Passes & Canyons Blog

Don’t let a little slush deter you, the main roads are all clear and ready to be ridden.

February has given us some fine riding weather and I have kicked myself for not taking advantage of more of it. So on Monday I made it a point to get out and ride.

It was pretty cloudy so we didn’t have the benefit of the warmth from the sun but the temperature was in the 50s so how bad could it be? The only cold weather gear I wore was my electric vest. I never go anywhere at this time of year without that.

But I hadn’t gotten far at all when it became really obvious that it would have been really nice to at least have put on long underwear under my jeans. It was darn chilly! I could have turned back and layered up more but I don’t like doing that. Once I leave the house I’m gone. And then as it turned out, the sun came out and the sky was full of blue. Not bad at all.

A lot of times when I go for a ride I don’t have a destination–I just ride, following any impulse. But sometimes I have a destination–heck, sometimes I manufacture a destination, just to have a place to head for. This time I was headed to a couple places down just off South Broadway at about County Line Road. I wanted to go there but couldn’t justify driving all that way just to make these two stops. But I could totally justify it for a bike ride.

One was the Wilmore nursery (Wilmore Outdoor Living Center) where I wanted to buy seeds. It’s late February and that means planting will begin in my garden in the next month or so. I frequently buy seeds from mail-order places but looking in the Gurney’s catalog I was shocked to see that seed packets that used to sell for $3-$4 each are now listed for $8. Nope, I’ll go see what I can find at Wilmore. And that made the whole trip worthwhile because I paid between $2 and $3.50 apiece for seed packets there.

Next I wanted to go to the Goodwill over on the west side of Broadway. I had been in there a week earlier when I was in the area for a doctor’s appointment and had time to kill. At that time I noticed some absolutely beautiful champagne flutes, for $2 apiece. These things were gorgeous and I would bet that new, at some fancy shop, they had cost at least $40 apiece. But I knew we had more glassware than we would ever need already so I was tempted but did not buy them.

Then after I left I thought about it and it occurred to me that I could buy them and we could get rid of some of our less nice glassware. But antique stores and thrift stores are places where if you see something you like you must buy it right then because if you come back for it it will be gone. I knew this, which was another reason I couldn’t justify driving down there, but in this case it worked to stop by again. Of course the flutes were gone. Something that gorgeous and worth so very much more is not going to stick around for long. And they didn’t.

No matter, it was a really nice day to be out riding. Then as I was headed home, I was coming north on University and as I was coming through an intersection a westbound car made the turn north onto University and — Surprise!! — started moving into my lane–with me right there. The lady did see me in time and scooted back into her lane but then she saw the lane she was in made a right turn just ahead, and she didn’t want to turn right. So she started moving back into my lane, and by now I was even closer.

I wasn’t going to get myself hurt but I made up my mind not to just cede the lane to her, and I did not drop back. She finally accepted that she needed to yield to the vehicle already in the lane she wanted–what a concept!–and just let me get past before changing lanes.

So I got on home, and by then it had clouded up and the temperature was dropping again. My timing was perfect. And I had a nice February ride.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if when you buy your bike you start calling everyone “bro.”

We might have parked a little tighter if we had realized this lot was going to soon be jammed with bikes.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pikes Peak more beautiful than it was on Saturday. Between the fresh coat of snow and the perfect light and clouds I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Which made it kind of nice that we were riding in that direction and it came into view repeatedly.

There were 11 of us on this RMMRC ride and while Saturday was not as warm as forecast it was an OK day to ride if you were geared for it. I wore my electric vest and was mighty glad I did, but I left my heated gloves at home, which was a mistake. Some day I’ll learn to put them in my bag so I’ll have them if I decide I want them. But I’m a slow learner.

I want to make the point to all of you who are involved with motorcycle groups that are struggling for membership: The RMMRC has recently gone from its own website to using Meet-Up for its site and its communications. This has been a huge success. We get more riders on the rides and while I don’t know how many, if any, have joined so far I have to believe that some of them will. Especially those who keep showing up on the rides.

Our destination was Monument, to a restaurant (La Casa Fiesta) I was not familiar with, but that grossly understates the situation. You know what I learned? Monument is a real town. All I had ever seen of it was the road down from Palmer Lake to the I-25 interchange. Guess what? If you go a few blocks west from the interstate there is a real town there, with downtown, shops, restaurants–the whole shebang. Who knew?

Getting there without riding all the same roads you’ve been on countless times could be an issue. However, leading the group was Tim, who I have to say is the one person I know who knows the roads south and east of Denver better than me. I’m sure for much of the group this was their first time on nearly all these roads. For me, I had been on most of them but there were at least a few that I have never been on. What fun!

We had quite a mixed contingent of bikes. There were three Hondas, two or three Beemers, a couple Kawasakis, one Spyder, and I’m not sure what else. On the way down I got behind a woman on a sportbike that had an obnoxious exhaust going “Bra-a-a-a-a-t, bra-a-a-a-a-t” the whole way. I made sure to put several people between us on the ride home.

When we got to the restaurant we wondered if it was open because the large parking lot was completely empty. It was open, and starting about 15 minutes later they started arriving. First there was a group of 30 bikes that pulled in. And more kept coming. By the time we were leaving the lot was completely full, with only a couple cars and probably 50 bikes.

We had a good meal (I do recommend La Casa Fiesta) and Roy did his thing, pitching the Meet-Up folks on the club and telling everyone about our upcoming rides. Then we headed north on CO 105 and everyone split off at their appropriate turns and we all went home. Heck, by the time I got home it was actually kind of warm.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if over half the pictures you take have your bike in it.