Overnight ride to Estes Park, CO.

We took a ride up to Estes Park, CO. on Weds., August 19th. and stayed over night. We really love the the town of Estes Park, it's just a cool place to walk around, with lot's of babbling brooks, fountains and even a old fashion "water wheel"!

Jo next to the wooden water wheel!

The town is in a mountain valley and the river runs right thru it, it's got lot's of shops of all kinds and many great places to eat! We stopped for dinner at a little Pizza and sandwich place that has the patio seat on the river!

A view from our patio table! 

We walked the whole town and came back via a "free shuttle bus" from our motel, that was just across from Lake Estes. Wish we had lot's of bucks as there were a lot of neat things we'd have liked to buy, although we'd have to have all shipped home, LOL! :)  The ride up started on I-25N out of Co. Springs up to Castle Rock, CO. and Hwy. CO. 86 to C-470 bypass up to I-70 west. Then we got into the mountains via CO. Hwy. 119, then CO. 72 thru Central City and Blackhawk, (Gambling Towns!), the roads were filled with 30 mph corners and great views, even though it was pretty hazy due to the BIG FIRES north of Colorado! It was a fun ride flowing with the river up to Hwy. CO. 7 that takes you the back way into Estes Park.

After dinner we walked the river trail back to the Visitor Center to pick up our shuttle back to the motel. We stopped for a nice waterfall and then LOL, tried to play a tune on the "chimes" by the river.

The night was COLD and rainy but the next day dawned sunny and chilly we headed back towards home on CO. Hwy. 36 a very sweet set of mellow twistys for 20 miles. Then CO. Hwy. 66 thru the fields and on to I-25 S. for the quick ride home to Co. Springs. Over 300 miles total and a very good time! :)

Just catching up!

Well it's been awhile since I've posted so here's what's been happening! LOL, not much, we've been out on several short rides lately as we had to come up with $500+ dollars for new tires ft. and rear and the "labor" to have them installed, YIKES! We really like our Sporty Super Low but the tires SUCK as they are really sportbike tires and just don't last very long when you use the bike for mostly highway riding.

The real bummer is that NO tire mfg'er. except the OEM Michelin tires the MotorCompany had made with properly fit the the 883 Super Low model, arrugh!! This might be the "one" reason that we may be forced to go to a different Harley-Davidson machine or even a different brand of machine in the future!!! We will be doing a overnight run up to Estes Park, CO. on August 18th. it will be great to get up into the REAL mountains even if it's only for a couple of days! It's been so rainy this summer that we haven't done a lot of longer rides, well that and the having to come up with "hundreds" of dollars for TIRES that wear out wayyyy to fast, jmho!

We really do enjoy the way our local H-D dealership has event's going on all year and really like the way the dealership treats us, just with the Harley-Davidson Motor Corp. would be more inclined to listening to our request for a "longer" lasting "dual-compound" tread type distance tire for the Super Low model, but that has been a total waste of my time, basically they don't give a DAMN! I'm just supposed to "TRADE UP" and we just don't have the funds to do that! Maybe in 2 to 2.5 years when I get my Social Security, we MIGHT be able to afford a higher monthly payment for a more "touring" machine!  LOL, ok, I'll quit my rant, as stated, really looking forward to getting up in the Rockies next week! Have a most excellent day!

BJ :)