We set an alarm to get up early, there was no way we wanted to ride another day in heat above 35.
Luckily for us, the guys in the room below us on Harley's rolled out at 6am, and the sound of two of them starting up is enough to wake the dead!
We packed up our shit and the bikes and rolled out at about 7:30. It was already 28 degrees, and I was worried that we were going to sweat it out again.
We got fuel and had a bikers breakfast, not wanting to hold us up, I decided to eat my disgusting breakfast burrito while riding.
This was not easy, especially since I have a full face helmet, But I worked out if I pulled the chin guard down until my sunglasses were nearly shearing the end of my nose off, and I shoved the burrito in at an angle towards my Adams apple, I could bite a bit off the end. After the first mouthful, I thought - wow- that's really gross, and by the 7th I was asking myself why I was continuing to eat it.
Lucky the road was straight and I was able to finish it completely. Recounting the story later on to Megan, She thought that I should have pegged it straight down really hard on the road for the Ravens to eat. Thinking now, I wonder if I could have thrown it forwards far enough in front to actually run it over? Mental note. buy another breakfast burrito.
After another 100km of so, we finally left the dessert and crossed into Colorado, riding past the four corners monument where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. Watching this yawn-fest disappear in the side mirrors without stopping, as it was FULL with RV's, we were soon into Colorado proper, and riding towards the errand we had to run - getting a new chain for Megans Bike. We passed Mesa Verde national park where I would have liked to stop and take a look, but we're on a riding holiday, not a seeing holiday. Another time.
We made it to Basin Motorcycle Works at 10:00am, right at the agreed time, dropped of Megans bike, and headed up the road to have breakfast at the local Bakery. I decide to have a flapjack, which was like a Pancake, except made with wholemeal flour, but otherwise identical, Megan had eggs and hash brown, which looked way better than what I ordered.
Breakfast done and the new chain attached, (my credit card, and butt hole both smoking slightly), we rode the remaining 50km to a place called Durango.
We checked in at about 12:00, and walked into town to have a beer at the local micro brewery. It was a truly beautiful, day, 28 degrees, and a clear blue sky.
We had a couple of the house beers, which were not bad, and tried to find me a fishing permit, but no-one seemed to be able to sell me one, suggesting that I go to Walmart. Biting the bullet, I rode the 8km to Wallmart, and waitied patiently in line pt get a permit for the day, It seemed a lot of people needed fishing and hunting permits. Getting out my ID, I made it through most of the questions including height and weight, until I got to the Social Security number. Not having one of these stopped the process in it's tracks. The helpful atteneded phoned the help hotline, who informed him that I needed to get one online. Which is what I was going to do in the first place.
Having wasted over an hour trying to get a permnit, I rode back and got one online in about 5 minutes.
grabbing my rod, I headed down to the river, only to find 1/2 the town floating down it in innertubes! There was no way I was goign to be able to catch a fish here, the fact the river ran through the town was a deal breaker to begin with, but all the activity on the river would seal the deal. There was no way I was going to catch a fish.
I decided to have a casting practice session, as it had been about 15 years since I had picked up a fly rod. It came back to me, slowly, I was no where near as good as I used to be. I got a tangle, with all of the tippet and half of the leader in it. I tried for about 10minutes to untangle it, bit it was too far gone, and I ended up just cutting it away.
I casted down there for a couple of hours until about 7pm, telling just about every person that floated past that No - I had not caught anything yet. At one stage, a group of 6 twenty-something guys floated down, each one of them in an inner-tube, all roped together around a centre inner tube like a daisy. The centre tube contained an Esky, and they were all drinking beers and just talking shit. What a way to spend a sunny afternoon.
I never saw a fish, lost 3 flies, and ruined a tapered leader, but I loved every minute of it, and vowed to do more of it when I got home.
Heading back to the room, we ate a cheap meal of microwaved pizza, and fell asleep around midnight.
Luckily for us, the guys in the room below us on Harley's rolled out at 6am, and the sound of two of them starting up is enough to wake the dead!
We packed up our shit and the bikes and rolled out at about 7:30. It was already 28 degrees, and I was worried that we were going to sweat it out again.
We got fuel and had a bikers breakfast, not wanting to hold us up, I decided to eat my disgusting breakfast burrito while riding.
This was not easy, especially since I have a full face helmet, But I worked out if I pulled the chin guard down until my sunglasses were nearly shearing the end of my nose off, and I shoved the burrito in at an angle towards my Adams apple, I could bite a bit off the end. After the first mouthful, I thought - wow- that's really gross, and by the 7th I was asking myself why I was continuing to eat it.
Lucky the road was straight and I was able to finish it completely. Recounting the story later on to Megan, She thought that I should have pegged it straight down really hard on the road for the Ravens to eat. Thinking now, I wonder if I could have thrown it forwards far enough in front to actually run it over? Mental note. buy another breakfast burrito.
After another 100km of so, we finally left the dessert and crossed into Colorado, riding past the four corners monument where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. Watching this yawn-fest disappear in the side mirrors without stopping, as it was FULL with RV's, we were soon into Colorado proper, and riding towards the errand we had to run - getting a new chain for Megans Bike. We passed Mesa Verde national park where I would have liked to stop and take a look, but we're on a riding holiday, not a seeing holiday. Another time.
We made it to Basin Motorcycle Works at 10:00am, right at the agreed time, dropped of Megans bike, and headed up the road to have breakfast at the local Bakery. I decide to have a flapjack, which was like a Pancake, except made with wholemeal flour, but otherwise identical, Megan had eggs and hash brown, which looked way better than what I ordered.
Breakfast done and the new chain attached, (my credit card, and butt hole both smoking slightly), we rode the remaining 50km to a place called Durango.
We checked in at about 12:00, and walked into town to have a beer at the local micro brewery. It was a truly beautiful, day, 28 degrees, and a clear blue sky.
We had a couple of the house beers, which were not bad, and tried to find me a fishing permit, but no-one seemed to be able to sell me one, suggesting that I go to Walmart. Biting the bullet, I rode the 8km to Wallmart, and waitied patiently in line pt get a permit for the day, It seemed a lot of people needed fishing and hunting permits. Getting out my ID, I made it through most of the questions including height and weight, until I got to the Social Security number. Not having one of these stopped the process in it's tracks. The helpful atteneded phoned the help hotline, who informed him that I needed to get one online. Which is what I was going to do in the first place.
Having wasted over an hour trying to get a permnit, I rode back and got one online in about 5 minutes.
grabbing my rod, I headed down to the river, only to find 1/2 the town floating down it in innertubes! There was no way I was goign to be able to catch a fish here, the fact the river ran through the town was a deal breaker to begin with, but all the activity on the river would seal the deal. There was no way I was going to catch a fish.
I decided to have a casting practice session, as it had been about 15 years since I had picked up a fly rod. It came back to me, slowly, I was no where near as good as I used to be. I got a tangle, with all of the tippet and half of the leader in it. I tried for about 10minutes to untangle it, bit it was too far gone, and I ended up just cutting it away.
I casted down there for a couple of hours until about 7pm, telling just about every person that floated past that No - I had not caught anything yet. At one stage, a group of 6 twenty-something guys floated down, each one of them in an inner-tube, all roped together around a centre inner tube like a daisy. The centre tube contained an Esky, and they were all drinking beers and just talking shit. What a way to spend a sunny afternoon.
I never saw a fish, lost 3 flies, and ruined a tapered leader, but I loved every minute of it, and vowed to do more of it when I got home.
Heading back to the room, we ate a cheap meal of microwaved pizza, and fell asleep around midnight.
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| The Animas river that runs through the town of Durango |
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| Old BMW in for repair at Basin Motorcycle Works |
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| New Chain! no more grinding sounds |
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| '42 Dodge truck in original condition and paint. |
Sorry you didn't get a fish Bro. Feel free to ship some big ole inner tubes back for a trip down the river below Lake Jindy. I'm in w/esky at the ready. Happy to hear you got Megs bike up to shape. Seriously want to swim in that river.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough - they had a whole pile of inner tubes at the local sportsman's warehouse, all blown up and ready to go. I think they were like $15 or something. I think we should source some at home and do a float down the snowy this summer with the lads.
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