We packed up the bike at first light. Having a day off of the bike and time to spend with D and the boys was great. But it was time to hit the road again.
Morning was absolutely perfect riding weather. Dry desert air. Cool temperatures. Bright clear skies. It doesn't get any better.
We stayed on 2-lane roads the whole day. I thought about heading up to the Interstate, but that would have been a mistake. We were headed east, toward home. This brought a sense of melancholy throughout the day. Vacation was winding down.
And yet, one of the great thing about motorcycle adventures is the travel is a great part of it! It was a splendid day on the bike.
Scenery throughout the early morning was grand. Red rocks, mesas, scrubby brush land. The ride was mesmerizing.
Skies stayed crystal clear as the terrain turned more to canyons and large rock formations. We've been through this area before, but it never gets old. We were on a slightly different route from our 2009 and 2014 Southwest adventure and this allowed us to see new scenery.
As we approached New Mexico, I saw a rock formation that I thought was Ship Rock, and we got a few pictures of it. As we continued on, I remembered Ship Rock is inside New Mexico, so I'm not sure what the formation was, but it looked a lot like Ship Rock.
We did cross briefly into New Mexico, going past the Four Corners. Those poor bastards we saw turning into Four Corners... I yelled out that it was a trick as we went past.
Crossing into Colorado, the scenery changed from mostly rock formations to more mountainous and wooded. It was still beautiful, but totally different than the morning. The skies stayed bright and clear with a tolerable level of heating throughout the afternoon.
We had a great lunch and Jack and Janelle's Country Kitchen in Cortez, Colorado. The service was scary fast and the food was great.
Back on the road, SO tried to make hotel reservations on her phone, but it was an exercise in frustration between the areas without service and difficulties with the account. It all worked out in the end.
We crossed the first ridge of the Rockies at Wolf Creek Pass, crossing just below 11,000 feet. Dirty snow was still seen not too far from the road. I spiritedly drove through the area to make sure I would not get behind this jack-wad ass-brain who was pulling a camper with the effluent valve cracked open. Spraying his shit water all over those behind him should come with the punishment of having raw sewage sprayed all over his living room for a week. Yet another reason to despise motorhomes - guilt by association!
Despite the exceedingly rude camper behavior, the pass was a gorgeous ride. It was nice to leave a lot of the traffic behind.
Once we descended from the pass, we stopped in Alamosa, Colorado. One of the reasons we wanted to stop in Alamosa was to see if we could actually see the Milky Way. Great Sand Dunes National Park is only about 30 minutes away and is a great area to stargaze with little light pollution and high elevation. Alas, there was rain to the east with clouds skirting the area. Maybe things will clear up by early morning. Maybe.
Dinner was at True Grit Steak House. It is a pretty neat Western TV/Movie themed restaurant and the food was quite good - probably one of the better dinners we've had on the road this trip.
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