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We made our way down near Telluride and saw lots of great scenery fly by, We then cut over toward Utah and rode Hwy 141 along the Delores river... Last time I was here my video camera battery went dead.... This time I brought a new camera with a 120 volt inverter hard wired to my bike... However just as we drew near to the best scenery, I ran out of tape, and discovered I left my extra tapes back in my tent.... Arrgh VIDEO TILL THE END OF TAPE

We enjoyed the beautiful countryside, and I noted how sparcely traveled the roads were... Much like Arkansas back roads were years ago. You could ride all day and not have to worry about traffic, or patrol cars. We stopped at a small oasis in the desert called Gateway. The 2 BMW riders we met earlier in the day decided to stay and eat dinner.. I had to drag Dan out of the restaurant since we still had a long way back to the rally site. Just as we were about to head out a woman rider had an accident nearby lots of people ran over to help her... I felt sorry for her as I knew real help would take an hour to get here... Since she was not badly hurt, and there was nothing we could do until the EMT’s arrived, Craig and I discussed how we needed to get a move on... Dave and Dan were over at the accident scene... When they finally arrived back so we could go, I learned that Dave was a Surgeon..... 2 thoughts crossed my mind... 1. I felt like a heel for being more concerned about my schedule than the poor scratched up gal lying next to her bike, and 2. If I had known medical assistance was along for the ride, I sure would not have been riding so conservatively!!! :) We burned Highwat 50 back and hit a few showers, I was trying to keep it below 100 so my tire would last long enough to get me back to Arkansas... But Craig was a man on a mission, and left Dan and I behind.... I gave Dave my Colorado Map and he headed toward home. When Dan and I got back near Paonia, we pulled in for Gas and saw Craig... he missed most of the rain too. We headed back to the Rally grounds for a great dinner, more beer, and another band. The band tonight was a group called Flash Caddilac. I went to bed early again since Sunday would begin the long journey home. I woke up early, got my tent packed up, and we left around 7:30.... Rather than head straight home, Dan and I decided to ride through Aspen, and over Independence Pass. I have heard how great this place is from other riders... I was underwhelmed. Every other place I had been in Colorado was gorgeous... The ride up was just fields and gravel.... Finally on the other side, on the way down there was some great scenery. VIDEO UP INDEPENDENCE PASS

After that Dan and I began the drone homeward.... South through Cotpaxi, and Westcliffe, Trinidad, Raton, then across Oklahoma Ugh... We made it as far as El Reno, Oklahoma... Crossing NM. and OK. we were flashed blue lights by police on a few occasions, we always pulled over immediately, but they never turned around..... One pointed downward at me to slow down... I wasn’t sure if he was giving me the finger at first.... :) At 11:00 pm in El Reno a cop flew up beside me and flashed his lights then sped off.... We were doing around 55 in a 35 but we were very tired and looking for a nice Hotel, not our speedometers..... I saw where he turned off and followed him.... He gave us directions to where the chain Hotels (Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, etc....) were located a few miles away. I couldn’t sleep and surfed the net and uploaded some of my pictures to the net... I woke up around 8:00 and Dave was gone... Packed up, bed made, history... I climbed out of my bed and looked down out the window where our bikes were parked... He was just climbing on... I was able to pry the locks loose on the window and shout out a good bye to him as he headed north toward Illinois... I went back to bed . I hit the road around 9:30, and storm clouds were moving in from the North. I was able to skirt around the edge of the storm and was back in Arkansas quickly.... I got home around 1:30... Jumped in my Jeep to run a couple errands and discovered that riding five days at high speed causes regular life...... to feel like slow motion.....
VIDEO LONG WAY HOME
What a great trip... Hope to do it again next year :) HOME bswartz.net