Day 19 and when you think you can’t see anything new or better than you already have, you get a surprise. We are landed in Fort Collins Colorado at the Clarion Hotel. I’m sure this was quite a place… in the 1980’s.
Last night we hopped across the busy 4 lane road out front of our hotel, to the Mexican joint attached to the hotel across the road. Pretty decent Mexican fare, with wet burritos, enchiladas, and chips, cheese salsa and Hedgie had an extra order of jalapeno’s. For the life of me I can’t figure out how he keeps ordering jalapenos on this ride. A couple margaritas, and we sat in the adjoining bar to finish our drinks before heading home to bed.
We were also discussing the ways we were going to spend the $630 million we were planning on winning in that evening’s Mega Millions. We each bought $100 worth of easy picks in Idaho, and SP, our buddy and fellow degenerate lottery player back home, put together a group of 4 that each thru $100 in to buy some easy picks! We were for sure going to be renting a jet to fly the eight of us back to Idaho to collect our winnings, and then we are going to drop in to Vegas on our return trip for a night of high rolling time. We beat the system!
This morning, we are headed to Fort Collins, and our path out is State Road 430. I don’t know about you, but when I envision a motorcycle ride out west, this is the vision in my head. A lonely 2 lane road, the only traffic is 4 weary motorcycle riders, beautiful rock faced mountains on both sides, in the distance, mostly sunny skies, with partial clouds, temperatures in the high 60’s (storm clouds in the far off distance, opposite direction) and the Eagles playing in your Bluetooth helmet speakers. This is the ride we had. Picture perfect.
We came across County Road 4 about 40 miles down 430, and took that dirt/gravel road for about 40 miles into Baggs Wyoming for fuel. The county road 4 was so barren, it was eerie. We stopped for a short rest, and I told the guys, if I hear a banjo start playing the Deliverance tune, I am the eff out of here!
A quick fueling, and a short rest in Baggs, and back on the road. Many more miles of smiles as we traveled these perfect “out west” roads. We came across the small village of Encampment Wyoming, and found the 2 bar/restaurants in town; The Mangy Moose and the Bear Trap, right next to each other.
We pulled in to the fenced in, grassy/gravel parking lot next to the Mangy Moose, saw the sign stating Mangy Moose parking only, and were about to begin a conversation amongst ourselves about which restaurant we were going in to. Before we could start the decision making, a tiny lady hung her head out of the sliding window on the side of the Mangy Moose, and said, “You’re finally here, come in get your cheeseburgers, the best in town!” The decision was made for us.
I’m pretty sure it was her husband who had the cooking station set up on the front covered deck, with a Blackstone Griddle for cooking the best burgers in town. We enjoyed our short lunch visit with the husband/wife proprietors. Bought a couple long sleeve t-shirts from her, gave her our home addresses so she could mail us a couple stickers when she get’s them restocked, and he engaged with us on the local riding scene and how he is in the market for an HD Panamerica. Great stop, and I highly recommend it if you find yourself near Encampment WY.
Thru out the day we intermittently stopped to put our rain gear on, take our rain gear off, put our rain gear on, as the showers were sporadic all day. Nothing really heavy ever hit, even though it looked like a wall of rain we were running into several times, as it dispersed usually be the time we reach the weather cell.
We saddled back up, and continued down the road, to Colorado. Thanks to a recommendation from the friendly cook at the Mangy Moose we took the path thru the Roosevelt National Park. I really can’t even put into words how majestic the ride thru this national park is. The road travels along the river, with just unbelievable rock faced mountains on the other side of you. There are lots of camping sites, that looked pretty full on this Saturday in July, as well as the fly fisherman, and white water rapids inflatables braving the rapids. Unfortunately, my description is all your going to get. During the last rain gear strip down, I left my phone in my rain gear, strapped to the back of my bike, and I was not able to get any pictures from the phone mount on my handlebars. I am just as aggravated, you really are missing out on what we saw from the saddle!
But I better back up to our entry into Colorado. We saw the Welcome to Colorado sign, and needed to get our group picture. As the other 3 were positioning their bikes in front of the sign, I was trying to position my bike as the camera stand. As I was doing that, I stopped in a low spot in the median, and my short legs couldn’t adequately square up on the uneven terrain, let alone try and get the kickstand down, and I wasn’t going to fight it, as it was leaning to the left, I just said screw it, and jumped out before I smashed a toe again. No harm no foul.
We finally arrived in Fort Collins around 4:30pm. Fort Collings is a cool little Colorado college town, with an a bustling down town with plenty of restaurants and bars and night life. After quick showers, and short rests, Stick, Hedgie and Ski Doo were ready to uber from the expressway located hotel to the nicer part of town. Monkey and Brother Rick took the truck to visit a pal of his in the area, and would meet up with us later for dinner and a ride home.
But I better back up again. As we pulled under the portico of the Clarion Hotel, everybody was disembarking from their machines, and I hear a hustle and bustle behind me. I look back and see Hedgie getting pictures of Monkey and his bike, leaning on it’s left side. I inquired with the Monk about what happened, did the curb get in the way? No. He just forgot to put the kickstand down! That’s our Monkey.
We uber-ed to College Street and got dropped off at, of all things, The Whiskey Bar. The friendly young man behind the counter made up 3 Old Fashions with his choice of flavors. I’m not much of a whiskey consumers, but these were pretty darn good. He must’ve enjoyed our company as well, as gave us each a free shot of whiskey while we were waiting for our drinks to be prepared. Thank you young man.
As we were finishing up our tasty beverage, Monkey and Brother Rick arrived. Monkey had his obligatory Old Fashioned, the rest of us downshifted to a draft beer to maintain our wits, off to dinner we went.
We walked down about 2 blocks, and across the street, to Austin’s American Grill. I saw a couple Bison meatloafs come out, and I think Hedgie and I shared the cobb salad with grilled chicken. I also tried the French Onion Soup as a starter. To Truck Driver Vinnie from the Frostbytes edition, the Onion Soup was a .5 star at best. No comparison to our Onion Soup tastings in Quebec.
Anywho, we are over 5,100 miles in on this ride, and we are starting late tomorrow, Sunday the 24th of July 2022. We have had several over 350 mile days the last few days, and are ready for a leisurely start to our day.
And, in case you were wondering, don’t book that private jet to Idaho just yet. Our numbers didn’t hit on the Mega Millions. But we still have alot of tickets to scan Ski Doo has apparently never bought a lottery ticket before and bought 50 easy picks, all on separate print out slips! I am sure our luck will be better on the next drawing!
We shall see.
Bye for now,
Stick