Touring Ride Day 2

Welcome back!

I know you are all anxiously awaiting the report of Day two of James and I's touring ride. We got up and made some breakfast the next morning. I had a new device that allows me to make coffee in my Nalgene bottle. I've got an old BPA filled bottle that since I'm gonna start making coffee out of I should replace with a BPA free one. But, the coffee was good and helped get us started. James cooked up some Oatmeal and I had some dehydrated eggs. This may have been a bad choice for me. Once we were all packed up and ready to go we headed back down the hill, replaying all the free rides down hill we'd enjoyed the day before in my head. I rode a bit of the dirt road we had hiked up, seeing as how the Fargo is like the coolest bike ever. But I didn't ride it all as I wasn't in the mood to find out what I couldn't ride the hard way. Then it was a pretty easy ride up and out of the campground. Just past Deadmans hill, hidden in clouds we stopped at the top of this hill.

Deadman Hill's Summit is hidden in these ominous looking clouds. I think this is the storm that was creating all the wind we fought the day before. At this point, sadly the battery in the camera died. Not like the battery light came on and I stopped using it. Like DEAD, the lens wouldn't retract or close. So I packed it away for the trip. I'm working on getting images off of cell phones and will fill them in when I have it figured out. But, there was a sign at the top of this hill that warned of 12% grades ahead. So that explained part of why we were tired, I guess!

We dropped down the 12% grade ahead all the way back into Masonville. At Masonville James and I agreed that 11% grade is probably the limit for comfortable descending fully loaded with out braking. Also some where around 42 mph, as I hit 44 max through there. All the excitement from the day before activities had cleared out leaving behind only the porta-johns, which I appreciated. We pushed on after giving a lost motorist some direction to Estes Park.

We had made plans to stop on the South side of Longmont to get lunch and pushed on in that direction. We ate and drank and chatted the miles away all the way into Longmont. Having not enjoyed our earlier route through Longmont we navigated a new way. Using some multi-use trails around a lake. All the way around the lake. We didn't know the trail very well and had to turn, we guessed wrong. But are very familiar with the trail system there now. We did manage to come out very close to our intended lunch stop. Which upon arrival was obviously not open. Not like "closed on Sunday", more like we are still building the place and unless you're a contractor with a brown bag lunch, you'll be eating else where. So we trotted back into Longmont and finally found a Wendy's. It was pretty good, something about a Coke in the middle of a long ride that always tastes good. We got a few looks wandering into the Wendy's in bike gear, all be it baggy bike gear, and loaded bikes. We wondered what the people there thought of us seeing as how other cyclists look at us like we are crazy...


*** UPDATE

This is what our bikes looked like. Such a pretty image I put it into sepia tone as well.

***

From here we headed back to the house. Simple ride with good weather. Although, my stomach started to bother me a bit. About 10 miles (40 min) from the house I made James bust a U turn to get to a gas station. My stomach decided I NEEDED to stop, NOW! The bib cycling shorts altered the time line I had in my mind upon entering the gas station and seeing the bathroom door making the whole situation a lot closer that I would have liked. Considering that James and I had eaten almost exactly the same thing, except the eggs, I won't be eating those eggs again.

It was a tentative ride home for the rest of the way but I made it. James and I had a really good time as well. James and I will definitely be doing this all again! If anyone would like to join us let us know and we can plan a great weekend.


And now for something completely different.....

First off, sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this. I had nasal surgery on Tuesday. I was pretty busy getting ready for that and then trying to recover and get caught back up from it. For those of you that didn't know, I pretty much got a roto-router for my nose, open things up a bit. Hopefully I won't be waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air. For the folks that missed out on my recovery period, I had to wear this lovely thing to keep control of all the gross stuff coming out of my nose.
I only had to wear it for about 24 hours, so not terrible. It's a self shot, can you tell?

Emily and I also got to see one of our favorite bands in concert. First we had to sit through taking back Sunday. These guys weren't great. But, you can see the beautiful view out the back of Fiddlers Green Amphitheater of the Front Range.
I'm not even gonna mention how bad the band that came on ahead of them was. Also, if you aren't concerned about the youth of this nation, you better get to a pop band concert. Emily and I were there to see Weezer! They came on next and for the next half hour rocked the house and had everyone signing along in front of this sweet gold banner!


We had a pretty good time. Blink 182, the headliner for the show, played next and were pretty medium. Very "Meh". So we managed to act like old folks and not stay for the encore and beat the traffic. We'd seen what we payed for.

You are all mostly caught up on our lives for now, been pretty boring as I can exert, bend, or lift for another week. Did get in some Wake Boarding, 2 parties, and a Union Ceremony Reception over the holiday weekend before surgery though!

Also, if you didn't on the 11th, take a few moments to remember the 3000+ people who died and the 343 FF's who ran headlong into danger on 9/11, 8 years ago.

Thanks for reading talk to ya soon!