A day of diverse scenery

Monday, June 27, 2016
Dolores, Colorado, United States
We left Grand Junction in hot weather. Heading toward Delta, we turn south to Gateway. The canyon's were great, nice curves. We got to Naturita and gassed up. The station clerk said that the prior week they had something like the Ride the Rockies with 500 bicyclists and it was cooler. At Gateway Canyons Resort they also have a car museum. We went in to cool off and ended up going through the museum. Great collection, meticulously maintain. Too many great cars to include on the blog.  

The trip through the canyon, beautiful, was a combination of older canyon more worn with levels that had vegetation on them and then a younger canyon with high red sand stone cliffs with the river and lush cottonwood trees and bushes at the floor of the canyons . Definitely a G1 ride. We made it to Telluride and had a hard time finding legal parking. Jeff and Rob parked together but Nick had to park three blocks away. We ate lunch at a brewery, not bad. We spent so much time at the museum we felt we had to get out of Telluride and down to Delores. We went over Lizard Head Pass, all for the first time, unbelievable!

We arrived in Delores sometime after 6:00. A clean older motel, cabin, and RV park on the Delores River. Jeff and Nick went to the river, took off their boots, and dangled their feet in the cool water. Fane had told us about a good craft beer brewery in Delores named, Delores River Brewery. So we walked the 14 blocks down to it. Approaching the building gave us concern. It didn't look busy, was it not so good after all? No, they were closed! On a Monday evening, what! Right! Jeff started to cry, not really, until he saw a liquor store across the street. What? No cars? Not again. Well we went to see . Hallelujah, it was open. We went inside and they had cans from the brewery. They also had a walk in cooler, which we made use of, if you've been following the blog you've read how hot it has been. Today was no exception. There was a young man there purchasing a case of Coors Light. He was trying to educate Nick and Jeff as to the lineage of the banquet beer. Then there was a guy with a beard down to his belt who did not need anymore alcohol. And one more gentlemen came in and Jeff was about to check out when someone mentioned age over beauty. The man was 73. Jeff bowed out to the aged.
  
Nick and Jeff purchased a four pack of the Delores River Breweries finest and a root beer for Rob and made the sojourn back to the motel. We went over to the deck at the river. As we approached there was a fisherman who had just caught a nice sized rainbow trout, but he lost it and his fly.  

On the deck were three men from Tucson, Arizona. Two were riding BMWs and the third a Harley . They have made this trip for the past 15 years. They always start their trip at this motel and end it here before going home. It was dusk now and the fisherman came up on deck and told everyone his life story. He was recently divorced from his wife after 15 years of a loveless marriage. Two girls, one a freshman in college and the other a teenager. He walked away from his business, its hers now. While in Delores, a young kid ran into him and wrecked his truck. He is moving to Denver with only one possible job. Rob had to leave to recharge his phone battery so he could work on this travel blog. After a bit, Jeff and Nick came into the room flabbergasted. The guy returned with his dinner and sat with them. After a while he decided to call his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law, which progressed from arguments to a severely impolite yelling match. At which point Nick and Jeff left. We discussed the route for the next day. Rob went out to take a picture of his odometer and a neighbor told him about running into a deer hours earlier returning from Cortez. They had to hook up chains to his bumper to pull it away from his tire so he could drive his truck. The Wild Hogs retired for the evening.

233 miles today
2867 miles to date
 
 
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Comments

Dave
2016-06-28

well it sounds like the ride hasn't gotten any less exciting. Glad your bikes are ok as well as the riders. Lizard head looks awsome. Will have to get there one of these days. Continue to enjoy the ride and brews. Already got an ok for a canadian ride.

2025-02-16

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