It was cloudy when I left Greeley at 9:30 this morning, but by the time I got to Denver, the sun was shining. So were the mountains. There's still a little snow at the higher elevations but it's mostly gone from the side of I-70. Traffic was reasonable through Denver and west of there although there were occasional construction delays. The biggest of those was in Glenwood Canyon, the most beautiful stretch of interstate highway I've ever ridden. I rode to Rifle, 236 miles from home, and stopped for lunch and fuel.
After eating and drinking a couple of cups of coffee, I walked back to the bike, put on my 'Stitch, put in my earplugs, put on my helmet and realized that the GPS was still on. That meant that I'd done it again -- forgot to turn off the ignition before going in to eat. That's twice this summer (once was at Perkins in Spearfish) and twice when I've been doing something with the How the West Was Won Rally. The last time was in Lander, WY. This time I was lucky that there was a young deputy sheriff who had just gone through the drive-thru and he heard me when I hollered at him. He graciously took me to an O'Reiley's Auto Parts Store. Since I was with a deputy, they loaned me their jump start battery (although they made me leave my camera with them until they got the jump battery back). I'd learned in Spearfish that it's nearly, but not quite impossible to reach the positive contact with most jump battery cables. It helps to remove one of the connectors that are just above the battery and then it helps even more if you've got someone, like, say, a helpful deputy sheriff who will hold the positive cable against the positive terminal while your start the bike. It fired right up and I got everything reassembled while the deputy took the battery back to the store. I rode over there, picked up my camera and rode on west to Parachute before stopping for gas. I'd done 256 miles and gotten 58mpg out of that tank while running 70-80 mph. I always get better mileage at higher altitudes. By the time I got here to Junction, it was hot.
The next three days, I'll be staff for the How the West Was Won Rally. On Monday, I'll ride to Montrose to see my son and his wife, then ride the Whitewater, Gateway, Naturita, Ridgeway, Montrose loop with an old Concours buddy of mine before riding home through RMNP on Wednesday.
After eating and drinking a couple of cups of coffee, I walked back to the bike, put on my 'Stitch, put in my earplugs, put on my helmet and realized that the GPS was still on. That meant that I'd done it again -- forgot to turn off the ignition before going in to eat. That's twice this summer (once was at Perkins in Spearfish) and twice when I've been doing something with the How the West Was Won Rally. The last time was in Lander, WY. This time I was lucky that there was a young deputy sheriff who had just gone through the drive-thru and he heard me when I hollered at him. He graciously took me to an O'Reiley's Auto Parts Store. Since I was with a deputy, they loaned me their jump start battery (although they made me leave my camera with them until they got the jump battery back). I'd learned in Spearfish that it's nearly, but not quite impossible to reach the positive contact with most jump battery cables. It helps to remove one of the connectors that are just above the battery and then it helps even more if you've got someone, like, say, a helpful deputy sheriff who will hold the positive cable against the positive terminal while your start the bike. It fired right up and I got everything reassembled while the deputy took the battery back to the store. I rode over there, picked up my camera and rode on west to Parachute before stopping for gas. I'd done 256 miles and gotten 58mpg out of that tank while running 70-80 mph. I always get better mileage at higher altitudes. By the time I got here to Junction, it was hot.
The next three days, I'll be staff for the How the West Was Won Rally. On Monday, I'll ride to Montrose to see my son and his wife, then ride the Whitewater, Gateway, Naturita, Ridgeway, Montrose loop with an old Concours buddy of mine before riding home through RMNP on Wednesday.
