I picked up my bike from Sun Honda at noon on Friday and rode it home after they'd spent $1500+ repairing the final drive and the pinion bearing at the back of the drive shaft.
On Saturday, I was loaded up and ready to head for Rocky Ford (177 miles away) by 3PM, but radar showed a big thunder storm drifting toward Limon (86 miles south of here). So, I sat and read and finally left at 6PM. When I got to Limon, I could see another big cloud down toward Rocky Ford. It was a pretty spectacular cloud, probably 30-40 miles E to W, with a mushroom shaped cap up at 40-50,000 feet. After letting that drift east a bit, I headed on down CO-71. I enjoyed watching the cloud-to-cloud and inside-the-cloud lightning for the next 80 miles.
About 40 miles south of Limon, I started getting glimpses of flashing lights down the road. Before I got to them, I met a little white pickup that had an EMT license plate. When I got to the lights, it was a wrecker. There was no one at the scene but the wrecker driver and he was down in the ditch looking at a motorcycle. I learned today that there had been .9" of rain in about an hour earlier in the evening. I don't know if that played a part in the incident or not.
Yesterday, after church, I headed west on US-50 to join CO-96 though Pueblo and across interesting country till I got to Wetmore, a little town on the eastern edge of the Wet Mountains.
Back in '89, I helped lead a church intergenerational bicycle and we stopped for lunch in Wetmore. While we were fixing lunch for our 35 riders (ranging in age from 7th graders to one deaf gent who was in his late 70s), the man who owned the little store across the road let us use his restroom. I was over at the store seeing that the kids didn't ruin his store and the man said to me, "Where you going from here?" I said, "Westcliffe." He said, "Up Hardscrabble Canyon?" I said, "Well, I haven't heard that, but we're going to Westcliffe."
Well, it's a lot easier on an NT-700V! I rode on up Hardscrabble, passing the place where my 49-yr-old son was running a 45K ultra trail race. Chris finished it in 7 hrs and 20 mins, and said that he walked the last 6 miles, but was passing people all the way. The race started at 9500" ASL and had 4500' of vertical elevation gain. He was in pretty good shape and felt good about how he'd done.
Chris and his wife Tania and I spent the rest of the evening eating a great meal in Westcliffe and sitting around their motel room catching up.
One of the best things about retirement is going to be being able to see Chris and Tania more often. Our work schedules have been in serious conflict. I had Fridays and Saturdays off. Joanne had Saturday and Sundays off. Chris and Tania had Sundays and Mondays off. Living 350 miles away from each other, we'd see each other about once a year.
This morning we got up and had breakfast and they headed west for their home in Montrose and I headed east back to Rocky Ford. I had lunch with the guy who's going to follow me as pastor there, and then, about 3, I headed north for Fort Morgan. No rain today, but a very nice tailwind. I probably got well over 50mpg.
So, over the weekend I rode 594 miles, topped 85,000 miles on the bike and had a good, good time!
On Saturday, I was loaded up and ready to head for Rocky Ford (177 miles away) by 3PM, but radar showed a big thunder storm drifting toward Limon (86 miles south of here). So, I sat and read and finally left at 6PM. When I got to Limon, I could see another big cloud down toward Rocky Ford. It was a pretty spectacular cloud, probably 30-40 miles E to W, with a mushroom shaped cap up at 40-50,000 feet. After letting that drift east a bit, I headed on down CO-71. I enjoyed watching the cloud-to-cloud and inside-the-cloud lightning for the next 80 miles.
About 40 miles south of Limon, I started getting glimpses of flashing lights down the road. Before I got to them, I met a little white pickup that had an EMT license plate. When I got to the lights, it was a wrecker. There was no one at the scene but the wrecker driver and he was down in the ditch looking at a motorcycle. I learned today that there had been .9" of rain in about an hour earlier in the evening. I don't know if that played a part in the incident or not.
Yesterday, after church, I headed west on US-50 to join CO-96 though Pueblo and across interesting country till I got to Wetmore, a little town on the eastern edge of the Wet Mountains.
Back in '89, I helped lead a church intergenerational bicycle and we stopped for lunch in Wetmore. While we were fixing lunch for our 35 riders (ranging in age from 7th graders to one deaf gent who was in his late 70s), the man who owned the little store across the road let us use his restroom. I was over at the store seeing that the kids didn't ruin his store and the man said to me, "Where you going from here?" I said, "Westcliffe." He said, "Up Hardscrabble Canyon?" I said, "Well, I haven't heard that, but we're going to Westcliffe."
Well, it's a lot easier on an NT-700V! I rode on up Hardscrabble, passing the place where my 49-yr-old son was running a 45K ultra trail race. Chris finished it in 7 hrs and 20 mins, and said that he walked the last 6 miles, but was passing people all the way. The race started at 9500" ASL and had 4500' of vertical elevation gain. He was in pretty good shape and felt good about how he'd done.
Chris and his wife Tania and I spent the rest of the evening eating a great meal in Westcliffe and sitting around their motel room catching up.
One of the best things about retirement is going to be being able to see Chris and Tania more often. Our work schedules have been in serious conflict. I had Fridays and Saturdays off. Joanne had Saturday and Sundays off. Chris and Tania had Sundays and Mondays off. Living 350 miles away from each other, we'd see each other about once a year.
This morning we got up and had breakfast and they headed west for their home in Montrose and I headed east back to Rocky Ford. I had lunch with the guy who's going to follow me as pastor there, and then, about 3, I headed north for Fort Morgan. No rain today, but a very nice tailwind. I probably got well over 50mpg.
So, over the weekend I rode 594 miles, topped 85,000 miles on the bike and had a good, good time!
