So I left the honor guard in Dillon and in an effort to stay off the
interstates, I decided that highway 9 would get me to where I wanted to go. This plan was generally north towards Rocky Mountain
National Park. Perhaps I would take a
detour up to Steamboat Springs. Lots of
possibilities when you have no definite destination. It was another pretty two lane road heading
out of Dillon. There was a sign that
said road construction ahead and that there could be a possible 45 minute
delay. No big deal, I have run into lots
of road construction on the trip. Not a
lot of information from a flashing road sign.
A Honda Goldwing weighs 844 pounds without any gear. Throw on my gear and an overweight rider and
you are probably approaching 1200 pounds riding on the footprint the size of
the soles of two shoes.
What the flashing sign neglected to say was instead of road
construction, this was road destruction.
The geniuses at the DOT had decided to completely remove the road for
about 10-15 miles.
I am already more than a little
worn out after riding across half the state.
It is warm and I am hot. Now the
road turns to gravel. They have water
trucks spraying it down to eliminate the dust.
They stop all of the traffic a couple of miles in. The DOT
then has the entire road bed removed and it becomes a one lane unpaved
road. So we stop and wait. I am tired of sitting so I stand and watch
huge earth moving mining type trucks roll past me. I wait for another 20 minutes before traffic
from the other directions starts moving down the one lane road. I wait for another 20 minutes for more trucks
to roll by followed by another water truck.
We get started. The road
surface is bad. Parts of it are
muddy. There are ruts. This is not the natural habitat for my motorcycle.
I stay incredibly focused, as I
suspect that if I crash it will hurt. I
consider crashing a fairly high probability.
Hopefully just some bruising, some minor rash and some sore muscles to
this body if I do crash. I am a long way
from home. I hope the driver behind my
does not run me over if I do crash. I
wish I had knobby tires and a light motorcycle instead of this beast. It takes a long time to travel 10 mils at 20
mph. We stop the caravan one more time
to let other traffic and trucks pass by again.
I do not crash. I navigate the
road successfully. All part of the
adventure.
I stop at a gas station in Kremmling, Colorado. Not much of a town. I am tired and dirty. My pretty motorcycle looks like I have ridden through multiple mud
puddles. I consider it a badge of honor
but this is not the kind of motorcycle that should be splatted with mud in dry
Colorado. They probably could have made
some extra money by selling clean underwear to motorcyclist who had just ridden
through a construction zone.
It is 6:00 at night. A Chinese
man in a rental car approaches me. He
wants directions to RMNP. I whip out my
phone and show him the directions. I am
pretty sure he does not appreciate that it is a two hour drive to the park and
another 3 hours to get through it.
I use my phone and look for reasonably priced accommodations. Seeing none in Steamboat, which is also out
of my way, I decide on Winter Park and found a nice Best Western to rest my
bones.
I also had a very good meal at Pepe Osaka’s Fish Taco and Tequila
Bar. I wonder where the Chinese guy ended
up?
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