Two States, One Blog Entry... Since leaving Colorado, the scenery quotient has dropped way off. Not that Wyoming and Nebraska don't have anything worth looking at, but I guess I'm not in the right parts. :-) Actually, my time in these states is quite brief. I was in Wyoming for less than 24 hours, just cutting across the southeast corner with a one night stopover in the state capitol of Cheyenne. The last three days have been spent crossing the western panhandl...

Fun with Friends on the Front Range... The last several days have been the most fun of the trip so far. I've been able to see and stay with friends in the Boulder and Fort Collins area. In a couple of cases, I got to see people I hadn't seen in more than 15 years. Having this opportunity, I took advantage of it and stayed two nights in Boulder and two nights in Fort Collins. It was great to catch up with folks and relax. In Boulder, there are two couples that I...

Today, I completed the first 1000 miles of the trip. Only about 3000 more to go! Since leaving Salida, I haven't seen much of the sun. The weather has been gray, cold and rainy. Everyday, the thunderstorms build up in the afternoon. If you've seen the news lately, those thunderstorms turned into tornadoes and hail a few days ago in the suburbs north of Denver. Every afternoon, my ride starts to feel like a race to see if I can get to my destination before the n...

The High Point of the Trip... Riding from Telluride to Salida has been a series of long climbs followed by fast descents. But the big one was today. Monarch Pass (at 11,312 ft) is where I crossed the Continental Divide. From here, it's all down hill! Over the last few days, I seemed to be alternating between reasonably sized towns with real hotels and cabins in the middle of nowhere. Montrose was the biggest of the towns and accordingly had the least personalit...

Takin' Time in Telluride... Why anyone would call this place 'To-Hell-You-Ride' is beyond me. It seems more like heaven to me. The only reason I can guess has more to do with the route to get here than the place itself. I 'got' to climb my first 10,000 ft pass of the trip, called Lizard Head, which tops out at 10,222 ft. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The grade for this climb was pretty moderate and I gave myself two days to make it from Dolores...