Post RMR Day 8, Sept 17th, Saturday

365 miles  Wall, SD to Sioux Falls, SD
We had a longer day planned for today.  We got up fairly early and head out to do the Badlands loop.  65 miles of Badlands.  It was awesome.  The colors in the rocks were amazing.  We visited the following lookouts: yellow mounds, panoramic and white river.  We stopped along side of the road several times.  Sometimes the best pictures are not at the overlooks.  We did skip a couple as we were spending a lot of time there.  We saw a bunch of mountain goats.  After the scenic route, we stopped at the Badlands trading post where adjacent to it was the building and viewing area of the fields where our government buried 150 silos that house nuclear missiles.  AWESOME!  They said that just one of these missiles was a powerful as 60% of the ammunition used in WWII.  WOW!  Just one! And we had 150.  Well many of missiles have been disarmed due to a nuclear treaties with Russia. 
Moving on.... Heading east on 90 wasn't so bad the first 30 miles then the cross winds came.  This is tiresome and painful.  Fighting to keep your head straight, your neck and shoulders take a beating.  Robaxin was my friend today.  We realized we had crossed into another time zone and just lost an hour.  It was now 3:30pm.  Moving to the next stop just outside of Sioux Falls to gas up.  We were only getting 120 miles to the tank.  It was the high speed.  The speed limit was 75 so 85 seemed appropriate.  Since we were just getting our interstate 'legs' back so to speak, we were tired and the weather was cold.  The mixture of tired and cold crosswinds had gotten to us.  We decided to stop and stay just south of Sioux Falls on 29.  Quality Inn was our choice tonight.  It was extremely roomy and nice.  We drove squid style (well with no helmets) to the Denny's at the opposite end of the entrance road.  Back at the hotel the usual went down of pictures and charging, checking the weather (which was not good) than off to bed.

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Post RMR Day 9, Sept 18th Sunday

286 miles  Sioux Falls to Waverly, Iowa
 Severely overcast-- gray black skies with no light or blue in sight, and misty/foggy, we headed out about 10am.  the Quality Inn had a good breakfast.  We had our rain gear on ready to go.  We did the first 100 miles with no problem.  Wind wasn't bad at all.  Stopped to gas up and get a hot chocolate.  moved onto the next stop, Clear Lake 120 miles later.  Still only getting about 120-130 miles per tank.  We grabbed a bite to eat.  While eating quickly, the mistiness turned into rain.  A steady light rain that didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.  So we finished up and moved out.  Full on rain by this point.  In fact the further we got the harder the rain came down.  Boy did this suck.  Even though I was dry on the inside it was still weighing on me and I got cold fairly quickly.  My hands had stayed dry due to the snowmobile gloves David bought me while he was getting a tire for me in Rapid City.  I didn't want to give up, but I patiently waited for David to come on the chatterbox and say 'lets stop for the night'.  And he did. About 10 miles later we found an exit with hotels.  We stayed in Waverly, Iowa at American Standard Inn.  We checked in soaking wet and passed the pool and hot tub on the way to our room.  Got our gear off and went to hot tub to warm up.  This didn't take long at all.  It was sooo very nice!  We showered, ate, and checked the weather.  The future looked brighter.

No pictures

Post RMR Day 10, Sept 19th, Monday

470 miles-- Waverly, Iowa to Indianapolis, Indiana
After checking the weather last night we were very optimistic.  With 970 miles to get to Liz and Cheap's house we split the miles and headed for the other side of Indianapolis.  Greenfield was our goal today.  The morning was 50 and overcast.  Knowing the sun was suppose to make an appearance we started our day early about 8:45am.  Stopping after 45 miles to gas up as we didn't start the day with a full tank.  It was a quick gas-n-go.  You could see breaks in the sky and some blue here and there but not clean at all.  In fact it was overcast and gray looking, as if it could rain at any time.  Stopping again after 153 miles we got a slice of pizza, shoveled it in, gassed up and went on our way.  We were feeling good about our accomplishment so far.  We noticed more breaks of clearness in the sky, being hopeful that perhaps it would clear up.  It did not.  It stayed the same overcast, gloomy look, with cooler temperatures.  We stopped in Champagne, Illinois to gas up and eat a donut.  MMM! First donut I had in about a year or so.  Moving onward toward Indianapolis, the sky became darker and darker the closer we got.  We knew we would be getting rained on.  The question was when.  We were only 60 miles from our goal we just wanted to get there and perhaps a little further.  The weather would prove differently.  We pressed on and as we got to Indianapolis, I was reminded of a song we used to sing in church 'the heavens came down and glory filled my soul' only it was glory in the form of black clouds, thunder and lightening, and torrential downpour.  We quickly got off the interstate as we were hydroplaning everywhere (not fun on a motorcycle) and swooped into the Lowe's under the contractor awning area.  Dry!  We used the facilities and while inside the rain got harder and worse!  It lasted about 10 minutes then stopped.  Completely soaked we decided we were close enough to our destination that we would get a hotel just a couple blocks away.  Just 40 miles short of our goal we pulled into the Best Western.  We were most pleased with our decision.  The lady at the front desk was extremely nice and helpful.  The room was nice too.  Since there were laundry services here (not last night) we decided to dry our clothes and do a load of wash as well.  This morning it was not fun trying to put on wet pants.  They didn't dry all the way from the previous night's downpour. We walked over to the Bob Evans and ate a good meal. Did the normal nightly routine of charging chatter boxes, first drying them out, uploading only the few pictures and blogging.

only had one picture of the pond in Waverly.  It was so pretty so I asked David to ride over and take a picture.

Post RMR Day 7, Sept 16th, Friday

220 miles- Mt Rushmore, Wildlife loop, Deadwood, then to Wall, SD
We got up early and left about 8am.  We went to go see Mt Rushmore.  We opted not to go into the park as we had a lot of ground to cover today.  The views we got were the same and we were very satisfied.  I think we both had  a deeper appreciation for the monument after we both went to the Borglum museum yesterday.  We then moved on to the wildlife loop, where we saw Harney Peak, Sylvan Lake, Needles, much wildlife, and the Pigtale roads and bridges.  We had such an awesome day.  We saw wild turkeys, a ton of prairie dogs, many buffalo, both up close and from a distance, and a bunch of donkeys, up close and personal.  They were looking for food.  It was really funny to watch these guys scope out the vehicles and walk right up to them looking and receiving food.  We then drove to Deadwood.  David was interested in seeing the little town since he watched the show.   We ate at the Gem.  This is now a casino on the bottom and a steak restaurant on the top.  Back in the day and on the show it was a theater posed as a brothel.  The food here was excellent.  David's steak was actually excellent and far exceeded the one in Mexican Hat.  Cheaper too!  We walked the main street and saw the Saloon No. 10 where Wild Bill was shot.  We also visited the cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were burried.  Most of the town is now and perhaps was casinos.  We then rode on to Wall, SD where we decided to stop for the night. Coming out of the foothills of the Rockies was very beautiful and we had to say our 'goodbyes'.   We stayed at Motel 6 and ate at the BBQ place.  We were pooped.  I believe it was because of the strong cross winds that continued to push us and reek havoc on our neck and shoulder muscles.  We went to bed early.

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Post RMR Day 6, Sept 15th, Thursday

Dina= 0 miles, David= 50miles
Today's agenda was David going to Rapid City on my bike to get a tire.  I had mailing of gifts and camping gear.  We decided camping was becoming a pain to arrange, due to places and weather.  We had decided to stay yet another day in Keystone because the weather was not allowing us to site see.  This afternoon was suppose to clear up and be in the 70's tomorrow.  We had to change rooms because ours was booked for tonight.  So the hotel graciously stored our stuff until another room was ready.  After turning the pool's table into a mailing spot then mailing everything, I decided to eat and plan our day tomorrow while waiting on David to return.  Poor him,  he came back shivering and cold, though only wet on the outside.  After David ate, we checked into our room and decided to go to the Borglum Museum here in Keystone.  Borglum is the artist who spent 14 years carving Mt Rushmore.  The museum was the life of Borglum and all his work.  It was actually very interesting.  Then on the walk back to the hotel, David impulsed purchased.  He bought an Iceland sheep skin and a Serape.  Good thing I saved a box this morning to mail back any last minute purchases.  We stopped for fudge and hot chocolate as it was still cold.  So much for the sun coming out about 2pm per the weather man.  Once back at the hotel we got into the hot tub!  This was a nice treat to warm us up.  It finally got a bit warmer and the sun appeared just before 5pm.  We walked to do laundry then ate dinner while waiting.  Came back to the hotel and packed up bags as we were actually going to site see tomorrow and leave this town.  What a great day.


Not many pictures to look at but click here

Post RMR Day 5, Sept 14, Wednesday

5miles-- left to go do the local site seeing but weather had us turn around
It was cold, in the 30's, and rainy.  We left to go do Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse then Deadwood.  We got a couple of miles up the road and decided it was too cold and nasty.  Besides the pictures wouldn't be good anyway.  We decided to stay in Keystone.  We went and bought a heavier waterproof coat for me and a sweatshirt and windbreaker for David.  Then decided to go on a train ride.  The train took visitors on a round trip from Keystone to Hill City then back.  The train ride was very nice, both the scenery and my company.  Once there, we had an hour, we walked around and ate lunch then back to the train.  It was turning out to be a nice day.  Not because of weather, but just because.  Once back at the hotel, we uploaded pictures then decided to go to the pool.  Afterwards, we went shopping.  We bought hoodies for everyone, the cost was excellent.  We ate a calzone at the pizza shop.  It wasnt' very good.  We came back to the room, drank two drinks and watched a movie called 'Complicated'.  Good day, in spite of the weather.


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Post RMR Day 4, Sept 13th, Tuesday

192 miles plus 60miles extra= 252miles  Scottsbluff, NE to Keystone, SD
Had good intentions on getting up early.  Alarm set for 6am but got up at 8 and finally left about 11am.   Once we hit the road we realized the next town was 60 miles away.  We were a little sketchy as we didn't gas up.  But with the nice steady speed and altitude we could make it.  Thirty miles out we see the next sign for the same town saying it was 46 miles away???  That's 76 total not 60.  What the #@$$?  We knew we could not make it so we immediately turned around and went back to Keystone.  Gassing up we set out again.   Thus the extra 60 miles for the day.  Backing up I feel I need to mention that the town of Scottsbluff was not impressive at all.  The monument is worth the picture but the town seems to be all industrious.  Its old and dirty looking.  Nothing around and kind of spread out among 4 streets. We gassed up into the original town we were heading for, Crawford.  There we saw some tourist information and coupons for Keystone.  Lady running the store said it was nice little town and we would enjoy our stay.  So we decided, that was our destination. Driving into Nebraska was nothing but grasslands and farms, and continued a little bit into South Dakota.  The closer we got to Keystone you could see nice rolling hills of rock with trees on it. Using the earlier coupons we found, we ended up staying in a very nice hotel called Mt Rushmore White House Resort.  The town of Keystone is so cute.  There is so much to do here.  We checked into our hotel and went to Mt Rushmore.  The sun was going down and mountain was shaded so we did not go into the park but saw it off the main road.  We decided we would move on to Crazy Horse monument and return in the morning.  Crazy Horse was crazy.  They charge you to get in (only $5) to see a face, not even the entire head.  Its suppose to be Crazy Horse's head, arm, chest and the horse's head.  The guy has been working on it since the late 40's, died and now his son took over.  I personally don't see it getting done.  Anywho, we were running out of time and decided to get a return pass and return tomorrow as well.  We went back to the hotel and walked to the town, ate at Teddy's Deli, home of the famous 1-lb pastrami sammich.  It was delicious!!  Only eating half of mine I saved the other half for breakfast.  We planned our day tomorrow and decided to stay 2 nights in Keystone.

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Post RMR Day 3, Sept 12, Monday

248 miles-- Granby, Co to Scottsbluff, Nebraska
We woke fairly early but had clothes to fold, separate and bag up from washing last night.  This is always a process, but well worth it.  Our route today was 34 through Rocky Mountain National Park, then hop on the I-25 (not so fun but only for 60 miles), then 85 to 151 to 71.  Not a bad ride today.  We spent about 3.5 hours driving through the park.  We stopped to photograph the two moose and a ton of elk.  Not to mention the glorious views of the snow capped mountains.  It was a bit overcast and looked like it was snowing on top of mountains surrounding us.  We saw a flurry or two but nothing became of it.  The elevation is 10,500.  We came down the mountain and through Estes Park.  Nice town and full of Inns, lodges, motels, hotels and cabins.  Too bad we were not staying here.  Just outside of Estes were beautiful canyons with Canyon River turning into Thompson River running along side of us weaving from side to side as we criss-crossed over it.  No pictures as there was no place to stop that was safe.  It was so curvy.  The side consisted of the white line then canyon wall or water.  No extra pavement.   I don't believe any video was taken as the battery ran out filming in the park.  Bummer.  The color of the canyon walls were memorable.  Striped with light green, yellow, orange and brown.  We got into Loveland and ate at Carl's Jr, which is really Hardees.  On to Wyoming.  Hitting this state again was typical of what we saw last time a couple of weeks ago.... Flat to barely rolling hills of grassland and farming.  This continued into Nebraska for a bit until we got a little closer to Scottsbluff.  There, we spotted some mountains, well not really mountains but if you were to ask the locals I'm sure they would call them mountains.  It reminded me of the monuments in Monument Valley.  We rode into town looking for the 2 campgrounds we googled.  One was closed and the other was extremely sketchy.  So with that said we staid at the Days Inn.  This camping thing isn't working out so well for us.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  We walked to the Whiskey Creek for dinner.  It was very good.  Today's weather was great.  We did endure about 7 minutes of rain.  No big deal.  It was while we were on the interstate so we barely felt the sprinkle.  All in all we had endure less than 30 minutes of rain our entire trip.  We feel truly blessed.

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Post RMR Day 2, Sept 11, Sunday

180 miles Manitou Springs to Granby, Co
Took the 24, to 126-- really nice, to 285 to the 73.  We left the cabin around 10:30am.  Late start.  Stopped in King Valley to gas up then toward Mt Evans.  We started passing signs that said it was closed.  We reached Mt. Echo and took pics at top.  This was a very nice ride.  We came around one corner and found a herd of female elk.  Got to Mt. Evans where we were told that it closes after Labor Day. A little disappointed we moved on to Idaho Springs to figure things out.  We decided to continue on to Granby and stay and eat there.  We took the 40.  Very nice road!  We took some pictures after reaching the top of this switchback mountain road just outside of Empire.  We gassed up then went to 2 motels (frontier and blue spruce) I respectfully declined.  GHETTO!  I opted to pay more for the Little Tree motel and feel much better about it.  We ate at Brickhouse 40.  Absolutely incredible.  The food was divine.  David's fettuccine Alfredo with blackened chicken was the best I had every tasted.   It seemed to be made with fresh grated cheeses verses cream or milk.  I had lamb chops, greek style with crab cakes... OMG!  So very delish!  We also indulged in an appetizer of calamari with herbs and fresh Parmesan cheese.  This may have actually been better than Carraba's.  The bill was high but worth every penny.  Much more so than the Swingin Steak.  Went back to the hotel, drank a few crown and cokes, did laundry, updated blog, uploaded pics then off to bed.

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Post RMR Day 1, Sept 10, Saturday

Gunnison to Manitou Springs, Co
Woke up and ate the continental breakfast at the Super 8.  It was actually really good.  David and I said our goodbyes to Bill and left about 10am heading toward Colorado Springs to pick up our camping gear that Matt had left at the Econo Lodge for us.  We stopped to take pics at Monarch Pass at 11,300ft elevation.  We rolled into Colorado springs and ate lunch at Subway.  We decided while eating to do the Gardens of the God's on the other side of Co Springs in Manitou Springs.  We stayed at the Garden of God's campground in a cabin.  It was going to be cold that night and we wanted to ease our way into camping :)  We ran to walmart to get better straps to strap down our new luggage of camping gear.  We went to the Park and it was astounding to see the rock formations.  Beautiful!  It was close to sunset and the sun sitting on the rocks were amazing.  I sure hope the pictures came out as well as we saw it.  We ate Wendy's uploaded pictures then went to bed.

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RMR Day 6, Sept 9th, Friday

The Sp;it
First rode with everyone to the Million Dollar Hwy.  First let me explain why they refer to it as the million dollar hwy.  There are 2 reasons.  Back in the day this dirt road was used to transport gold by wagon, that enough had dropped along the road to be worth a million dollars.  The second reason is that this road was so difficult to build and reconstruct into something that we can enjoy driving on today that it cost about a million dollars per mile.  Which in todays economy really isn't unrealistic.  I would like to believe that its the views thats worth a million dollars!  We stopped and took pictures just before Silverton and again just afterwards.  We also stopped at the 'Switzerland' overlook.  This is where I found the cross with the flag hiding behind the tree.  Onward to Montrose we stopped to part ways and say goodbye to the Australians along with others.  Bill, David and I went east on 50 and the others went west.  The 3 of us went to Black Canyon.  Absolutely beautiful.  The river, the damn and the view at high point and sunset view.  We were approaching sunset, however, mother nature threw in some storm clouds to block the sun for the awesome pictures.  It was still beautiful.  We did capture some of painted rock with the last bit of sun shining on them.  At the top, I had taken the scenic nature trail and took pictures of my own.  1363 yards to be exact.  Nice walk going down, but going back up was a trip.  With the elevation every step seems like a chore.  I ran some of it and walked the rest.  By the time I got to the top, I was panting so hard and my chest literally hurt.  David was laughing at me wondering why and the heck I did that to begin with.  We left the park and on to Gunnison.  We stayed at Super 8, which is more than normal for budget but it was worth it.  The people and service were extremely nice, the room was nice and the continental breakfast was great!

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RMR Day 5, Sept 8th, Thursday

0 miles traveling-- chill day in Durango
We got to sleep in--- woo hoo!  We went to a quaint little place for breakfast.  We all took over the whole place.  It was a house converted into a cafe.  The food was great.  Afterwards we saw a lot of people leaving and parting on their way.  Among them were Bbopp and wife and their friends, Jarhead, Antisocial and his dad, Matt, 2doggs, Doug, Cheap and Liz, and Angie and Wil.  Jpip and Biff went for a ride one way and Steve, Bob and Mick went on a ride another route.  Becky and Dan went down town and rode around to old areas where he used to live.  John, David and myself went to Wally world and the bike shop.  Then to lunch.  We had a nice time talking with John.  After returning to the hotel John went shopping and ended up meeting with Bill, Dan and Becky and they got a beer.  That evening we hung outback of the hotel by the creek at the picnic tables.  We drank and ate pizza.  Well I walked to the gas station and got a sandwhich.  We had a great time with the remaining crew who included Jpip, Biff, Mick, Bucket, John, Bill, Dan, Becky, David and myself.

no pictures to click on just some of the aussies

David, myself and Bucket (aussie)

Us with Fester (Mick/aussie)

Bucket (Greg), David, myself and Fester (Mick)  These guys are brothers

us with Chewie (John)  Do we notice a theme here with the Australians and their baldness???  Are all Australians bald?  Well I guess in 2014 we will find out!

RMR Day 4, Sept 7th, Wednesday

Approx 150 miles-- Mexican Hat, Utah to Durango, Co
Bill, David and myself had decided the night before to get up early to go to the Valley of the Gods to catch it at sunrise.  So we did.  We woke about 6:15am and left around 6:40am.  Arrived just in time and had an awesome ride through the Valley of the God's on this clay dirt and gravel mixture road.  This was worse than the day before.  Terrible washboard areas.  I really dislike these.  But once again the views of the monumental rock formations were well worth the trouble.  We returned after a while and ate breakfast, where the first group was finishing up.  So we really were not holding up the group at all.  We were off to Monument Valley next.  We reached the view/road where Forrest Gump officially stopped running in the movie.  We re-enacted running up the road with Monument Valley in the background.  Yes we are dorks but we had a lot of fun.  and the picture is funny.  David and Cheap also did wheelies up and down the road.  Such Hooligan behavior!  We get to the Monuments and they are spectacular.  Saw lots of wild horses too.  We gassed up and swung by the Mexican hat to get some pictures then we were off to Four corners.  This was interesting.  Its a monumental thing going on in the center where the four states meet, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.  This is surrounded by vendor booths where most are Navajo jewelry.  We took some pictures, I bought the girls a necklace than off to drop Biff off at Cortez for a date.  We were passing through to get to Durango.  We arrived in Durango, got a hotel but the chase truck was off site seeing????  The whole idea behind a chase truck is to be with the group in case something happens.  Anyway we had to wait until they arrived to shower before we could eat.  We didn't have to wait but after a sweaty tiring day of riding, one likes to take a shower.  Well half the group went to eat without us and without even inviting us.  Things got 'itchy'.  David ran to the liquor store while waiting on the truck that had our bags.  Meanwhile the others were done eating and wanted the liquor.  We had just got our bags, showered and wanted to eat.  Skip the people who were stinky and wanted to drink and didn't even bother to invite or tell us.  They can wait.  This, needless to say, got under the skin of many.  This behavior on top of other events pushed David into wanting to leave the group tomorrow rather than sticking it out one more day.  Most everyone else was leaving tomorrow (1 day early) anyway due to many different reasons.  There was flooding in PA and fires in Texas that took some of the group home early.  Becky and Dan missed all this as they copped out early and fell asleep on top of the covers, clothes and shoes.  I took Dan's shoes off as he look pretty uncomfortable and we all went to bed.

Click for pictures

RMR Day 3 Sept 6th, tuesday

Cortez to Mexican Hat 112 miles
Took some  pics just after getting into Utah at Buff.  This place is awesome.  Then stopped outside of Mexican Hat.  Beauty at its best.  By now, groups and clicks have formed and our riding group was down to about 10 bikes.  The others went into other groups and did their own thing for the day but still end up in the same town at the same hotel to hang out.  We continued onto 40 to get to Mexican hat.  We could see the Monument Valley in the distance.  Once in town our group (minus David because he had to get a tire and was behind us) went to the top of the mountain via miles of dirt road, called Moki Dugway.  It was actually worth every minute of it.  It was so majestic.  We also went to Goose neck Creek, I believe.  The creek runs about a mile and a half like an 'S'.  They say if you were to straighten it out it would be more than 6 miles long.  It was so beautiful.  there wasn't much color like the mountains and rock ridges but the gray hues were pretty.  We were so high up too.  We got word that David arrived at hotel and began checking us in at the San Juan Hotel.  I had told David we needed a large room with 3 beds because it was cheaper.  He must have been confused as he got a suite with full kitchen, dining room, living room and 2 bedrooms.  It had pull out couch and many cots.  Though we only had Dan, Becky and Bill.  It was nice having this as we had shared so many nights we got some privacy and some room to walk around.  We went to the Swingin steak for dinner.  This was the talk of the group for many nights prior and we were so looking forward to this.  We had heard it was expensive so we ate accordingly previous nights to even things out.  I must go on the Internet and write a review.  I was so disappointed as well as David.  The steak was 18oz, 10 of which was fat.  I chose the Rib eye at medium rare which arrived overcooked.  Not by much, but when you pay $36 for a steak you want it right.  It was not only overcooked but it was bland.  No seasoning whatsoever.  Which if you like that sort of thing it would be fine.  I was expecting some flavor.  It was served with pinto beans that tasted like cardboard and a salad with Italian dressing.  That was the most flavorful thing on the plate, the salad.  Certainly not worth the money or the time leading up to what I thought was going to be an awesome experience.  The cooking process was interesting though.  The grill was literally swinging over the fire as the steaks cooked.  Out of the 20 of us that were there, half of us were pleased and the other half not so much.  Some steaks people said were awesome and others like myself, bland and overcooked.  My interpretation of this is that perhaps some steak cuts are better than others but I believe these people never had our steaks on the grill, marinated in my 'crack' marinade as the guys put it.  Either way we returned to the hotel, where most of the group hung out at Biff's and John, Bill, David and myself chilled at our suite. Nice evening.

Clicky Clicky here for pics

RMR Day 2 Sept 5th, Monday

Second day in Cortez
Its kind of a chill day.  Every now and again these are nice.  We got up about 7am (which was sleeping in)  David and I serviced the bikes.  David ran to Walmart the night before and bought the oil, pan and chain clean.  The hotels supply the rags to bikers, very nice.  We changed our oil and cleaned the chains.  We lube them daily so it wasn't needed but boy were they dirty.  After cleaning up we went to Denny's for breakfast.  It was the worst service experience in a long time.  Our food took forever.  We finally asked the server to give us something free for our wait.  She came back with shakes.  Good thing, we drank those while continued to wait on our food.  We went to Mesa Verde and did 2 tours.  This place was awesome.  The tour guides were very informative and made the trip pleasant.  We took many pictures.  After returning, we cleaned up and the gang went to the pub and grill.  David and I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Got back and hung out then off to bed.

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RMR Day 1, Sept 4th, Sunday

Grand Junction, Co to Cortez, Co 201 miles
The official start of the week long ride and tour of Colorado, with about 21 bikes.  We went to the Colorado National Monument Park.  There were many canyons to view.  Two I remember was the Cove Ovens overlook and the Cold Shivers point.  These were especially nice. Stopped after National Park Monument at Gateway Canyon to get gas and eat.  Took pictures of Gateway Canyon then started on to Cortez.  Looking to get there about 6pm.  Dan and the chase truck got behind as they had to fix the rim of the trailer's tire.  We stopped in Telluride and waited.  Took a few pictures of the mountains with the town of Telluride below.  We took the 5 to 141 then 145.  The 141 was a very nice road full of twisties in and out of the canyons.  Beautiful road, was in good condition too.  Great ride today.  Most of the group stayed together about 18 bikes out of 25.  Got to Cortez about 6:30pm.  David was in to register first and I asked him to ask about larger rooms.  She gave us her 3rd largest room at no extra charge  Yeah!  It was nice to as we have been staying with Dan and Becky so having 4 people in a room gets crowded sometimes.  We ate mexican at Tequila's.  Then afterwards we hung out in the median area with everyone and had an awesome time.  Cheap and his wife got trashed!  I only had 2 drinks knowing we were getting up the next day to ride and site.  David only a few as well.  Out of about 30 people I would say 90% were drunk.  It was a funny and good time.  The po-po showed up only to ask us to keep it down a bit.  He went to go talk with the hotel manager to see if things were okay, funny thing, she was hanging out with us.  It was a grand ol' time.

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PICTURES

I posted links to the days listed.  Please be sure to check them out.  I still have many to upload.  The ones that are viewable are mostly David's.  This is a very time consuming process, that hopefully for our next trip we will have the bugs worked out.  Continue to check out the blog even after we return as once I get home all the pictures will be available.

Aug 27, 28, 29, 30th, 31st and Sept 1

Pre RMR Day 15, Sept 3rd, Saturday

390 miles  Colorado Springs to Grand Junction, Colorado
It was a very cold morning into Pike's Peak.   Good thing we knew about it, planned and dressed accordingly.  Riding into Pike's Peak was absolutely gorgeous.  Even enduring the dirt road at the top was worth it.  After Pike's Peak we stopped into Green Mt Falls and ate at the Mc D's, where a storm moved in while we were eating.  Time to get the heck out of dodge.  We waited a bit for the hail to pass then quickly got on our bikes and drove on out. We had many miles to cover and with a large group the stops took a little more time so our next gas stop was in Vale.  Had just 140 miles to Grand Junction.  All interstate (but not like your normal interstate) 70.  This road was very nice, with higher speed but nice sweepers.  We got in later than wanted to and went to Applebees.  Atmosphere was nice with everyone there.  Walked to the bar afterwards where Matt and Doug were.  Matt was completely trashed.  We just stopped in for a quick drink and to say hello.  At one point Matt used the extra coasters as frisbees and flung them at everyone in the bar.  Needless to say David, I and many others left quickly.  It wasn't long at all and he was behind us walking to the hotel.  He was thrown out :)  All in all it was a great day with riding in such a large group and eating and hanging out with everyone.

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Pre RMR Day 14, Sept 2nd, Friday

240 miles Fort Collins to Colorado Springs
Well, we are off to the Apply store first thing today.  David apparently has caught the 'jamie' syndrome in regards to his Iphone.  He has an appointment at 10am.  We will rode about an hour to Boulder and ate breakfast while he was getting his phone taking care of.  The awesome news was it was free!!  Gotta love Apple! Ate at the Buff restaurant.  The latte was huge! I was ready to go after that. Met up with the rest of the group at the gas station.  Now have about 15 bikes.  The ride to Echo Lake was nice.  We took pics at the lake.   We got into where Matt, Steve, Cody and others were, at the hotel.  There were no places to eat around only a shabby bar that if you wanted to go into you may consider packin!  It was very disorganized from what we were used to.  We just gained 6 more bikes and the group was large.  In search of some food after checking into the hotel, we finally found a DQ.  For some reason the last 2 or so weeks had caught up to me.  I crashed hard along with the 'core' group.  We were extremely tired.  Dan and I looked and called on some hotels.  We found some with restaurants near by so we asked them to hold them.  Our work was done so we crashed for the night.

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Pre RMR Day 13, Sept 1, Thursday

325 Vernal, Utah to Fort Collins, Co
Took 40 most of the way.  Stopped in Craig, Steamboat Springs and Walden for gas and breaks.  Ate in Walden at the Moose Creek Cafe.  Quite quaint.  Continued on 40 to Poudre Canyon road or rt 14.  Amazingly gorgeous!   It just keeps getting better and better.  The Poudre Canyon nothing but 10-35mph twisties and U's.  Awesome!  The road in lots of spots had a ton of tar snakes on them, so I naturally slowed down a bit.  Besides its hard to ride fast on the turns when your head is looking up and all around the whole time!  Met up with 2doggs and Jarhead (members of the speed triple site) and they had a dangler (extra rider they met along the way)  They are camping in Fort Collins while we are staying at the Motel 6.  Took beautiful pics of the rock formations and creeks/rivers.

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Pre RMR Day 12, Aug 31st, Wednesday

303 miles today--- Jackson Hole to Vernal, Utah
took the 191 through Hoback.  We followed the Hoback River in and out of the mountains.  Stopped for some pictures of Longhorn Antelope.  The are scared little things, we didn't even get that close and they ran off.  Lots of open plains and vast mix of terrain.  Elevation is staying around 5000-6000 ft now.  Goes much higher when we actually are in the mountains.  Stopped in Rock Springs to eat and a storm came to visit.  After checking the weather is was only there, so we decided to head on out and get out of dodge.  One hundred miles to go, we continued on 191 which is gorgeous just after Rock Springs.  Photo op at the Flaming Gorge.  Just as we pulled in a huge cloud covered the sun and we didn't get the pictures we wanted to but its still very beautiful.  Fantastic road with tight 20mph curves and lovely rocky views made the rest of the trip to Vernal amazing.  Stayed at the Rodeway Hotel.  David destroyed his phone, leaving the gas station to get liquor.  He now has an appointment in Boulder, Co to get it replaced!  I should be pissed, but I'm not.  It will linger like the smell of his riding boots :)

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Pre RMR Day 11, Aug 30th, Tuesday

300 miles today-- Bozeman to Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Brisk ride in to Yellowstone National Park, ended up having to stop along side of the road to put warmer gloves and under armor shirt on.  Took a few river pictures then ate at Subway before entering park.  We stopped at the Flat (something) geysers.  This was very neat.  Further inside the park we spotted a Bison lying beside the river.  I had to stop to get pics.  I was the only one that would get close up to this huge beast.  I went in took my pics then slowly stepped out.  Once I left the area, another woman tried the same.  Someone has to set the standard.  Although she is the fool because I still had my helmet on, she had nothing :) Stopping again further down at Yellowstone Lake for pics and John to rest for 15 minutes.  This gives him a boost he needs to finish the day.  Driving just outside the park you drive right into the Grand Teton National Park where we took more pictures.  The lake and the Tetons are amazing, even if the pictures don't tell their story.  With 80 miles to go we wanted to move on along.  The road was slower, but finally arrived and stayed at Anvil Hotel.

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