Labor Day and More Ride - Day 1

September 5, 2009
Fort Collins, CO

We began Labor Day weekend with a Saturday morning ride to Vern's for a good ol' country breakfast. It was warm and clear. The plan was to arrive early at Thunder in the Rockies, a large motorcycle rally held in our area. This was the 5th annual event. It is held at the humongous Budweiser Event Center just off I-25 near Loveland, CO which just happens to be across the street (highway) from Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson.

We wanted to arrive early (they opened at 10 am) - 1) to avoid a long line at the HOG pin stop, 2) shop the leather vendors first for new jackets, 3) beat the heat, and 4) if a reason to linger didn't present itself, perhaps get a good start on what would turn out to be a really, really long holiday weekend. Nine days. Five states. 2035 miles.

On the way in, we saw a Harley-Davidson demo ride group. First things first, we stopped for our pin. We found out later that HOG didn't actually sponsor the pin stop this year. Thunder Mountain H-D provided the pins. Hmmm... They are nice, pewter motorcycle over a shield, bearing the year, HOG and Thunder in the Rockies lettering. We found jackets quick enough. Of course, we knew what we were looking for this time around. We bought them from the same vendor as last year. Papa's out of OKC. We paid a little less which is a good thing since the quality and weight of the leather is far from what it was last year. Yeah, we're still missing those jackets we lost on an Indian Reservation near the Badlands in South Dakota not too long ago.


Other than a couple of replacement flags for the bike and some pin studs, we didn't find anything else to buy... I saw a new patch I liked... just didn't like the price $10 (includes sewing). The patch said: PROUD AMERICAN INFIDEL beside a US Flag. I have found it online for $2.95... that's better. I can sew it on myself. Nope, we didn't buy another thing, unless you count a couple of frozen lemonades. This year's rally wasn't quite as much fun. There were fewer vendors. Lehman trikes, toy haulers and several custom bike outfits were glaringly absent. The stunt show was not as good as last year (actually, the part we caught was sort of boring burnout lame), there were no sky divers, patriot guard troop escorts or other patriotic functions scheduled. The bike show was OK, but small and not laid out very well. Brothers of the Sun, while very good, was the only band to perform the four hours we were there. This year's rally shirt design was - uh - boring. I told Tim I could wait until they put them on sale at the dealership later in the year. The one thing we wanted to see was the Wall of Death show. Although advertised on rally fliers, the Wall of Death located inside the rally grounds, was an extra $5 per head. Now, we had just paid $10 per head to get into the rally... and felt like the entertainment didn't quite measure up to that value, so tapping us for another $5 felt like a rip-off. We passed.

We wandered through the grounds a second time, watched the crowds, listened to the band while we consumed our lemonade and admired the bike show entries. By 2 pm we were out the door. Lots and lots and lots of bikes had arrived but as many were leaving as were coming in. Of course, Thunder Mountain was hosting the rides and poker runs. From the looks of the clouds hovering over the Rockies, we figure the mountain riders got a little more than they bargained for this year. Thunder Mountain also had live music in their own amphitheater, a bikini bike wash and other events scheduled. When we rode by a while later on our way out of town, the place was jammed with bikes...

Thunder in the Rockies

Eager to head out, we rode straight home, loaded the bike (I had already packed), snipped the tags off the new jackets and strapped them on. We rolled out of the neighborhood at 3:10 pm. Destination? Loosely, as far south as we could get before nightfall or the weather shut us down.

Riding south on I-25 went as well as can be expected for a Saturday afternoon on a holiday weekend. With the heating of the day, clouds had built quickly. About halfway through Denver, we caught rain out of the back side of a little black cloud that drenched us before we could get off the interstate and roll under an awning at a Shell Station. It wasn't long before a couple of other riders joined us. We spent nearly an hour sheltering and visiting. We just knew any minute we'd have to pay rent (buy gas) if the cloud didn't move on. It finally did. We gave it a few more minutes to let the water clear off the streets. Denver and Colorado Springs are notorious for street flooding, even on I-25. We continued on south, made it through the Springs (Colorado Springs) and had just about air-dried when we ran through another rain cloud. The storms were beginning to look worse so we thought we'd ride 37 more miles and spend the night in Pueblo. We thought wrong. There wasn't a room to be had in Pueblo. We wasted a good bit of time looking, before I remembered this was the last weekend of the Colorado State Fair.

At this point, we could return home or ride on. Return? Snort! Ride on we did, despite the look of the skies. We stopped in Colorado City to check the small hotel there. No luck. We grabbed a bite to eat at Subway in a convenience store and continued on to Trinidad where we finally found a stinky (smoking) room in a low budget (well, it wasn't all that low) motel in Starkville.

We called it a day after riding 295 miles. A good start. Stay tuned...