Day 1 – Go West, Young Man (and 2 old men)

Well, it’s that time of year again and Don and l are on the road heading west to Colorado. This year, my nephew, Jordan, is with us. This will be his first trip with us west of the Ozarks.

The itinerary changed a bit last week when lightning started a wildfire on the south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The national park lost most of its structures and is closed indefinitely. We will be camping just south of the canyon which they say is not impacted. At any rate, it was too late to make alternative plans, so we are hoping for the best. We do plan on hitting Rocky Mountain National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, the San Juan Skyway/Million Dollar Highway, Mesa Verde National Park, and drop down into New Mexico to start our return trip.

We left Jordan’s place in Indianapolis this morning and are holed up in Seneca, Kansas. It was a long, hard day with rain virtually across our entire route through Illinois. May be the longest we have been stuck in extremely heavy rain and sometimes wind. Cars were pulling over, but on a bike, you’re stuck in it anyway so you just keep moving as best you can. Generally, you can break through the storm front and things will ease up. Just didn’t happen that way today. Some days just have to be endured.

It’s on to Loveland, Colorado tomorrow and Rocky Mountain on Monday. I’ll post when I can but not sure about reception at the campgrounds.