This diabolical route Dave devised included about 7 road changes, so I had to break out the tank bag, which up to this point I had just used as a sack to carry stuff in my top case. The tank bag has a map window, which holds the rand McNally laminated maps. Well, it's supposed to. As I was getting things prepped last night I discovered that the Colorado map is oriented with "horizontal" map sections (wider than higher) rather than "vertical." Unfortunately, it's not square and doesn't fit this way. I considered just mounting it at 90 degrees, and try to read it sideways, but then I got a little annoyed with the map, and got out the new swiss army soldier knife Kari got me, and did a little carving on it, taking off the 1/2 inch edge that was offending. (Who uses those reference numbers along the edge, anyway, right?)
This route is worth every minute of the 8 hours it took. Much of the route had a 35 or 45 mph speed limit, which kept things a little slower than I would have otherwise like to have gone. Gotta check that throttle spring... seems to work in reverse at times, since it seems to keep wanting to go faster. :) Road conditions on 92 reminded me a bit of 191 in the AZ white mountains, with a little bit of stray small gravel pieces... just enough to keep you wondering what's around the next bend.
Note, I've been trying to annotate the pictures the last day or two. (Before I discoved the feature, I had been adding comments, but these aren't as visible in different modes).
I measured the route at 310 miles, and took about 8 hours, an hour less than google's estimate. (Of course I had a protein bar for lunch, unlike normal people.)
I can't count the number of number of amazing scenes I had to forgoe capturing for posterity due to Colorado's apparent aversion to paving nearly every single pullout in the state. The pullouts were pretty dicey looking, many with what appeared to be pea size gravel, of questionable consistency (sometimes deep tire tracks in them). They were frequently canted rather steeply away from the road, and some were littered with baseball sized rocks (or larger).
You really have to ride this one to get the full effect.
Next time I have to bring my tail-gunner to photograph everthing. She just looOOoves to do this. (I can see her eyes rolling, already). I use the universal signal for "take a picture of that" : Tapping her left knee, and pointing. Photography is easy if you have good help. (Point and shoot).
Misc Facts: I can now put down the kickstand by feel, without looking, almost instinctively. I realized this a couple days ago.
Weather: Perfect. Temps ranged from 70 to 90 or so, once the sun came up.
PS: If anyone is having trouble seeing the pictures, let me know. I've changed the permissions to "unlisted" rather than "public", but I think (hope) you can still see them at the link above.
~r
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