Post Fishing 2

I had to be out of the campsite before 7 but the cold shook me awake before 6. I was out by 630 and headed to have a hot breakfast and coffee. After viewing the majesty of the Tetons it was time to ride. The roads out of the park and toward my next destination started out awesome with rock formations of various colors and banding but after an hour or two things flattened out and the blah landscape morphed into bad weather. Somewhere along the line my phone died and so the recorded mileage is lower than what I rode yesterday... I got off on an exit and thought that I was headed toward a fuel station but it turned out they were both to the left and I went right. Not long after I hit my limit and the bike began to cough. I switched to reserve and checked the GPS to see where the next fuel stop would be... Looked like a stretch and I was mentally sweating- I had been physically most of the day. As "luck" would have it I found fuel sooner than I thought and turned right onto a street named "Jackass" and pulled into the station. I got some dinner there as well, sat and talked with another rider about our routes. He was on a Honda NC700. Man after my own heart. Riding downtown in Boulder, CO I was reminded how much I hate traffic. Guys- if you're single and young hearted CSU has a high population of attractive females... Just don't know if they're hippies or not. 😉 The road up to Estes Park was worth riding repeatedly, check it out. The rain slowed things down. I took the 34 through Rocky Mountain National Park and could have asked for a better road. The rain created more hazardous roads and sadly reduced visibility as I climbed up to 12,120 or so. Rainbow curve was aptly named as a huge rainbow that was closer than any I have ever seen fell far below between the peaks. I wanted to stop so badly and take a few photos but riding a carbureted bike jetted for sea level I didn't want to risk it. I was amongst the snow fields and above the clouds. The thin air was clean and turned sweet as I descended toward Grand Lake. In retrospect I should've stopped there but I wanted to ride on by the light of the bright moon overhead. Toward the I70E by way of dark mountain pass I went rising again to 11,500ft. On the other side of it all I saw the lights of Denver in the far below. The temperature increase by at least 30 deg as I passed through the city on the interstate. The air was thick and foul. I needed to get out and beyond the city to fuel up and crash for the night. I decided to check out this Country style motel... Ok, it was on a back road and looked like someone's house. If I had gotten there in the afternoon I might have checked it out but it was 2330 and I decided to pass. I stopped for a Starbucks double shot and rode another 64 mi to a Super 8. They had one last room- smoking. I got a discount and took it. I've build crappy structures in foreign countries while I was in the Marines that were cleaner than this. Puke stains on the floor, outlets that were black, the sink was cracked, trash in the cans, a tissue stuck in the door's peep hole, holes in the bed spreads. At least the towels and sheets were clean.