From: Alan Fleming 
Subject: Memorial day trip
To: dod@cs.colorado.edu
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 16:43:37 -0600 (MDT)

Two years ago, I promised Jonna a trip to southern Colorado as a Christmas gift. I'd booked nights at a B&B for this past Memorial Day weekend and, having just bought a new bike, we decided to ride down. Thursday night I got a backrest mounted on the top box and packed. We left Friday morning at 8am. Down Boulder canyon, then south on CO-93 to CO-470, CO-470 around to US-285. US-285 over Kenosha (10,001) and Red Hill (9,993) to Poncha Springs. US-50 west over Monarch (11,312). Lunch in Gunnison, then back on US-50 to Montrose. US-550 south over Red Mountain (11,018) and Molas (10,910) to Durango. US-160 to Cortez and then west on county roads to Kelly Place, the B&B. Awesome place. We arrived just before sunset to unpack, make a cup of hot tea and watch the sunset on the red rocks. A touch over 400 miles in 11 hours.

On Saturday we did the touristy thing at Mesa Verde. Great park. My friend Bill was in the area, so we had him over for dinner at our cabin Saturday night. The regional Gold Wing group was having a rally in Cortez, so we were swamped with Wings all weekend.

On Sunday Bill headed for the Grand Canyon while Jonna and I went horseback riding. Then lounged around for the afternoon.

Monday we came back a different route: CO-145 over Lizard Head (10,222) to Placerville. CO-62 over to Ridgway. US-550 north to Delta. CO-92 through Paonia and over McClure (8,755) to Carbondale. Lunch in Carbondale then CO-82 east over Independence (12,095). US-24 to Leadville. CO-91 over Fremont (11,318) to Copper. Then onto I-70 through Eisenhower Tunnel and down to Idaho Springs. Then Peak-to-Peak back to Nederland. We were about half an hour behind the big storms on Monday, so we didn't get rained on but I-70 was wet with a lot of spray off the cars. Around 450 miles on the return trip, also taking 11 hours.

The big Beemer worked great over the 1,000 or so miles we racked up over the weekend. Only burned a touch of oil and averaged 45mph (GPS miles not BMW odometer miles) two-up and loaded with gear. The backrest (Harley Road King topbox backrest) and Eclipse heated vest were relationship savers. I think Jonna enjoyed the trip and will be willing to do it all again. I bought a Chatterbox which we used as an intercom but wind noise made it more annoying than useful above 50mph or so. Maybe a larger windscreen would help. The Jesse luggage worked well but not great. The right bag leaked (I'll add caulk to see if that helps) and the left touches the exhaust (I'll add spacers to the mounts).

Looks like its very likely I'll laid off yet again later this summer (I got laid off in December and then again in February...so this would be number three...sigh), so maybe I'll have some time to put some more miles on the bike.

-- 
Think Peace.
- Alan (alanf@dorje.com)                     http://www.dorje.com/~alanf
KotBBBB (1988 GSXR1100J)  RaceBike (FT500)  DOD# 4210  PGP key available