Retired and Trippin

It was 63 degrees under mostly clear skies as we departed Russell, KS at 8:00.  Interstate 70 would take us all the way to the KC area.  We stopped in Salina and Topeka for gas. We stopped at Taco Bueno at the Legends in KC for lunch at about noon before riding on home.  Our route today took us 242 miles.  No pictures were taken. It was a fantastic trip; planned and led by Mel & Trisha.  They are a fun couple to travel with.  Our trip took us 2,447 miles through Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

Pikes Peak was in our rear-view mirror as we left Colorado Springs at 8:00.  It was 63 degrees under blue skies.  This was the second consecutive morning that we saw a hot air balloon in the sky. We piloted the beasts east on Highways 94 and 40 to Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, where we refueled and took a butt break.  Then it was on into Kansas. The first 110 miles east of Colorado Springs were fantastic but after that a brutal wind started out of the south.  At several locations dust was blowing across the highway.  The following location was on Highway 40 west of Oakley, KS: This was on Interstate 70 east of Oakley: We refueled and ate lunch at the truck stop located just east of Oakley, at I-70 and 40 Highway.  We stopped for frozen custard at Freddy’s in Hays.  Our lodging for the night was in Russell at a Days Inn. We rode 333 miles today and the high temp was in the mid 80’s.  All the pictures I took are shown above.  If you want to see them larger, click on them. Tomorrow we

We rode away from our motel in Basalt, CO at 8:00.  The skies were clear and it was 50 degrees.  We were hunting for more aspen gold today.  Between Basalt and Aspen there was a hot air balloon in the sky. Highway 82 took us from Aspen, over Independence Pass, past the Twin Lakes area to Highway 24.  The entire route was beautiful, either from aspen gold or mountain scenery. Once on Highway 24 we headed north past Mt. Elbert (the highest peak in Colorado) to Leadville, Interstate 70,  and east to Frisco.  Highway 9 took us back south to Breckenridge, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch in a city park. We continued south through Alma, Fairplay, and Hartsel before riding east into Colorado Springs. After checking into our motel we walked across the street to the Holiday Inn and their bar & grill for dinner.  Following a couple games of golf (the card game) we called it a night. We rode 228 miles today with a low of 50 and a high of 83.  The weather was beautiful once again. For

It was 61 degrees under blue clear skies when we departed Moab at 8:30.  God blessed us with another beautiful day.  At my age any day is a blessing, but one this pretty is an extra special blessing. Just north of Moab we took Hwy 128 north and east to Cisco (a ghost town) and I-70, which we rode east to Fruita, CO.  When we stopped at a Colorado visitor’s center (to score some maps) there was a Western Slope Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial across the parking lot.  As I checked that out I thought about my favorite Vietnam veteran, Rapid Ronnie. While hanging out in the parking lot, two spandex-wearing fat guys on bicycles stopped to shoot the bull.  They highly recommended that we ride the Colorado National Monument that could be accessed just south of Fruita and terminated at Grand Junction.  We tried it and we liked it. The highest elevation on this ride was 6,640 feet.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the eastern end before heading into Grand Junction. We exited I-70 southbound on Hwy

We left our motel in Moab at 7:45 under blue clear skies with a crisp cool temperature of 59.  Another beautiful day. We rode 105 miles today and visited two parks. The first was Arches National Park.  We rode to the end of the park and hiked to Landscape Arch, Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch.  It is a scenic park in a dry, desert rocky sort of way.  Mel hiked and climbed further than the rest of us.  He was drawn to heights us ladies were not interested in. While admiring Tunnel Arch we met two motorcycling couples from Canada.  They took our picture there. Our second park was Dead Horse Point State Park.  Dead Horse Point provided some great views of the Colorado River 2000 feet below in the Canyonlands area. Back in Moab we enjoyed a swim in the outdoor motel pool (90 degrees outside), a LARRAPIN good lasagna dinner at Pasta Jay’s (it was Lasagna Wednesday) and ice cream at the Moab Diner. For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photo

We took off from Farmington, NM at 8:00.  It was sunny and 59 degrees – a beautiful morning which would continue into a beautiful day. We rode west into Arizona (should have included AZ in the title of my blogs on this trip), northeast back into New Mexico and then into Colorado where we visited the Four Corners Monument ( http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/fourcorners.htm ). Our next stop was the Hovenweep National Monument where we walked and viewed some old ancestral Puebloan structures built along a small canyon. We made it to Hwy 191 northbound in Utah headed for Moab.  Along the way we stopped to view the Needles Overlook in Canyonlands National Park. It was a spectacular view of an impressive canyon created (at least in part) by the Colorado River. On the way back to Hwy 191 a big ole coyote crossed the road in front of us.  It happened too quick to score a photo. We continued on into Moab, where we checked into the Apache Motel, famous because John Wayne once stayed h

We woke up today to rain in Monte Vista, CO.  When we departed at 9:00 it was not raining but we but on rain suits because we expected it soon. It was 57 degrees. In Conejos, CO we saw a sign along the highway pointing to the “Oldest Church in Colorado”.  We stopped to check out the cool Catholic church.  The front doors were open so we checked inside too.  It was originally constructed in 1856 but it has been rebuilt or enlarged on several occasions. The scenery highlight of the day was the ride from Antonito, CO to Chama, NM.   Beautiful gold aspen colors.  It rained off and on but we took advantage of the sun when we had it to take a few pics. We had lunch in Chama before riding west to Aztec, NM where we checked out the Aztec Ruins.  We called it a day in nearby Farmington, NM.  The temperatures today ranged from 50 to 83 and we rode in light rain off-and-on until about 2:00 pm.   Our mileage for the day was 220. For more pictures from today click on the following link: htt

We left Garden City at 8:30.  It was 61 degrees and partly cloudy. Our first stop was a hop, skip and jump down Old US Hwy 50 in Holcomb, KS.  In November of 1959 Herb Clutter, his wife and two of their children were killed in their farm home on the outskirts of Holcomb.  It is the case on which the book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote was based. Ever since reading the book 5 years ago (or so) I’ve wanted to see the area.  Today I did.  The home is located down a long private drive so the picture of the home was taken from the street.  While we were there a man from Texas stopped to do the same thing. Our next tourist stop was at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site near LaJunta, CO.  The National parks folks rebuilt the fort on its original location. We drove south of La Junta to a canyon we wanted to see but when we arrived we found that it was accessed by a gravel road.  So we passed. We rode from La Junta to Walsenburg and on to Monte Vista.  Our lodging for the evening

Today we embarked on another trip west with good friends Mel & Trisha. We’ll be headed to southern Colorado, northern New Mexico and Moab, Utah. Life is good! We met at Midland and Renner in Shawnee, KS and took off at 8:15 am.  It was 71 degrees. We rode to Emporia and caught Hwy 50 westbound. We knocked off our trip in about 100 mile increments, except for the last into Garden City, which was shorter. That was good because it got up to 94 as we rode from Dodge City to Garden City. We had a LARRAPIN good lunch at the Carriage Crossing Restaurant in Yoder, KS. In Dodge we did the tourist thing by taking in 1870 Front Street, Boot Hill Cemetery and all that. In Garden City we holed up at the National 9 Motel. We rode 387 miles today and tomorrow we head into Colorado – BUENO. For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6061323824500010913?authkey=CIP3wv3Rr77OvAE