{"id":13611,"date":"2026-07-30T12:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=13611"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:37:20","slug":"history-repeats-with-variations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/history-repeats-with-variations\/","title":{"rendered":"History Repeats, With Variations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>


\nJungle up on Skyline Drive down by Canon City.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Willie and Jungle are very good friends of ours and we know them as a direct result of my setting up this website. I put a “Colorado Motorcycle Rentals and Tours<\/a>” page on the site and Willie was running a motorcycle tour company. She saw the site and contacted me to ask to be included on that page. I was happy to do so.<\/p>\n

I can’t remember if we talked or emailed but she told me that if I was ever up in Eagle I should stop by, and if I needed a place to spend the night they would be happy to put me up. Some time later I had plans to attend a rally that was going on at Avon so I figured I’d take her up on the offer. I called and she said they were going to be gone at that time but no matter, I could stay there anyway and she would let the lady taking care of their cats know to expect me.<\/p>\n

We had never met and she invited me to stay at their home without them there. Anyone who knows Willie and Jungle will know that this is pure Willie and Jungle. I thought it was a little strange but I took advantage of the offer. Some time later we did meet in person and have since become fast friends.<\/p>\n

So anyway, on my way to Eagle that day I ran into stopped traffic up on Vail Pass. There were other riders also going to the rally so at one point another rider and I decided to just take the shoulder and move up to the front of the stoppage. It was illegal then but we were willing to chance it. As we cruised along some riders called out to us to say it was a bad idea (“$300 fine!”) but others joined us. We got away with it. The delay was caused by a truck on fire.<\/p>\n

Well, on Sunday Judy and I were heading over to Eagle to spend a couple days with Willie and Jungle. Just by chance, shortly before we planned to leave home, I saw an item about I-70 being closed due to a fire in the westbound tunnel. A truck on fire. Oh gosh, should we take an alternate route? Digging further we couldn’t find anything and eventually figured out that this was just one of those phantom news items that somehow reappears years later. Who knows why. So we would take I-70 after all. (We were in the car, not on the bike.)<\/p>\n

Still wary, we got to the tunnel and no problem. Cruising on, though, as we got near Copper Mountain, there were road signs warning of a delay on Vail Pass. We didn’t want to go all the way south to Buena Vista, then up through Leadville and back to the interstate at Minturn so we decided we’d just take it as it came.<\/p>\n

Well, it was a long stop. More than an hour. And it occurred to me that this was the perfect time to be on a motorcycle. Traffic was at a complete stop and it was a wide road with plenty of space between lanes. Shouldn’t we be seeing motorcycles lane-splitting past us? But the whole time we sat there there was not a single one. We finally started moving again, slowly, and then–yes, then–sure enough, here comes a couple on a bike splitting along through all these moving vehicles. Totally illegal. Oh well, we hope you don’t have any unplanned encounters.<\/p>\n

We got near the bottom of Vail Pass and what do you suppose was causing the delay? A truck on fire. Not in the tunnel as the phantom article I saw said, but a truck on fire just the same. And very near where that other truck was on fire all those years ago. I think that pass is just high enough to make your brakes burn about the time you get to the bottom if you’re not using your brakes and gears correctly. In this case it was clear the fire started at the rear wheels and spread into the trailer.<\/p>\n

Just to tie things up, as we were headed home on Tuesday we once again ran into a delay on Vail Pass. This time it was road construction; they’re rebuilding the road and adding new lanes. This time the delay was only 20 minutes. But we’re sitting there and once again I’m thinking this is a perfect opportunity for a motorcycle. Where are they? And then one did come along. Filtering right up the middle past all these stopped vehicles, just like the law says. Good for you!<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

I have discovered biker paradise. It is called the Great Smoky Mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willie and Jungle are very good friends of ours and we know them as a direct result of my setting up this website. I put a “Colorado Motorcycle Rentals and Tours” page on the site and Willie was running a motorcycle tour company. She saw the site and contacted me to ask to be included […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197,168],"tags":[1601,1417,1602],"class_list":["post-13611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado-motorcycle-rides","category-motorcycle-legislation","tag-delays-on-i-70-in-colorado","tag-lane-filtering-in-colorado","tag-vail-pass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13613,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611\/revisions\/13613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}