures from the first few days.

This is Dougs goose buddy. For some reason this thing
really took a shine to Doug. I guess there's no
accounting for taste....between species.

This is an old ramshackle house we saw along St. Rt. 4 in Kansas. Interesting in that it, to some extent, is still standing

 Jim....Oh well,

 Wait...what's that behind that tree?

Oh well.......

Photos!

 Photos....but only three
Lincolns head at the tomb. Notice the nose is quite polished. People rub the nose all the time. Go figure.

 Somewhere Kansas. We're not even sure where.
Oh well.

Lincolns marker in the mausoleum. Lincoln is buried behind this marker and 10 ft. down.

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Just for giggles I tried to post a comment to this blog. It didn't work. I'll try to see if I can fix this.