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Just another ride in Colorado, 5 friends for life

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I labeled a picture above, "somewhere around Blackhawk." I think it's the canyon west of Loveland. It's a lovely road, but very crowded with cars going to Estes Park and RMNP.
 
Highway 125 from Granby to Walden is a terrific motorcycle road with very few cars and lots of curves. Scenery is so-so. Highway 14 from State Forest State Park to highway 287 is Fantastic. It‘s better than the Million Dollar Highway because there are way fewer cars and it is longer. The drop offs into the river are not as steep or as deep, but they are still life threatening if a mistake were made. Scenery is nonstop. My new second favorite Colorado highway.

After leaving RMNP, we headed south to Colorado Springs where we were going to meet a long lost buddy that went off to med school, the air force and now Colorado. On the way, we are going to ride the Peak to Peak highway, highway 74 between Evergreen and highway 8, and highway 67 to Manitou springs. 67 is my favorite motorcycle highway in Colorado. Notice I didn’t say it’s my favorite ride in Colorado. The road is sparsely traveled and very curvy, but the scenery doesn’t measure up to other parts of Colorado.

On the way to Greg’s house, we took a short cut up Mount Evans
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Where we saw these
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And this
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We took another short cut up Pikes peak. I have been up Mount Evans quite a few times, but I went up Pikes Peak in 1980 and 1981. The road up was totally gravel and for 31 years I felt like Mount Evans was the better ride with better scenery. I have been wrong. That gravel road must have affected my vision because I now suggest PP over Evans. Do both if you can.
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The road up
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As it was in 1980
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Thanks so much for the offer Dennie. Much appreciated and I will keep it in mind.
 
We took a day off and rode around Colorado springs.
We were photo bombed by bigfoot himself.
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We ate at a little bar in the middle of nowhere. Food on the other side of the menu, but check out the items in the little box on the right. This is the only time I have ever seen Shower on the menu.
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Greg and his lovely fiancé joined us for a ride. Dirt OK, 15% grade OK, Freshly graded…..?
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Jim Bishop, castle builder, has been at it again. More signs.
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Typical "scaffolding"
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The arched walkway has not been finished. I don't think it has been worked on in the last 4 years.
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I ventured out on it anyway. Maurice declined.
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The moat has been started. He is 70 years old and aging fast. This gate looks deadly.
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Jim would fit in with most Texas meetings. He doesn't mince words about his political or religious beliefs.
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We decided to slab it to Oklahoma City and the next morning I stopped at a fried pie shop near Turner Falls. There were no apricots in my pie, just a jelly looking substance that had an apricot flavor. No more for me.
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Five people were making fried pies
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Four were working the cash registers. Somebody likes them more than I did.
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A couple of missed photos because it was raining. One was the worlds largest rocking chair and the other was the largest cross in the US.

If I find the day and a half worth of pictures that I lost, I'll post a little more.

Right now, I feel like this ride was one of my best, definitely in the top 5 and that's saying a lot since I've been riding 51 years and been on many, many rides. The scenery played a large part in my enjoyment, but the people I was with added as much or more to my experience. Thanks to Ray for organizing the ride. Thanks to Phil and Mark for adding unique perspectives to a camping and riding experience. And thanks to Maurice for enduring an extra week of sore butt by touring around on the way back. 2,630 street miles on the FZ1 and I didn't pay attention to the DRZ, but it now has 17,000+ miles and counting. The only thing that would have made this ride better is for Mark M. and Jeff P. to come along.
 
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