Colorado City to Camp

I got a desent start from the hotel, 9 am seems to be my go time. I got on the road and headed west a few miles then picked up this awesome road that would take me up to HWY 24 where everything I want to see is off of. Turns out that it was 22 miles of dirt road, very easy dirt road. It took me up through this canyon and into the hills and was just an amazing ride. It kind of sucks that while I'm on a motorcycle I have to pay much more attention to the road than if I was in a car, so I feel as if I missed a lot of what this road has to offer as far as vistas. I had an incredible time none the less though. They blasted away roadway and if they couldn't blast a whole hill side then they bore a tunnel through it. It's awesome that I have the opportunity to ride that road but it sucks that it took the desimation of the country side to create that road.

My luck and timing seems to be way off track. Once I got near the town of Victor there were thousands of motorcycles and I at first thought it was a saturday and was sunny and the mountain roads are the place to ride. I got into the town of Victor and find out that there is a Veterans motorcycle rally in the next town over and most of it spills into the town of Victor, which is an active gold mining town. I found out a couple of things about my self on this little trip. I feel that being in the Coast Guard that I am not a true veteran even though I have earned the title. So many people before me have sacrificed so much in a service that was on the front lines. I have to remind myself that although the Coast Guard is not on the front lines now that they have been, and played an important role in every war this country has been in. It also makes me feel like I have abandoning a sence of duty that I one had but now I don't. As of the 15th of August I am a free man, no ones owns me. I am torn between the two, do I do what I want when I want to do it or do I need to serve this country. A lot goes into this thought and on a motorcycle is where you can really put it all to thought, but that's another rant for another day.

I was able to make it into a BMW dealership to get an oil change done in Colorado Springs, which I am thankful they were able to squeez me in as a walk in. Come to find out that I was about 500-1000 miles from being unsafe on the tires that I had. So Lizzy got a brand new pair of shoes and she feels like a new bike. They were also saying that I was luck to get the mileage out of the tires that I did.

I was headed west again toward a cluster of campgrounds that I saw on the map. I stopped by the camp grounds further from the city hoping to find a spot and they were all full so I headed north and was able to find a campground with a few spots left and snagged the first one that was open. I here I am now back to camping and having a blast, because hotels are all the same and expencive. It was worth it in the heat but no excuse now that I am in the mountains. Going with the bad luck part I wanted to climb pikes peak on the bike today but time and there was an annual marathon up the mountain today... So tomorrow I have some new more aggressive shoes on Lizzy and a mountain to climb.