Saturday New Friend and "Passport" Ride

June 19, 2010
Colorado, USA

Fort Collins, CO -- With a gray start to our day we rolled out of the drive thinking let's find some breakfast while the clouds burn off. Even with clouds, it was warm enough to start out in t-shirt sleeves although the leathers were with us, just in case. We couldn't think where we might like to eat for breakfast. The plan was to ride south so that left Vern's for another day. We weren't ready to get out on I-25 so that left Johnson's Corner for another day. We were thinking maybe Widow McCoy's in Loveland but as we were riding by Schmidt's Bakery again without stopping, we thought maybe we'll just go in and check that out. About a block later, Tim turned The Ride around and headed back.

Oh my goodness! What a wonderful bakery! Every kind of cake, cookie, pie, bread, quiche and pastry you can imagine. Plus there's a great deli. Tim tried the bratwurst and German sausage. I tried the German sausage and sauerkraut. Yes, I know - sauerkraut before breakfast but - YUM! Needless to say, we sat ourselves down in the restaurant and ordered coffee and breakfast. The coffee was rich and strong. Tim ordered a traditional style breakfast, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns but spiced it up with dark rye toast. Me I went for the German Potato Pancakes with apple compote and sausage. Portions were plentiful and cooked just right. Tim happily helped me finish off the potato pancakes.



While we were waiting on breakfast we saw another rider come in. He was wearing a Harley shirt. It wasn't long before we struck up a conversation. Our excellent waitress is from Beaumont, TX, David (our new friend) is from Baytown, TX and of course, we are from Wichita Falls, TX so we all got along naturally. It turns out David is a regular at Schmidt's and we will be too I imagine. As we were getting ready to head out, Tim told David we were riding into Denver to play the "Passport" Game.

Eighteen Harley dealers in a three state area have a game going where you ride to each dealership and get your passport stamped. For each stamp, you get to fill out a coupon for a chance to win a new H-D motorcycle or a $50 gift card. We have until September to get to all locations. If you turn in a passport stamped with all 18 locations, you get another 18 chances to win. Since we likely would have ridden to all but one of the locations listed anyway, we decided to add that one and play the game.

David had not heard of it, but thought it might be fun. He decided to tag along which was fine with us. Since Sun Harley-Davidson was our first stop and David knew where that was, he led us out of Loveland on his nicely tricked out 09 Ultra into the north edge of Denver for our first stop. We browsed through Sun Harley-Davidson, which is where David purchased his ride. We like the two story dealership well and will go back later on to check out the great selection of accessories on hand.

The next stop would be Freedom Harley-Davidson now Avalanche H-D. We knew where that was so we led the way this time. Construction had us ride the long way around though. We told David, we were giving him the scenic tour. He didn't seem to mind. Freedom was doing a brisk business and having a bikini bike wash which was drawing a pretty good crowd. Ha! We browsed through this dealership as well. Tim found a pair of H-D riding gloves and a new do-rag which we purchased as part of his Father's Day present.

The third and final "Passport" stop today would be Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson. We led David around the foothills on C-470. He had not made that ride before and said it was beautiful. Well, it is. That area (Littleton/Lakewood) is our old stomping grounds. This dealership had a "feed" going on. They were serving up sloppy joes. We went straight for the ice water. The day had warmed and we were thirsty and hot. After getting our passports stamped and cooling off in the dealership, we wandered back out where Tim enjoyed an ice-cream and David, a popsicle.

After a good stretch, we mounted up again and led David back to the small town of Morrison, CO. The tiny town was packed with tourists, Denver people and motorcycles. Lots of motorcycles. A group of I'm guessing 30 bikes came roaring in from the west side just as we were riding back through town. Even David said he had not seen that many black riders since he moved to Colorado five years ago. Ha! Us, either. They followed us through the town and roared past us as we were turning into Red Rocks. We rode the park past the amphitheater to the lookout point. From there you can see the valley below with a good bit of Denver sprawled out before you. Today, it was a bit hazy. We are thinking smoke from the wildfires in southern Colorado had drifted all the way up the I-25 corridor.

The last part of our ride had us leading David through Golden, CO north on scenic Hwy 93 for a while, cutting off before we reached busy Boulder and eventually heading home up Hwy 287. David cut off in Loveland to head home while we continued on to Fort Collins. We had already swapped information so we can stay in touch.

David said it best earlier in the day... nothing about the day had turned out like he had expected when he got up this morning. He said he had a great ride down some new roads with new friends. The same goes for us. We knew we were rolling out on a "Passport" Ride and we came home with a new friend to share some of our adventures.

As usual, a slide show follows: