8-18-19 - (Day 25 - Ride to Rand)

Lauren finally got his lap top up and running again this morning.  Hopefully, it will make it this trip.

It was 37 degrees this morning.  We took a walk around the campground waiting for it to warm up.  Around 11 am we took off.

We rode Highway 125 to Rand, Colorado.  Highway 125 is a very curvy road through the pretty hills.  When we got past Rand, the land flattened, and the wind was howling.  It didn't take long to turn Amber around.  High winds are no fun on a motorcycle.  We had our picnic lunch at a pullout along Willow Creek.

We thought there would be some activity on the lake this afternoon.  When we first got home there were a couple of kite surfers on the water.  They packed up shortly after, and it was late afternoon before a boat put in at the ramp.

This is the first afternoon since last Wednesday, that the winds were calm enough that we could sit outside.  Even though, they were still around 15 miles an hour.

The winds finally died down and allowed us to build a campfire and grill our steak and baked potatoes over the fire and it was some kind of good!

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8-17 -19 (Day 24 - Ute Pass)

We took a ride across Ute Pass today.  We rode about 15 miles on a dirt road that was as good as some paved roads.  It was nothing to be concerned about on the Asphalt Queen.  It was a nice peaceful ride with very little traffic.  When we turned on Highway 9, there was lots of traffic and a lot of people enjoying Green Mountain Reservoir.

We decided to go toward Granby and look at waterfowl at Windy Gap Wildlife Viewing Area.  We saw several species of ducks, white pelicans, geese, ospreys, and a bald eagle.  We planned to continue to town for a couple of more miles and get a steak to cook tonight.  Those plans changed when we noticed dark clouds headed our way.

We got back to camp with just a few sprinkles and a calm lake.  We were headed in to change into our shorts when the wind started howling, and the rain started.  We sure were glad we headed home when we did.

We had another evening of 50-60 mile an hour wind gust.  The camper next to us was wanting high winds to wind surf.  The winds must have been too high because he got off the lake.  He had to come out of his camper and retrieve his board that was tumbling around.  When the winds died down to about 20 miles an hour he went back out on the lake.

The sun came out, the winds calmed down, we went out, the winds picked up, and it was on again. This cycle happens about 3-4 times every evening in this area.

The internet service here is extremely slow.  We have been uploading photos for the last few days and finally have completed the last 4 days of our blog!  Luckily, we got all this uploaded before Lauren's computer crashed tonight.  It's about time for a new one.

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8-16-19 - (Day 23- Catching up with Good Friends)

We met Kelly at Yaki's in Hot Sulpher Springs this morning.  We haven't seen her seen she left the refuge last fall, but we have kept up with her on Facebook.  We had a great visit for a couple of hours while enjoying our breakfast and coffee.

We were in the truck so we rode through Gilbert's Campground and confirmed that not taking Rap into the campground was a great decision.

We rode through the west side Williams Fork Camping area.  We could have camped there, but it is so much easier where we are for riding Amber.  On our way in, we saw proghorns, geese, ducks, ibis and a red tailed hawk.

We decided to take Amber for a spin to Granby.  It started to rain, so we made a surprise visit to see Pam and Chuck.  We were only going to stay for a few minutes to avoid the rain, 2 1/2 hours later we got back on the road.  Time sure flies when you're having fun.

The winds were ferocious on our 15 mile ride back with only a few sprinkles.

We arrived back at camp with white caps on the lake.  We hooked the door to keep it open while we got our stuff  unloaded from Amber.  As I was telling Lauren, it will take both of us to close the door because the wind is so strong, the wind gusted so hard, that it tore the door hook off and slammed the door, sending Ferny Kat into hiding.

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8-15-19 - (Day 22 - Rocky Mountain National Park)

We had an 8 hour adventure today.  We rode through Rocky Mountain National Park to the Dam Store.  The temperature range was from 58 to 94 degrees on our 4300 feet elevation climb.

The park was as beautiful as we remembered it being 10 years ago.  The only difference was we were coming in from the west side instead of the east side.

It didn't take long for ole' Eagle Eye, aka Lauren, to spot a Bull Moose out in the river.  We stopped and took a few photos.

We were going to stop at the Alpine Visitor's Center, but there was too much traffic.  We traveled a few miles up the mountain, and we were in a dead stop.  We thought the worst, but 20 minutes later we realized there was road construction ahead.  Another 20 minutes and we got out of the deadlock.  Not to worry. we had gorgeous views while we waited to proceed.

We had our picnic lunch at Hidden Valley and traveled to Estes Park.  Then we traveled through Thompson Canyon to the Dam Store.  On our way, we stopped and admired Big Horn Sheep.  One lady jumped out of her vehicle and spooked one of them, which almost caused him to get hit by a car.  Some people!

We got to the Dam Store, went up in the tower, and took a few pictures and headed back.

The road construction was over for the day.  We saw hundreds of elk on our ride back..

A few miles before exiting the park, we saw a moose and her baby, then the recruits came in.  The rangers were there to try and catch momma moose to tag her.  We would have loved to watch, but they wanted people to continue on so not to spook her.

At we were exiting the park, ole' Eagle eye came through again.  He saw a coyote wandering around in the grassland.

We thoroughly enjoyed our ride taking in the beautiful scenery from our campsite to the Dam Store.  We saw lots of critters including, Elk, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Deer, Chipmunks, Red Squirrels, Pika, Red-tailed Hawks, and Osprey,

When we returned, we had a camping neighbor.  Lauren went over to check out his amphibious vehicle.  Al and his dog,  Dino, are going to be here through the weekend. 

We winded up with a good sunset and a full belly of pork chop and baked beans.  Al had a good campfire going, and asked us to come over.

Within a few minutes of talking to Al, we realized how blessed we are.  Al's wife, Lisa died a month ago.  They were high school sweet hearts, married for 30 years.

No rain tonight, even though the clouds were wicked looking. We had a couple of beers by Al's campfire and are calling it a night.

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8-14-19 - (Day 21 - Williams Fork Reservoir)

We loved where we were camping at Leadville, but it was time to move on.  We moved Northeast to a really great, free place on the lake at Williams Fork Reservoir Campground.  We have moved up, this campground has vault toilets. a dumpster, and a dump station.

We left at 10 am expecting a couple hours to travel about 80 miles.  When we got to the dump/water station in Leadville, there were 2 other campers ahead of us.  An hour later, we were finally off to our next destination.

Ferny Kat was very attentive when we crossed Freemont Pass, and very helpful when we got on the 7% grade for 4 miles.  She braked her feet, swayed her body around the curves, and enjoyed the scenery, without a whimper.  We obviously picked the right pass for her and us!

We had 3 picks for our next campground. We checked out Williams Fork Reservoir on the east side of the lake.  It looked pretty good, but we decided to head on to Gilbert Campground and check it out,.  After all it's just a few miles down the road.  A couple of Bald Eagles flew over the lake as we were leaving.  As if to say, you have found your destination.

We drove down the narrow, dusty, dirt road to Gilbert Campground and parked on a one way road with no turnarounds unless you went into the campground.  Lauren scouted on foot.  As he was walking back,  I saw this expression on his face.  The road that looped around in the campground had turns that were tight for our 5th wheel.  Lauren had to back Rap out a few hundred yards to the main road. Needless to say, the couple of vehicles that tried to come down the same road we were on backed up for us.

We decided to check out the west side of the Williams Fork Lake.  After riding about 4 miles of  dirt roads, we decided this is not the place for Amber, the Asphalt Queen.

We have set up camp on the east side of Williams Fork Lake, 4 1/2 hours after leaving our campsite at Leadville.   We have dropped about 3000 feet in elevation.  We have a great spot on the lake with no other camper anywhere around us, (for now).  We have watched chipmunks, magpies, ducks, and a bunch of other birds while sitting outside today.

Ferny Kat was ready to explore when we got here .  She loves to hide in the tall grass.  We have another Ferny Kat approved campsite.

We built a campfire and watched the sunset.  All is well with us!!

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