We knew the day would be cold and wet, so we prepared in Santa Fe with some plastic wrapped feet. I ended up swiping them from the maid's cart when she wasn't looking. Okay, so I asked for a couple, and then swiped the other two when I realized I needed more.
We also ended up having to go to a motorcycle store in Santa Fe and buy some warmer and waterproof gloves for the trip up into Colorado. It would be far too cold otherwise.
The cold air continued to get colder as we rode north and we hit patches of mild rain. The scenery was very beautiful though.
As we rode along, we could see snow covered mountains to our Northeast with massively dark clouds covering them. Yup, those are the mountains we would have been riding through if we hadn't changed our plans
We stopped at a gas station on an Indian reservation. We were both exceedingly cold and miserable. Mike was not happy and jokingly asked what I had gotten him into. After filling up, we decided to stay warm by getting some $1 hot dogs in the gas station. Surprisingly good, and way better than the overpriced street hot dogs in Washington DC.
We had been pretty lucky with the rain. While we were very cold, the rain had just been pockets of light rain.... until we approached Durango CO. All of a sudden, out of no where, it started down-pouring. We started to ride up this mountain and it turns out that it was a plateau with a farm on top. We did not expect that, but couldn't enjoy it either in our miserable state. At this point, I was more than happy about my decision to buy warm/waterproof gloves. I bet I would have gotten frostbite if I didn't. We were mere miles away from Durango. We could even see it down in it's own valley. That's when my bike came to a sputtering halt. I've realized that when it rains, a small amount of water gets into the fuel tank. This water harmless until I reach near the bottom of my tank, at which point I am ruined. Luckily I have the extra fuel with which I can use to dilute the tiny bits of water in the system. It was almost ironic, being stopped there, in the cold, having to refuel in the rain, with the town in eyesight distance.
It was still raining when we pulled into town and we just went for the cheapest place to dry off and thaw out. Exploring the city was not in our cards, despite the free trolley that the town provides.
No comments:
Post a Comment