Into Durango and the group arrives.

Larry, Dixie, Mark, Lori and I left Grand Junction in the morning and headed south. I had asked Larry if he needed gas and he said he had about 170 miles on this tank, That is about the same as we had, so I told everyone we would get gas before getting too far out of town. We headed out and before long we were at the edge of town and no more gas stations. We had already gone by about 12 stations, but all of a sudden we were on the hwy and no more...

The upcoming sign said the next town was only 33 miles and my fuel light had not come on yet, so I decided to go for it. by this time we were about 190 miles on this tank.  By the time we rolled into town and stopped for gas, everyone's fuel light was on and we had 222 miles on the odometer, but we made it.

Just down the road we ran into bicycles, a lot of bicycles... it seems there was some sort of big ride going on and we were right in the middle of it all. They eventually tapered off as we got into Ourey, CO, which by the way is a very odd town. the whole town is built on the side if a mountain and they did not level anything. The left side of the road was a good 20 feet higher than the right side. Going through on the bikes I was just hoping we didn't have to stop. If the bike leaned right, there was no way to get your foot down before the bike went over.

From there it was 25mph up the side of the mountain for about 10 miles. Switchback after switchback and the was absolutely NO shoulder. The white line was the edge, then a drop off of about 1000 feet. not a thing to fixate on. After we got up higher the road opened up and the next 60 miles was motorcycle heaven!  Twists and turns and hills and sweepers and corners from 10mph to 60 mph. A little bit of everything.

Traffic was light and we had a lot of fun. At the top of Molas Pass (10910 feet) it was a bit cold so we stopped for a minute. Just walking across the parking lot and I was winded. The altitude takes a bit of getting used to!

From there to Durango was all downhill and it got warmer as we went. By the time we got into town it was back in the high 80's. We were the first to arrive and the rooms were not ready, so we walked up to "Serious Texas BBQ" and had lunch. By the time we got done and walked back, people were starting to arrive. It iwas really great to see people again that you haven't seen since last year and get to meet new friends. We filled the parking lot with bikes and had a great time just talking all evening.

This morning Doug, Brian, Larry, Mark and I went downtown to discuss where we were going to ride for the day. We decided on a San Juan Mt's big circle loop ride of about 250 miles. We spent the whole day out on the bikes and had a great time. Everyone had big grins on thier faces when we got back to the Motel.

We met back up with the girls and went back downtown to have dinner and stopped by Coldstone creamery for Ice-cream afterwards. after i do this update I will be going back out to hang with friends. We are having a great time!