RAIN... and lots of it

Leaving I-40 was great. I now know where all of the nation's corn comes from -- northwest of Dumas, TX.  

(I think some folks are playing baseball in there.)

I was in and out of rain all day. Leaving Texas and entering Colorado was all rain, all the time. I stopped for an early lunch in Trinidad, CO at the "Cafe". The whole time I was eating it was raining.  Here's the bike in Durango, shortly after getting hailed on.  Nice.

The roads in Colorado were very wet. The ride up on the Million Dollar Highway, CO 550 was wet, twisty, and had chip seal surface.  To explain that better, chip seal is basically tar put down on the road with rocks on top - not the best surface for biking in the rain.  So chip seal surface, really twisty with no guard rail, and super wet and slippery... it was kind of scary.  I was really hoping to ride this road in the sunshine, but no such luck.

While riding from Silverton to Telluride this happened:

 If you look close you can see it - a double rainbow.  Of course, when I stopped to take the pic, I dropped the bike.   Actually, to be honest, that was the second time that day that I dropped the bike.  After the ride up from Durango to Silverton I was attempting to park, it was raining, I was tired, and what do you know... I dropped the bike.  A slow, standing-still kind of drop. Yes... the bike is very heavy, and it was very hard to lift again, but I did it.  After both of those little incidents.  The fuel gauge seems to be showing "Full" all the time now and so I will have to figure that one out this morning.

All in all, I had a really long day, with sunshine for maybe 2 hours.  Well, actually no sun, just overcast and not raining for 2 hours. The rest of the day was nice and cool and raining. If you look at the "Track Me" map, you will see that it appears I did a giant loop at the end of my day, but to get to Telluride from Silverton is a hard thing to do. You can do one of two things to ride over Ophir pass - the all dirt way or the longer road way.  Because it had just rained and it was getting dark, and since I don't have my off-road tires on the bike, and after a super long day and me being alone, I figured the dirt way wouldn't be the best thing... just out of the question.  So I went around the giant mountains that surround Silverton, riding through Ouray, Colorado, north of Silverton on 550, then west on 62, then east on 145.  Did I mention that it was a LONG day?  I rode most of 145 in the dark, but kept riding because I was trying to get to my friend's house to get a nice dinner and a good night's sleep. I finally made it and I'm here now in Telluride - writing, repacking, and getting ready to make the final push to Idaho to go see my family and BK.  Then I'll be able to relax for a couple days before the big ride through Canada.