Firsts

While I was in Gallup, on the way to Red Rocks park with my couchsurfing friend, I saw my first tumbleweed! I was so excited. Declaring they had not yet hit a tumbleweed in this car, they swerved to run it over. Now, in my mind it was going to crumple like an origami paper ball but when we hit that thing there was the kind of "thud" one might expect to feel if you ran over a child. I was worried their car might be messed up from it but luckily it was not the case. So now I've both seen and run over my first tumbleweed.

I got held over in Gallup for a day because as I was packing my bike to ride out to Durango, CO; the rain started pouring and the lightning started falling and there was no way I was riding in that mess. My gracious hosts said it was no problem, and my host in Grand Junction said it was no problem. My hosts in Durango however, couldn't accommodate the schedule shift.

So I hit the road for Grand Junction from Gallup. It would have been a 7 or 8 hour ride. Not the most desirable solution but I've spent more time than that in the saddle before.

I stop for lunch in Shiprock, NM which is right up near the border with Colorado and I check my phone. Turns out someone in Durango go back to me so I didn't have to go all the way to Grand Junction. I had a great time hanging with my new friends in Durango and it was a shame I only scheduled a stopover there, but I'm in a losing race with winter right now.

Just outside of Durango I started getting rained on. Then the rain turned to hail. It was tiny, and I thankfully didn't feel it through my layers of gear, but it was my first hail storm on my motorcycle. Yay?

To go from the beauty of New Mexico to the beauty of Colorado is a wonderful thing. New Mexico is almost otherworldly to me, being from the Northeast. The deserts and their rolling hills; the mesas that stick up out of nowhere; truly a sight to behold and a place to experience.

Colorado however, has "majesty".



After my stay in Durango, I headed north through the mountains to Grand Junction. After riding through beautiful winding mountain roads I stopped in to a little town called Silverton (pictured above) for lunch. I ate at a place called "The Pickle Barrel" which was one of 2 places that I found open. I had a good burger and a bottle of a local brand of root beer "Zuberfizz".



Delicious.

Heading out from Silverton, I started a climb up into the mountains. Before I set out on this journey, my parents had gotten me a heated vest and heated gloves that plug in to my bike's battery and today was the first day I was wearing my heated gear. It was plugged in and turned on. Shortly past Silverton on 550, I saw a couple of snowflakes. "Oh wow, I've never seen snow on my bike before! That's pretty cool." Shortly after that I was up in a mountain pass in a full whiteout snowstorm. If not for the heated gear I would have been stranded in Silverton. As it was I was perfectly comfortable.

I was however, once again lamenting my tall windshield. I remember my dad telling me in a windshield, you either want the top of it below your field of vision, or above it. Not cutting across the middle of it. That made sense. I now know you do not want a windshield above your field of vision. When it gets dirty, you pretty much can't see through it at night and it doesn't take much to get it dirty. I've been traveling with a bottle of Windex in my saddlebags for cleaning it off as I need to. Which is anytime I'm riding and it gets dark.

Another reason you don't want it above your field of vision is in rain...or snow. The snow started to accumulate and freeze on my windshield. In the turns, I was leaning and looking through the turn so it wasn't an issue but anytime the road straightened out I had to reach over the top of the windshield with my left hand and wipe away the snow and ice. It was a slow going, brutal 10 miles. Then I started losing altitude and I got in to Ouray, Colorado.

Ouray is a very cool looking town and I would love to vacation there someday. Of course, I'm tempted by any place that has hot springs. Maybe some day in the future. For now I had to be content to clean off my windshield, go to the bathroom in O'Brien's pub, and keep moving.

I got to Grand Junction around 7:30 so we had dinner, and went to a bar to hang out. The next day I rode up to Colorado National Monument Park. It was great. Nice roads, great scenery, what more could I ask for?







This is the coolest back yard anyone can have. Seriously, my host's house is near the middle of the picture below:



My host practices power yoga. Have you heard of it? It's yoga in a room that's like 100 degrees. Pretty much doing Yoga in a dry sauna. They invited me to come along and the Sunday class is only $5.00. I will probably never have the chance to try it at a better price, so I went along.

Holy crap. I have never sweat so much in my entire life. Maybe on my 10 hour ride from Atlanta to Orlando in August. Maybe. That hour long class was the longest hour of my life. And since the Sunday class is such an incredible deal the place is packed, and it's more like a wet sauna with all the sweat coming off of everyone. It was a special kind of torture. A torture that I paid $5.00 for. BUT it did leave me feeling like a million bucks. Afterwards I had the most refreshing shower of my life and I woke up today still feeling loose and limber. I can see why people do it.

Today I went and bought shoes. I had to throw away my sneakers in New Orleans because they were so worn down that walking around for a couple of hours actually injured my heel. I was wearing my flip flops which were fine up until Gallup when it finally got too cold. As I'm heading to Moab and expect to do a significant amount of walking around all the amazing places there, I figured I should have footwear more properly suited to walking than motorcycle boots (which start to hurt after walking in them for 20 minutes).

I'm heading to Moab as soon as I have a place to stay there. For now, I'm sittin' tight in Grand Junction.

Isn't this the greatest thing to see on a gas station coffee machine?



I dub thee, Sir Edmund Fontleroy! I expect Sir Fontleroy to make some more appearances should I get bored and have time on my hands.

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