Day 2: Denver Trip (Friday, Sept 23, 2011)

I got up around 6 am this morning feeling very refreshed.  In the craziness to get everything ready, I hadn't gotten much sleep the past few nights, but last night I finally slept soundly all night.  I had a little breakfast and got all packed up, and then wandered over to the edge of the cliff to look down at the river.  I met a couple who had a big RV that was on a long cross country trip.

Then I headed back to the bike and made sure everything was ready to go.  I took off around 7:30 and was excited for the day.

Views of Gooseneck St. Park

I drove close to the 4 corners area but because I was hoping to make it to Denver tonight, I decided not to take the detour but continue on towards Denver.

Shiprock in New Mexico in the background

I drove through Cortez, Durango and then stopped for lunch at a McDonald's in Pagosa Springs.  It was a really pretty area of Colorado.  The weather has been great.  Nice sunny skies.

The bugs were pretty intense.  Each time I stopped I had to clean my face shield off.

Bugs

After lunch I headed up through the central part of Colorado on my way to Denver.  I remember a little windy section, and being not as enthralled with the central part of the state.  As I got closer to Denver there was more mountainous terrain which I liked.

It had been a long day and I was tired and ready to be in Denver.  I was meeting my brother in law who was in Denver on a business trip.  When I got to Denver and got on the freeway heading to downtown, I was a little shocked by all the cars as I had been riding secondary highways with few cars for the past two days.  But thankfully my GPS took me right to the front door of the hotel where my brother in law was outside waiting for me.  He was keeping track of me on Google latitude and could see that I was getting close.

The parking there at the hotel was expensive, so my brother in law had found a garage around the corner that was only $6.  I unloaded all of my gear and then went over to the garage to park the bike.

BYU was playing football tonight and so we went up to the room and watched the 2nd half of the game and we ordered a pizza.  It took me a little bit to unwind from the ride.  I felt like my head was still buzzing from the vibrations.  But it was good to finally relax after a long ride.

Actual Route for Day 2:

Stats for Day 2: