Colorado, USA
Day 1, Friday
We rolled out of the drive this morning about 9am under partly gray skies in no particular hurry. This road trip began in Cripple Creek with The Salute to American Veterans Rally - 19th Annual. Cripple Creek is an easy ride from our neck of the woods.
Breakfast was our first stop. Biscuits and gravy at Fatso's Diner got the day off to a great start. The next stop was High Country Harley-Davidson in Frederick, CO. Since it is well over a year old and we are headed out on a lengthy road trip, we decided to replace the battery in the fob for The Ride. The ride to Colorado Springs was easy and uneventful. We traveled familiar roads through the the small towns of Golden, Morrison, Deckers and Woodland Park. The skies spit on us near Woodland Park, but not enough to slow us down. We rolled into one of our favorite overnight stops, the Mecca Motel (see reviews page) on Old Colorado Blvd in Colorado Springs about mid-afternoon. After checking in to our great room and unloading The Ride, we made the short trip to Cripple Creek. We wanted to purchase our Rally shirts, patches and pins so we can wear them tomorrow.
The odometer rolled over 25,000 miles between Colorado Springs and Woodland Park. The Ride will be sixteen months old on the 28th of this month. We will likely add another thousand, maybe two thousand to the odometer before we call it quits on this trip. There were a good many bikes rolling down the mountain as we were headed up and there were lots of bikes parked or roaming the streets of Cripple Creek as we arrived. It was not as crowded as last year on Friday, but we were there a little later in the day. We found the rally merchandise tent and took care of that business. A shirt for Tim, a shirt for me, a couple of rally pins and rocker patches made a $50 bill vanish. We roamed through the vendors that were open for business and Tim signed the Veterans Wall while I signed it for Dad.
We admired the Lawrence David Ezell Memorial Bike. Ezell, a Texan, was a Fort Carson soldier, killed in Baghdad, Iraq in 2008. After seeing the Patriot Guard Riders in action at this hero's funeral in Arlington National cemetery, his wife donated the bike to the Patriot Guard Riders of Colorado. The bike has been customized with paint and leather work and will be placed on display in the Fort Carson Museum when construction of the facility is completed. Part of the fun of a motorcycle rally is admiring all the bikes and so, we did as we walked main street of Cripple Creek. We decided to head down the mountain a short while later. Breakfast had worn off and supper was calling. The ride down the mountain was as easy as the ride up and the skies were looking better. Savelli's Pizzaria (see reviews page) is a healthy walk (about a mile) from the motel. The best Eggplant Parmesan we have ever had, a couple of dishes of pasta, cheesy bread sticks and perfectly chilled beer put a nice finish on the day.
Tomorrow we ride in the 24th Annual POW-MIA Recognition Ride... stay tuned.
Beginning mileage 24814
Day's mileage = 291 miles
The following is a slide show of the day's ride (43 photos):
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