Colorado - July 2003
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Updated Aug 24, 2003
| June 27, 2003: Well, we should be in Colorado now, but
we're in Fenelon Falls, Ontario !!!
When we bought our new trailer two weeks ago, we didn't realize that some of the options we chose would take so long to be delivered. First they were promised for July 8 so that meant waiting around for a short while, but that date came and went and we still don't have them! Ah well, what's a deadline mean when you are retired ... Fortunately, we're having beautiful weather in the Kawartha Lakes, and spent a week on Lake Chemong and are now at Sandy Beach Resort on Balsam Lake. The delay meant we could attend Uncle George’s 80th birthday bash at King City and get to visit Auntie Ruth in Peterborough. Hopefully, we’ll get going in a week or so and make it to Colorado before the snow starts ..... July 20, 2003: Finally underway! We eventually had the major issues resolved with the trailer and decided to divert our route via Middlebury, Indiana so that we could stop off at the SunnyBrook factory and pick up our chairs and coffee table rather than wait for them to be shipped to Can-Am. Our route is now going via Springfield, IL, St Louis, Missouri, Kansas City, KS and then on to Colorado Springs, CO. Should arrive on Wednesday 23rd - no idea where we are going or staying in Colorado - will just see how it works out! July 27, 2003: We are in Colorado Springs and have booked for 2 weeks at the Golden Eagle Ranch RV Park. The park’s at 6000’ but all the mountains behind us are huge - Pike’s Peak, the biggest, is over 14,000’ - the views are beautiful and the motorcycle rides through the mountains on the dirt roads are great. Unfortunately, the park doesn’t have Internet access so we are limited to just checking e-mail at the local Kinko’s store (they provide a free telephone hookup) but trying to update webpages via a slow dialup modem is frustrating after being used to High Speed DSL connection. We'll try to update the site whenever we get suitable facilities but I doubt if it will be very regular in the short term. Aug 4, 2003: We will be leaving for Gunnison, CO in a couple
of days so I'm making an effort to get a few pictures posted from our stay
in Colorado Springs.
The area around Cripple Creek was the largest gold producing area in
the 1890's. Most of the mines have been abandoned but there is still
one very large one operating now. The town has been completely reworked
and almost every store is now a gambling casino - this is one of the three
towns in Colorado that permit gambling.
Old Stage Road runs from the suburbs to Victor, where it links up with
the Gold Belt tour. We rode here often -there's great views and an interesting
hike up dome Rock where you have a 360 view of the entire area. Like in
Arizona, where the sky is usually brilliant blue, it's very difficult to
get my digital camera to exposure for the range of contrast. None of these
pictures do justice to the beautiful views
There's a huge amount of places to go riding around Colorado Springs
- from Pikes Peak International Raceway (NASCAR was there last weekend,
and the AMA Superbikes raced there last month), to scenic Interstates,
great paved twisty backroads, and many dirt roads over high passes.
There are also many areas for full off-road motorcycling in many of the
National Forests not far from here. Colorado is probably second only
to California in numbers of motorcycles.
We took a ride to Golden, near Denver to visit Buffalo Bill's grave.
The weather started out nice and sunny, but in typical Colorado summer
fashion, it generates violent thunderstorms in the afternoon. We'd
been dodging them all week but this one really caught us about an hour
from home and soaked us. Most local riders just seem to wear T-shirts
and ride in the wet and then dry out. The storms tend to be very
local so you are in and out of sunshine and storms.
We'd been waiting for good weather before taking a ride to the top of
Pike's Peak - one of the highest mountains in the USA. There's a
toll road going up to over 14,000' and the views should have been great,
but it was hazy as usual and a bit disapointing. The air is really
thin at this altitude and it didn't take long to get exhausted just walking
around.
Next stop Gunnison ....
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This page last updated on Aug 24, 2003
