September 13, 2008
Fort Collins, CO
Always a fun trip, Estes Park as a destination on a motorcycle is even better!
We pulled out of the drive at 8:45 am. The day before was rather chilly, so we lingered a little longer over our coffee before heading out and dressed warmly. Much to our surprise and delight, the view of the mountains from the grasslands between Loveland and Fort Collins revealed snow-capped peaks.
The drive was perfect. Big, blue sky, sun in the canyon, the Thompson was running clear and it was not too cold. The Chief was standing tall in his meadow. The view as you enter Estes Park on Hwy 34 is always breath-taking, no matter what time of year or what time of day. Our favorite parking and rest stop is on the far west side of town. We were pleased to see an Art Fair in the park. So, we had a cup of coffee, secured The Ride and ambled down the street in our leathers. We shopped for a few minutes in the park before Tim spied a big sign touting breakfast. There wasn't much conversation about it, we immediately turned in that direction, deciding without actually saying it, we could shop better after consuming eggs. The breakfast at Claire's on the Park, was good (eggs were cooked as ordered and the coffee was hot) and reasonably priced for a mountain town. Afterwards, we strolled through the cluster of art tents, enjoyed it all, found several things to our liking, but didn't bring any of it home with us.
I always shop Granny Gingham's, a moderately priced gift shop and I usually find something. This time I brought home a couple of small Hallowe'en decorations. We stopped in Simply Christmas, one of three or four Christmas shops in Estes Park, but passed on packing breakables since we were on the motorcycle and the whole day was before us. We window shopped our way back down the street. Neither of us was really interested in shopping... The Ride was waiting, after all.
Since the last time we were in Estes Park, the Danish Cone has added Blue Bell Ice Cream to the menu. As far as we're concerned, that adds a gold star next to one of our favorite destinations. Alas! We had just eaten breakfast, there was no room (even Tim said so) for ice cream this time.
Time to ride - see part 2
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