Yikes, yaks!!!

Ok, a little more about dinner last night. We had studied all day about where we were to dine. Graham’s Grill. Turned out it was a bit more upscale than we were expecting. And I’m sure we weren’t exactly the group that our server was expecting either. At the very least, I know she was highly entertained. It was pretty difficult to recognize most of what we were eating… except mine. I had some little steak served on a bed of cajun fries and covered with onion “frizzles”. I think the rest of our group is trying to figure out what they were eating. And Phil was the least impressed with his chicken enchilada imitators!

Now this morning was a totally different story. Phil had a recognizable breakfast, Julianne had a delicious looking croissant, Mary had a beautiful, yummy looking plate full of french toast and I had a Parisienne (sp) crepe.

We managed to get on the road about 9:00 am. Today’s destination was Nederland, CO. The temp was great this morning… about 65 when we left. Before long I was riding in short sleeves. You guys in cars have no idea the things you miss. Today we saw Jack Dempsey’s birthplace, yaks (well, not all of us saw these) and the headwaters of the Rio Grande River. But one thing I’m sure you are glad that you miss is weather! As we fueled in Buena Vista we discussed putting on our rain gear just because the clouds were looking pretty ominous. Julie and Phil “kinda” geared up – not totally though. Mary and I opted not to put on any gear. A decision we would soon regret. Not even 10 miles from the gas station and it started sprinkling, then raining hard, then hail! OUCH! OUCH! Thank goodness it didn’t last very long. By the time we reached Fairplay it was looking bad (really bad) again so we pulled over and all of us suited up. And not 1 mile too soon! Before long we were traversing mountain passes in a full out rainstorm. The temperature dropped from 85 to 63 in a matter of minutes. It wouldn’t do for us to stop because it looked bad everywhere. So we pressed on. Once we got to I70, and heavy traffic, and lots of rain, plus increased speed, the “pucker factor” had just about maxed out. No other choice but to lower our speed and turn on our flashers so the rest of the vehicles could see us. Once we left the interstate and headed through Central City the rain stopped. Thank gosh! Talk about white knuckles!!

Our day seemed extremely long… probably the weather more than anything. So once we checked into the motel we went for a quick meal and back to chillax before we hit the hay. Tomorrow is another day and I hope we can do it without the bad weather!