Try This Again
Who knows, if they did the Elephant Ride this year they might make it over to Georgetown.
Monday before Christmas and it’s 73 degrees and my piano lesson got canceled. Need I say more?
It’s funny how I no longer need to specify that I was on the V-Strom. It’s my only bike now. Still a bit odd.
I wondered where to go and it hit me: do what I tried to do last time. Figure out how, in Parker, to get onto Motsenbacher Road south to Crowfoot Valley Road down to Castle Rock. By golly, this time I was going to get this clear in my head once and for all.
I started out on the same route, south to Bellview, east to Peoria, south on Peoria and the east on Bronco Parkway. This time, though, instead of taking Bronco Parkway all the way to Parker Road I turned south on Jordan Road. Parker is a major highway and there’s a lot less traffic on Jordan. At Main Street I turned east to get right back to where I had gone wrong before.
Reaching Parker Road I did as I should have done before, continuing southeast on it. This time I got to Twenty Mile Road and I didn’t really want to turn on that but the street signs are so small in this area that by the time I could read it I was committed. Fine, I’ll do a Uey if I need to.
But then I saw ahead on the left a bridge, now open and in use, that I had seen last while it was under construction. This was Dransfeldt Road and I took that left. I crossed over this new bridge, this brand new connection, and as I approached the upcoming intersection saw a sign that read “End Dransfeldt, Begin Motsenbacher.” Yahoo!
So essentially, I didn’t figure out how to get to Motsenbacher the way I would have needed to before, I discovered the newest, more direct way to get to it. And what’s more, I had crossed Twenty Mile Road going east on Main Street. It takes off from Parker Road heading west but soon bends north. So in the future I can skip going all the way to Parker Road and just go south on Twenty Mile Road to get to Dransfeldt to get to Motsenbacher. I’ve got this baby nailed now. And I can go all this way without once getting on super busy Parker Road. Nice.
As I knew it would, Motsenbacher became Crowfoot Valley Road and I soon came to Castle Rock. Along the way, as I so often do, I marveled at the development. When I first started riding Crowfoot Valley Road, not that many years ago, it was all rural and there was a little farmhouse out there that was all alone. Now you go mile and mile with hundreds upon hundreds of homes everywhere. That farmhouse now seems to be converted to a construction operations site. Further along you come to an area of large houses on large acreages but there is also open land with For Sale signs. This is all gonna pass, and sooner rather than later.
I passed through Castle Rock, across I-25 to catch US 85 northwest and made the turn onto Happy Canyon Road. I had forgotten that when that road reaches I-25 there is nowhere to go but onto the highway, so I found myself briefly on I-25 northbound.
I got off at the next interchange, Hess Road, and intended to jog east and then go north again on Havana, running alongside I-25, but there was construction and Havana did not appear to be accessible. So I continued east on Hess, finally turning north on Chambers, and from there worked my way on home.
Was this the warmest day on record here for December 22? I don’t know but it might as well have been. Heck, our mailman was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. I love Colorado.
Biker Quote for Today
Motorcyclists are always happy but never quite satisfied.
