Colorado, USA
Saturday - Day 1 Mini road Trip
We rolled out Saturday morning with Tim in t-shirt sleeves and me in a light denim jacket. At this time of year the direction is south. The rural roads of the eastern plains will do for a Sunday afternoon ride in winter but south is less of a yawn factor. In no particular hurry, we stayed off of the interstate and traveled on Hwy 287 to Hwy 128 through the Interlocken area and on through Golden and the eastern edge of Morrison along C470 before breaking off on Hwy 85. We stopped for coffee and a full breakfast at a Village Inn near Castlerock along I-25.
Tim decided he would wear his jacket on the next leg of the trip. We had blue skies and plenty of sun but the temps were mild and traveling over the Palmer Divide is usually chilly. We traveled the interstate only as far as the cutoff for Larkspur (known for the Renaissance Festival) riding Hwy 105 through Palmer Lake where O'Malley's seem to be doing a good biker trade. We traveled the interstate again for a short while, scooting on through Colorado Springs taking Hwy 115 (in a roundabout way because we missed the turn for the umpteenth time) past Fort Carson to Penrose where we hooked up with Hwy 50 and rolled west toward Canon City.
By the time we rolled into Canon City, the day had warmed and after cruising a few blocks of downtown admiring the architecture we stopped at a little ice cream shop advertising Blue Bell ice cream. The Ice Kream and Cophy Shop (no, that's not a typo) sits directly across from The Royal Gorge Welcome Center. It is small but nicely appointed with ice cream tables, chairs and sofas. The place was very clean and the person who served us a healthy helping of our favorite ice cream was pleasant and efficient.
Refreshed and ready to roll again we headed west (go figger - The Ride was not ready to go home and neither were we). Canon City is home to the historic Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility and it is always interesting to roll by it. There's a prison museum in town but as usual we would rather ride so we passed on that again.
This section of Hwy 50 between Canon City and Salida is one of our favorite rides. The road gently follows the curves of Arkansas River through a canyon. The Saguache (pr: say watch) Mountains, many of them fourteeners, that surround Salida dominate the view around every bend. The river was busy with fisherman and early-bird kayakers and rafters. I say early-bird because that water is far from warm at this time of year.
We cruised up and down the streets of Salida before checking in at the Days Inn on Hwy 50 which was more a matter of convenience than choice as it was within walking distance of several restaurants. This is as quiet as we have ever seen Salida but then tourist season is still several weeks away. We were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. The hotel is older and the decor is what I call Colorado-Kitsch (lots of pine and wildlife motif), stenciling and other personal touches, all well done and well-maintained. Our room was attractive, spacious, extremely clean and even though it is the off season the rate was about half of what we expected to pay. We had a flat screen TV, refrigerator and the WIFI worked well.
As soon as we freshened up and put The Ride to bed we strolled down the street to Wallbanger's Sports Bar and Grill. Every time we ride through Salida we always say we are going to stop and now we have. The parking lot is usually crowded with motorcycles but not today - if there were bikers in the crowd they were like us - incognito. It was busy and looks to be a favorite with the locals, both young and old. Anyway, we were seated immediately and served a couple of ice cold beers while we perused the menu. The special was prime rib with baked potato, salad and apple pie. We did that x2. Yum! As we watched trays go by, we agreed just about everything looked great so this is a place where one can get what one wants and find something in any price range.
After a leisurely meal, we strolled (perhaps waddled is a better term) back to the motel and roamed around the property for a short spell. A herd of deer crossed the road directly in front of us and disappeared in the wooded area just behind the motel. There's a nice rock garden on the east end of the property.
I checked in with the world via our little travel laptop while Tim dozed through a TV show. We watched a couple of episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives which is about as entertaining as anything on weekend TV. It wasn't long before we called it an early night mostly because hard-working Tim nodded off with a snore while in the middle of changing channels - grin!
We traveled 267.9 miles on day one of our first mini road trip 2012.
Slide show of Day 1 (80 photos):
Alternative link to this slide show
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