TRIP REPORT

TRIP REPORT by Vladimir and Bonnie Roznos Vrrozy@aol.com
Hi you all, every one deserves to take a trip like this. It started very simple when we (Bonnie and I) have decided to travel west. Since we are now living in the mid-west it shouldn't be that far. Well, when I opened the map, Colorado was an easy target, to get there we could stop in Wilson, the Czech capital of Kansas. And not far from there stop in Osborn to see a local farmer Jack age 71 who drives a Ninja 600 where in season we go pheasant hunting. Next was to find the best roads in Colorado, as hard it seemed this was easy. BMW of Colorado club supplied me with bike roads for two weeks travel. During my planning I would mention the trip to my coworker Geoff who just bought a new Valkyrie. Only about week went by when he popped the question, can we (his wife Mary) tag along but she won't drive that far, she wants to fly and meet as there, great now we had riding partners. Since our first stop in Colorado was at Pikes Peak ,Mary flew to Colorado Springs and Geoff made the hotel reservation for all of us. This was only hotel that was planed for this 13 day trip, rest of the time we would just drive as planned and get hotel before 6:00 PM, only one time we have driven past this time.

Geoff and his ride at Jack's farm.	Jack and his farm.	Mary and Bonnie at Colorado Springs.	My hunting partner Kava.
Planning is done, so we set the dates. Geoff bought the air line ticket and Thursday after work we started for this 3000 plus mile trip. It was hot so I did not want to stop too often. It was Geoff who after 150 miles was pointing to his gas tank. We did make it that evening way past St. Louis heading towards West Rt.36. I did not want to take West 70 very boring. This stop was planned to drive as far as we could no matter the time. Next day we did stop to see Jack and his farm. We also met his 41 year old girlfriend. We all sat in his house talking bikes and pheasants, next stop was Wilson. There we had visited the Czech museum and gathered all the information for next Czech festival. The Rt. 36 was a good choice we ran over 80 most of the time, no one in sight. Next stop was Colorado Springs where we arrived 2:00PM Mary was not due until 11:00 PM. This gave us time to adjust to local time and altitude and just relax. We had relaxed so much we fell asleep and did not see Mary until the next day. Next day we were up and Geoff and Mary were still sleeping .This gave us time to ride around and check the roads and make reservations for cog train ride to Pikes Peak. Geoff was ready when we came back, he could not wait to get to Dilon. I did forgot about Dilon we have a condo there for two nights. Dilon is a nice ski community on the lake off Rt. 70. The condo was on the lake making this just a wonderful stop. Oops , we have three nights planned on this trip. Pikes Peak was nice but that elevation was not good for me. Drive to Dilon was relaxing with good roads, saw lots of Buffalo farms and after Hoosier Pass 1541ft. come Breckenridge. This ski town is very relaxing, we liked it so much we came back here next day only 20 miles run from Dilon

Geoff and Mary on cog train.	Most lakes and reservoirs were empty.	No more vegetation or oxygen. Get me back down please!	Dilon local burger joint. The best ever burger, Buffalo or Beef.

Breckenridge ski slopes.	Relaxing at Breckenridge Micro brewery.	This was their sample tray.	All these shops, but we do not have any room.
From Dilon we just take a day trip to Boulder and Estes Park. Dilon is at 9560 feet elevation and Estes Park is 11000-12000 and all of us were just getting tired of that altitude and did not enjoy Estes Park us much, so we head it back to Dilon where the night temperature was dropping to 26 F. I do not have a picture of this but it would have been a good one as me and Geoff have each a bundle of wood on our bikes driving it back to the condo so we can have a fire and watch some movies for the last night at the condo. Next morning we all packed up and say goodbye, Geoff and Mary was heading home first to Colorado Springs to drop Mary at the airport and then Geoff was driving alone back home. Me and Bonnie was heading west and South Colorado.

Lake Dilon was nice.	View from the Condo.	Leaving Dilon.	Geoff and Mary heading for home.
West 70 in Colorado is nothing like taking it trough Kansas good views and curves. Enjoying the elements we were driving towards one of my favorite roads on this trip South 133. Once on 133 it was timeless just us and the bike. This road took us to another good drive Rt. 141 south from Grand Junction to Cortez.

Route 133, timeless.	You guessed it, Route 133.	Good views on Route 141.	Stop on Route 141 South.
On Rt. 141 we made lot of stops for two reasons. Very good views and very good Mexican food. The small local restaurants were the best. After spending a night on South 141 we jumped on North 145 where at Lizard head pass 10222 ft. we met with snow. The First Gear jackets and pants pass all the challenges of this section. My challenge was to have a room for all the equipment to carry when temperature rise to 80's F.

Very cold Lizard Head Pass.	Too cold and slippery to run hard.	Ready to go sit on the warm seats.	More of Route 141.

Coming down was more fun.	Stop on Route 50 to take all the warm clothes off.	Route 12 coming down from Cucharass Pass at 9941 feet.	Lake on Route 12 South heading to New Mexico.
From Rt. 12 we picked up South 25 in Trinidad to Raton New Mexico. There we spent a night and filled up on more authentic Mexican food. Well from there we started to travel East. We have never been in Texas and when I started to plan the trip I had penciled Texas in just so that we could say we were there. Well it was not worth it. I'm sure there are nice places in Texas but the section we had traveled through to get to Oklahoma on the way to Arkansas was not it. This was the bad part of the trip the gas was the highest, the food was the worst and it smelled bad. We do not even have any pictures to prove it, meaning we did not stop if we did not have to. The 1200LT with all the electronics was just the ticket for this section. Once in Arkansas we hit to Ozarks where we planned to relax and spend the last night. This was about 3:00pm when we stopped there to gas up and call some hotels. As always I was checking the bike and tires, well before I found it, the driver of the car behind me was coming over and pointing to my back tire. Hey you got a bad spot on you tire, sure enough there was about 2" of tread showing. We stopped on a popular road and bikers were everywhere. Everyone was very helpful. We made lots of phone calls to try to locate new tire or help but we had no luck on this Sunday before labor day. We did get in contact with our son in Evansville who was willing to drive to Paducah to meet us there next day. Well we never spent that night or relaxed in Ozark (we are willing to go back). We would continue to drive (not over 55MPH) towards Paducah stopping every 80 miles to check on the tire. We had spent the night on North 9 just before Missouri border. Thanks to the cell phones we had met our son Bruce in Paducah the next day. It was good to take all the luggage off the bike and put it in the car. From there Bonnie with Bruce followed me home, we were not setting any speed records. We did make it home safe and the final mileage was over 4000 miles this was a lesson to learn.

Tire when we got home.	I would rather be here at Lizard Head Pass.	Or here.	For sure here.
Vladimir and Bonnie Vrrozy@aol.com PS. Thank Bruce.