Motorcycle Trip Blog AccountsIts Memorial Day 2010
Lets be sure to take the time to remember our Military personnel for their service to us and our country. Also remember to think of and pray for their families. Whenever you see a Veteran on the street stop, shake their hand and thank them for their service. God bless all of the men and women of our armed forces and pray that they all come home safe. Honor – Remember – Respect all Veterans Thank You
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this Blogging thing. I am kind of having fun with it, along with reminiscing about our previous trips. This is my third blog and my hopes are to continiue writing about all of my motorcycle adventures. RIDE ON.
This is my first trip pulling a trailer. My lovely wife Eva and wonderful daughter Samantha got me a Bushtec Quantum GL trailer for Christmas. Wow what another awesome gift. I really think she got it so she would have room to buy more shoes and purses when we are traveling.
I am going to try and update this blog on a daily basis during our trip if time and internet access permits so all my family and friends at home can see our trip as it progresses. Everyone be sure to check back often to see our motorcycle journey updates. Love ya all, see ya soon and stay safe.
6/04/10 Friday
After all the planning and hoping that the routes that I planned were going to be like. My Bushtec trailer was finally loaded up and ready to go. I have all of my electronics: Cell Phone, IPod, Digital Camera, Video setup and a GPS. Michael and Wally departed Tennessee this morning.I am anxiously awaiting thier arrival to my house in Illinois for the start of our 3rd Annual Motorcycle Trip. My brother Michael and our friend Wally arrived from Tennessee to my house. We were all on adrenalin rushes and excited to get going
Eva got home from work and Eva, Samantha, Michael, Wally and a old high school friend of Michael's got together for some pizza and cold beverages that evening at Papa’s Pizza in Woodridge, Illinois. The food and service was wonderful like always.
Thank you Sandy, Andrew, and the entire Papa’s staff.
6/05/10 Saturday
We donned our rain before leaving my house in Lockport because it looked like we were going to be hitting rain for awhile since the rain appeared to be coming from the direction that we were head. It had stopped raining at that time but we were sure that it was not going to be completely dry. We did encounter a few brief showers until we got to the Iowa border then it cleared up for the most part only being a little overcast. We arrived at Grand Island, Nebraska found a place called T-Bones for dinner. We had a good dinner and then proceeded to the Grand Island KOA for then night. We checked into our cabin, went to the pool for a bit and it was cold. Shot the breeze for awhile discussing tomorrow’s route and went, back to the cabin and called it a night.
6/6/10 Sunday
Got up this morning and started loading the bike’s and trailers for today’s ride. Had a few sprinkles but decided not to don or rain gear. Steve told Michael come on we are burning day light. “Tick Tock Tick Tock” We went to fuel up and got on the road. We got to Cheyenne Wyoming and had reports of bad storms. We were lucky to have dodged the storms and only hit a couple of brief showers. We arrived at Fort Collins, Colorado Poudre Canyon KOA got checked into our cabin and went into downtown Fort Collins and had dinner at Austin’s American Grill. Had a nice dinner left there and stopped at Safeway foods to get some water, and fruit for tomorrows ride. We went back to camp had a couple of cold beverages and talked about tomorrows ride thru Poudre Canyon over to Estes Park Colorado where we will stay for the night. The trailer is great and it makes it a lot easier every day the trying to pack everything on the bike. What an awesome gift from my girls. It’s a nice evening with a nice cool breeze. I will post more later, enjoy the reading and everything is good here.
6/07/10 Monday
Got up this morning and started loading the bike’s and trailers for today’s ride. It’s a beautiful day morning and should make for some awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Fort Collins area and move on. We seen two moose’s which was really cool. We arrived in Estes Park Colorado after stopping in Boulder for dinner. It was another great day of riding. Weather couldn’t have been any better. We will get up in the morning and head out to Rocky Mountain National Park. Everyone is doing well and we are have a great time. Everyone have a great day and I will post more later.
6/08/10 Tuesday
Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Estes Park KOA and we will return here tonight before moving on to another location on Wednesday. We had another great day of riding. We rode thru Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw Elk and Moose during today’s ride. The temperatures ranged from 74 degrees to 46 degrees. We hit some rain late today right before stopping for dinner. Everyone is doing good and just excited for tomorrow ride. We will be leaving Estes Park and moving on to Gunnison Colorado KOA. I will post more later. Love ya all back home.
6/09/10 Wednesday
Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Estes Park KOA and we will head on over to Gunnison, Colorado KOA where we will be spending the next two nights. We had another great day of riding. Weather was 84 degrees and we skirted a couple of showers late in the day. We stopped at South Park City in Fairplay, Colorado which is an old mining town from the 1800’s. We were able to walk thru several of the original town building. It actually was pretty cool to see. Everyone is doing good and just excited for tomorrows ride. We will be riding the Black Canyon route tomorrow. I will post more later. Thanks honey for the hockey updates.
6/10/10 Thursday
Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We left Gunnison, Colorado KOA to go ride Black Canyon of Gunnison. We saw the Painted Wall which is the tallest cliff in the state of Colorado. We also saw several other spectacular gorges. Boy the scenery just gets better each day. I will post pictures at a later date when I am able to download the photos. We had another great day of riding. Weather was good and we will be heading over to Ouray Colorado KOA tomorrow for the next two nights. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.
6/11/10 Friday
Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We left Gunnison, Colorado KOA to head to Ouray, Colorado KOA. We rode thru Red Canyon, Unaweep Scenic Byway, and several other awesome rides. If we would have taken the direct route from Gunnison to Ouray it would only be about 80 miles but we went the back way which was about 280 miles. Anyone one that has a motorcycle and just rides around town doesn’t realize what they are missing. Words can’t explain it. If someone would ask me today which ride on this trip was my favorite I couldn’t pick one right know. It just seems when you think you’ve seen it all and couldn’t top that days the next day’s ride just seems to prove you wrong. We will be here at Ouray for the next two nights before moving on to Durango, Colorado. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. So be sure to visit back at the site. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.
6/12/10 Saturday
Got up this morning and it’s very cloudy and calling for thunderstorms. We left and headed over Red Mountain Pass towards Silverton,, Colorado. We ran into some sleet on the pass. Then it got a little sunny and warmer as we got closer to Durango. When we left Durango and headed over Lizard Head Pass it started looking stormy again. We stopped to don our rain gear. We proceeded to be in and out of Ran until we got to Telluride then we encountered rain the rest of the way back to Ouray. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better and clearer day. I ‘m hoping that the rain stops by the morning. We will be heading on over to Durango, Colorado KOA and we need to be able to get across Red Canyon Pass. Because we need to be able to get over Red Mountain Pass without any snow. Today’s ride was good considering the rain. We did San Juan Skyway and Million Dollard Highway. The temperatures were down to 42 degrees and raining. Thank goodness for my heated clothing. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.
6/13/10 Sunday
Got up this morning and it appeared to be another beautiful day for riding? Once again it’s a clear skies and sunny. We left Ouray, Colorado and headed over Red Mountain Pass towards Silverton,, Colorado. We were not sure what it was going to be like since yesterday the Pass had snow. The Pass ended up being open and clear. We were a little worried since there is only two ways to get over to Durango, Colorado. We also choose to take the shorter route to Durango because we wanted to stop in Silverton, Colorado to see if we would be able to get to and old ghost town that someone had told us about earlier into this trip. We stopped to see about that ghost town and asked about a guided tour. We choose to take a four hour tour that ended up being about a five hour tour. Our guide was out of the world he was awesome (Thanks again John). We were at the top of so many summits and seen so many abandoned mines. We were able to walk around and look into the different buildings. We hit all four seasons in one day. We also had to help push a jeep out of a snow bank. We got done with the tour around five o’clock and still had to get to Durango. We were worried that with the previous weather that we might have a little problem getting there. We had two more summits to cross before arriving there. We hit a little snow flurries crossing the passes but nothing earth shattering. Right know all I can think to say about today’s experience is ‘‘WOW”. Tomorrow we will be leaving Durango, Colorado and headed over into New Mexico before ending our day in Alamosa, Colorado KOA. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.
