Adventure

Beautiful place we stopped in the Rocky Mountains to enjoy the scenery and rest our rears.

Mark escaping the heat for a bit

The beginning of the Colorado River. Mark and I stopped here for a breather

I just though this was so pretty. What a difference from yesterday's Kansas

You know, it's interesting what the dictionary meaning of the word "adventure is; To take a risk; dare; to proceed despite risks. I can certainly say that Mark and I have experienced this on our journey. I was unable to blog yesterday due to the fact that we had a day very much like the dictionary meaning of adventure. First, please family and friends, if I am unable to blog for a day, don't worry, just assume that the day was long and we didn't get to out destination until late. If anything significant or bad happens, know that I will call each of you. Yesterday was a "killer." We traveled 400 miles and experienced several different trials along the way. To begin, I dumped my bike first thing in the morning in the parking lot of our hotel in Hays, Kansas. Thank goodness Mark bought an engine guard for my bike, for nothing happened to it except a small scrape on the windshield. After that little problem, we noticed a small leak on my bike so we took it over to the Harley dealership and found that it was nothing (this was a blessing). Needless to say we got a very late start yesterday. All I can say is Kansas is "flat," "boring," and "windy." I fought the wind all day with gusts probably up to 50 miles an hour. This was not too fun, but we made it through. However, as we entered Colorado, we got caught in a hail storm. Mark was able to get under the overpass, I wasn't so I was being pelted by hail with lighting flashing all around me. Thank goodness, this passed and we were able to continue onward to Denver. We we got to Denver it was rush hour traffic which was just another wonderful way to end an already stressful day. You would think this would have been enough, but we had a few other surprises along the way, like people giving us wrong directions for our hotel. We wandered around for at least an hour looking for a hotel, not getting checked in until close to 9:00 p.m. Yes, it was quite the day yesterday, but we made it despite the adversity. Today, was a beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountains, nonetheless, it too had it's fair share of trials; namely, wind. Oh MY GOSH, the wind through those mountain gorges was crazy. I seriously thought I would "go to the bathroom in my pants on several occasions. However, we made it safely to end up in the flat lands of Colorado, where the wind continued and the temp soared to close to 100 degrees. I never thought I would ride without leathers, but I absolutely had to due to the fact that Mark and I were becoming dehydrated. We had to stop a great deal today due to heat, however, we did see some beautiful country. Tomorrow, we are going to take it a bit easy, I think. Supposedly, we are going to the Colorado National Monument and then onward to Salina, Utah, which is only 208 miles, one of the shortest driving days we have had so far. We are enjoying ourselves, seeing lots of the United States, growing and being challenged. We miss all of you and are looking forward to seeing all of you in the near future.