240 Miles
I wanted our first day on the road to be a doozy so we headed up to Fairplay via 285. The weather wasn’t brilliant but the riding was great. We had to stop in Grant to zip up and put on waterproof gear. Fairplay has made it into the world of culture and cortados were on order at the coffee/cigar shop. We took off from there to Buena Vista and lunch. We hit up a little Mexican place that I’d tried before. It was not good. My pozole seemed like it was thrown together in five minutes hard, chewy, corn, and lumps of inedible pork.
After lunch we headed up the road to Twin Lakes and over Independence Pass. The roads and views were fantastic even if the skies were grey and cloudy.
After we took a break to take in the views of the pass, the lads took off and raced over the top and down in to Aspen.
After two glasses of iced-tea at lunch, I decided that stopping at the top, getting a picture, and using the facilities was in order.
Heading down the pass was fun. The road dried up and the Colorado drivers were amazing. I think three pulled over to let me pass before I caught up with Mac and Martyn in town.
More coffee was in order in Aspen and it introduced Mac and Martyn to Aspen and coffee economics.
The rest of the ride into Glenwood Spring sucked. It was bumper to bumper traffic and raining the whole way. Thank goodness for Colorado’s filtering law. We made reasonable time down to the hotel.
When it came to time to go to dinner, it was still raining and we did not want to walk into town. Instead, we walked into the restaurant next door to the hotel – Tequilas. The name says it all and gives you a clue as to how the rest of the night went. Our food bill was a quarter of our drinks bill.
