I am now in some motel in the town of Buena Vista somewhere on Colorado route 24. Surprisingly I'm getting 5 bars so I'm able to write another road report. I'm pretty beat, as usual, so we'll see how much of this I get written.

The hotel last night was old but clean and comfortable. It was a family owned place called the Travelers Inn, in Colorado Springs. I can recommend it. As I was packing up my gear I ran into the proprietor and asked him where one might get a good breakfast. He suggested this funky old diner down an alleyway from his hotel. This place rocked. A real diner, like in the old days. It was very small and could only seat a handful of people.

The place has been there since the 50's. It has a very serious local feel to it. As has been the case almost everywhere I've gone, people asked me about where I was from and where I was going. At one point a gentleman walked in wearing my watch, and we got to talking about them. It was a friendly comfortable atmosphere.

When I walked out the guy behind the counter, I either have forgotten his name or never got it, came out and offered to take a photo of me in front of the place. Cool.

A funky little diner called Kinds Chef.

Since I didn't need to be in Ouray until Thursday, and it was only 270 miles away, I had an entire day free. Some development at work required my attention, so I found myself a starbucks, pulled out the laptop and got some work done.

Ha commented that I should go take a look at the "Garden of the Gods", so when I finished with the work I needed to get done, I headed off in that direction having absolutely not idea what it was.

Turns out it's a major rock formation in the area. I tried the Hero Helment Cam and used the 720p setting this time to avoid the fish eye effect. Unfortunately, you can't really tell how the camera is angled and I had it angled down too much so the photos really didn't turn out.

Towards the middle of the park is a rest are where I met "Mr. Anderson", said in my best Matrix Agent voice, a.k.a. Joe.

Joe was from Wisconsin and had taken some time off to ride down and visit friends in Colorado. He kindly snapped a photo of me with the rock formations in the background.

After extolling the virtues of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Deal's Gap we got to talking about local rides. It turned out that he had not been up Pikes Peak on his bike as a result of being concerned about the unpaved sections. "No problem!". We talked some more and then, continuing to ply my "bad influence" trade, I suggested we take a ride up Pikes Peak, since he had never been.

He went for it. Cool!

It was a bit windy today.

I didn't have enough gas for the trip so Joe kindly waited while I ran out to get some. The attendant had said it was 5 miles but it was more like 10. When I got back Joe was helping some family with engine trouble.

Pikes Peak is the highest point in North American accessible by car. It tops out at 14,110 feet. The route up is about 17 miles long and is almost completely devoid of any guardrails. There are intense switch backs covered in gravel. The drop offs which can exceed several thousand feet are intense. The road surface is a combination of pavement, old pavement mostly covered in dirt, packed dirt, gravel and loose dirt.

We made our ascent. The last time I went up it it was less paved and it was wet. Todays' ascent was a cakewalk.

I tried the Hero Cam again, again not realizing it was misaligned, so of the more than a thousand photos it took, only a few are worth viewing.

As I mentioned, the switch backs can be a bit intense.

You're so high when it's cloudy you're looking down on the tops of clouds.

After a while we reached the summit.

The air is really thin. The last time I was here I really didn't have a problem with it. This time, however, it seemed to affect me. I got dizzy. My feet and legs starting falling asleep and I felt like I could pass out at any minute. I'm glad I did not end up helping a broken down Harley rider push start his bike. I think that might have done me in. I wasn't feeling well at all.

We spent alot of time looking over the edge.

(Joe looking over the edge).

I have so many photos of this place in which I tried desperately to capture the scale of it, but of course, as is always the case, the photos just don't do it justice. As Joe, being a Marine, pointed out, we were only 6000ft under the height at which WWII bombers flew.

It was only 40degF up here with a steady wind gusting to probably close to 50mph.

Standing in the wind the Transit Suit kept me warm but my hands were freezing.

I got pretty good and chilled. We went into the cafe, bought some souveniers and had a cup of coffee. By this time I was starting to feel pretty poorly. After we finished, we did one more round for a few photos.

There were countless people snapping photos. It's a bad habit of mine to offer to take peoples photos, which I found myself getting roped into over and over.

So we're getting ready to leave and I'm in mid-packing-electronics-and-camera-gear-fumbling when a woman, who we had helped with photos, ran up and asked if she could get a photo of her on my bike. This so never happens. Despite not being dressed for 40 deg temperatures, she waited patiently in the cold biting wind while I finshed fumbling.

"I got to sit on a BMW", she said. Ok, times seriously have changed. This never happens. As a matter of fact, I can't remember a single instance when someone has walked up and asked to sit on my bike for a photo. I've owned this bike for 18 years!

We made our descent. Joe led and I tried to shoot video with the Hero Cam, but again the angle was wrong so the video kind of sucks. We stopped a few times to take shots.

It just doesn't do it justice. You can see Kansas from the top of the mountain. The trip back down was uneventful. Dust got all over the bike, but otherwise it faired well. Joe needed to head back to Pueblo to meet his friends. He invited me to stop by in Wisconsin if I happened to be in the area on my way back. I may just do that. It was nice to have someone to ride with.

I hung out at the bottom of the mountain for a while and then headed to points West in the direction of Ouray. I covered beautiful harsh countryside. It was as if you could see the tectonic forces pushing the mountains up out of the ground as I rode along. There were so many things to photograph I eventually just gave up and continued to ride.

At one point cresting a hill I was presented with this incredible valley.

Photo just not doing it justice.

I rode on for miles more and watched the sun set.

At one point, while taking a photo, a couple stopped and asked for directions. GPS in hand I was able to help them find where they needed to go.

I arrived in Buena Vista after dark looking for a place to get a bite to eat. There was a sketchy looking grill up the street and an equally sketchy looking hotel. Both turned out to be just fine. As I moved my gear into my room a pair of women arrived and were checking into their room. Shortly thereafter they walked down the street.

By the time I had packed everything into the room, gotten on the bike and ridden to the grill, the women were just arriving. I had guessed that's where they were headed. It turns out it was a mother and daughter pair. I'm so tired now, I have forgotten their names. I sat at the bar and they asked if they could join me. It was nice. The mother was born in Russia and if memory serves had been there until '94. Her daughter was 17 and was up here to go rafting. They were some of the most extensively travelled people I have ever met. Name a country and they have been there multiple times. Her daughter speaks fluent Russian although I was under the impression she had grown up in the states. Interesting people.

I went back to my room, found that I had connectivity and sat down to write.

The bike has been concerning me a bit. I had one tank of gas that ran through at 40mpg, the lowest this bike has ever gotten. Before it got retuned to fatten it up and make it more "fun", I would consistently get 55mpg, sometimes as high as 60. During the last tank, I got close to 50mpg, but now the bike is occasionally experiencing powerloss. I crank the throttle and it just doesn't accelerate like normal. This clears up after a while. I find myself wondering if the fatter mixture maybe fouling the plugs. I'll have to find a BMW shop in the northwest to maybe check it out when I get the tires replaced. By the time I get up there they'll be due. The clutch is also starting to give me issues. I think the cable may be binding, or maybe it's just the lever sticking. I meant to get a can of WD40 to eliminate the lever as a possible source of the sticking. It makes shifting smoothly challenging.

Otherwise everything seems to be working. All the electronics have been working as have the cameras. Other than the aforementioned occasionaly glitches, the bike has been performing fine, but it is looking a bit worse for wear. The tank protector I had for years failed and now the tank exposed to the elements, and my legs, is pretty scratched up. I have a feeling this bike is going to be significantly aged by the time I get back. It still gets alot of compliments, which is weird, because in all the years I've owned it it has never gotten noticed much. Very strange. On this trip, it seems to get noticed, people everywhere seem interested in what I'm doing. I am not used to it.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to arrive in Ouray at 3, which should be easy to do. I'm only 190 miles out from there. Hopefully the weather holds.