Home at last. We drove a little over 3100 miles, hit seven states, and crossed eight mountain passes. Gas prices ran from a low of $2.07 in Oklahoma to a high of $3.19 in the mountains in Colorado. Our temps ran from 93 in Oklahoma to 30 degrees in the mountains. While most of the time in the mountains it was cool, the sun was bright and warm. The only bad weather we hit was on the way home. We fought the wind all the way back. I thought we would get away from the wind in Ark, but it was bad all the way to Little Rock. That's it for this blog.

These next few shots are sunrise coming out of Shamrock, Texas. We drove from Amarillo to Shamrock Wed afternoon. Lisa wanted to be in a hotel room in time to see the CSI premiere. We covered the 94 miles to Shamrock in less than an hour. Lisa didn't ask how fast I didn't tell. The wing will fly.

Pulled into Pueblo to get gas and saw this cool little Subaru Outback. Had a full roll cage, snorkel air breather, and 33 inch tires. This is the last shot for the day. We ran into very bad weather between here and Lamar. Hard rain and wind gusting to 50 mph. Temps were only mid 40's. WE were wet, cold and exhausted, it was all we could do to hang on. We laid up at McD's in Lamar for about an hour and a half. We finally decided we needed to go south to get out of the front. We were able to get out of the rain, and it was a little warmer, but we fought the wind all the way to Amarillo. We had one gust that ripped my face shield off my helment. Weather was better by the time we hit Amarillo.

Leaving the snow capped mountains behind us. We had to cut our trip a day short because of a snow advisory in the upper elevations.

More ominous weather. Didn't look good in front of us.

This is what the weather looked like Thursday morning when we left Canon City. Not very encouraging.

This is at the Holiday Inn Express in Canon City. There were about six or seven of these old cars in the parking lot. I asked one of the old guys driving them how fast they would go, his response was "faster than the average farm tractor". They were driving across Colorado into eastern Utah. This was an annual event for them. In total they have crossed 19 Colorado mountain passes.

We pulled into Canon City about 4:00 pm, got a room at the Holiday Inn Express. Cleaned up and walked across the parking lot to Chilis an ate dinner. Rain and snow in the forecast for tomorrow. Hopefully will will miss most of the bad weather. Plan is to head to Dodge City Kansas, and then to Tulsa and home.

A little store in Cotopaxi we stopped at to get a snack and some water.

Canyon carving on hwy 50 headed towards Canon City. The road runs along the river, the Arkansas River. A little cleaner, faster, and nicer than what we know.

More aspens and mountains.

More aspens coming down the mountain on hwy 50 heading towards Canon City.

Me and the wing at Monarch Pass. It was cold here, mid 40's. Our ride today went from a low of 35 in the mountains to 75 in the flatlands.

If you look closely you can see the chair lift going up the mountain at the crest of the pass. Lisa, Randy, and Gini rode this last time we were out here. The rest of us (the smart ones) stayed behind.

Shot from hwy 50 close to Monarch Pass.

Climbing up to Monarch Pass.

Saw this in Gunnison, had to get a picture. Looks like Fred's boyhood home.

Downtown Gunnison, Co. From here we stay on hwy 50 over Monarch Pass to Canon City. Royal Gorge is at Canon City, but I doubt we stop. Been there too many times.

Blue Mesa Reservoir where hwy 149 meets hwy 50 a few miles outside of Gunnison.

RV park on the river at Lake City. I guess you can tell by the number of pictures we really liked Lake City.

This takes you to a four wheel drive trail over Engineer Pass.

Church in Lake City.

More mountains and aspens off highway 149 (Silver Thread) around Lake City.

Little restaurant in Lake City.

Lake City, Colorado. This is a small mountain town on highway 149. Real cool town, not over commercialized at all. Real laid back.

This is our first time in this area of Colorado. I have been coming to Colorado since the late 60's, don't know how I missed this. We will be back.

Coming into Lake City. The colors and contrasts between the red mountains, gold aspens, and green spruce was unreal. Double-click on any of the pictures to bring them up full screen.

The sign says it all. That's the way the road was on the back side of Slumguillon Pass all the way into Lake City. Switchback after switchback, loads of fun!!

Slumgullion Pass 11,361 elevation.

Getting close to Slumguillon Pass

Mt Baldy in the distance.

The road to Spring Creek Pass.

A shot of the aspen coming up to Spring Creek Pass. The aspen were awesome, the digital we were using doesn't do them justice. They were red, orange, and bright gold.

Another shot of the Silver Thread before Lake City.

Silver Thread Byway post Creede. Great motorcycle road. The road runs through the Rio Grande river valley. The road follows the river with big wide sweepers perfect for a motorcycle and mountains on both sides. I wanted to do a little knee draggin but Lisa held me back.

Sept20th - Ok, we had a small problem with some of the pictures of our ride today. I deleted them by mistake. We spent the night at the Econo Lodge in Pagosa Springs. The temps were in the mid 40's when we left, headed to South Fork to ride the Silver Thread Byway. We crossed Wolf Creek Pass (10,850 elevation)on the way to South Fork. The Silver Thread Byway starts at South Fork and goes through Creede and then to Lake City. We lost the pictures from Pagosa to right after Creede. From Lake City our plans are to go on to Gunnison, and then Canon City. The weather forecast is for 8" to 10" of snow in the upper elevations and 4" to 6" in the lower areas. Canon City will get us past all the mountain passes and on the road to home.

I don't know, I guess Lisa liked this shot. From here we head back down 550 to Durango and then over to Pagosa Springs for the night. If you are ever in the area this is a must do ride. 145 to 62 and then 550. The best ride we have done. I think we took over 100 pictures.

Highway 550 is one of those Colorado mountain roads with zero margin of error. It is straight up on one side and straight down on the other. You have to stay focused on the task at hand. Notice no gaurdrails either.

Looking down on Silverton from highway 550. Lisa and I went downtown to Mad Mama's pie shop and had some awesome homemade pie. I had a pie called Mother Lode, lisa had Rhubarb.

Coming into Silverton. Silverton is an old silver mining town. Got the name because they produced silver-by the-ton. The narrow gauge train runs between Silverton and Durango.

However you pronounce it, that is where we are.

This ones for Sara and Gini. We stopped to get a snack in Ridgeway and this lady pulled up with two giant schnauzers in her car. One of them weighed 120 pounds. They were real friendly. I got to pet them.

We stopped on the side of the road to adjust the windshield on the motorcycle, and noticed how the horses seemed to be real interested in what we were doing.

Warning of upcoming amusement park?
Another shot of snow covered mountains.

Highway 62 heading towards Ridgeway. Aspens and snow covered mountains.

Lizard Head Pass - 10,222 elevation. We went over four mountain passes - Lizard Head, Molas, Red Mountain, and Coal Bank all were over 10,000 feet. This ride was part of the San Juan Skyway.

Another shot of downtown Telluride.