No riding again – COLD! So, instead (to hold off cabin fever), we drove further up the canyon. Even MORE beautiful than the drive to FC! Well, a bit hard to tell today, because it was not sunny – quite the opposite, it was sprinkling, which, when we got near the pass (Cameron Pass 10,000 + feet!), turned to sleet! Got some good photos, though, and also, it had been snowing up there:

And on the way back, took photos of Poudre Falls – not very big, but very nice:

Short day.

RAIN. No, not really, but quite cold. Needed to go into town anyway, so still not riding – ugh. Got some groceries and gas, then went by the Dodge dealer – truck still parked outside! DAMN! They’ve had it almost two weeks! Guy says parts are in, and should start working on it tomorrow maybe, done by end of week, maybe. Yeah. Maybe.

One interesting thing, though. On the drive in to town, saw this – we’ve seen it several times, but finally got a photo of each:

Ok, look out for guys with hula hoops? But what about THIS:

You’d think I was back in Roswell!

RAIN. Again.

Not much today but RAIN.

Lazy day today. We’re too tired to drive into town (since it takes over an hour!), so we’ll just stick around and relax. Did do a short ride around here just to get a feel for the bike on soft ground, and it went ok. Tomorrow, we’ll go for a REAL ride on a REAL trail.

So, anyway, we’re taking it easy, it’s dusk, and I’m grilling hamburgers on the trailer’s outside grill, when, one of the times I check on the burgers, I see this:

Yup, a moose! Here he’s walking away, so he’s pretty far – when I first saw him, I was even with the back of the truck, and he was MAYBE a truck length in front of the truck … yes, kids, maybe 35-40 feet from me! Cool! He was sauntering left to right, and just kept on sauntering, completely ignoring me. I think that was a GOOD thing. Would not want a bull moose coming after me!

That was the excitement for the day – I finally got to see a moose!

Tandem day! Woohoo!

Oh, did I say that already? Well, we’re pretty excited about it! Breakfast, driving, blah, blah, blah. Let’s get to the good stuff! Here is The Bear with the tandem, in front of their building:

Here is a closeup of the importants:

We then took it out for a spin, and it felt pretty good, though both front and rear suspensions were a little soft, so we headed back to get that adjusted. Pumped up the rear shock, adjusted the dampening on the front, and the second ride was MUCH better. Woohoo!

After that, went to lunch at Beau Jo’s, a pizza place. Ok, but not great:

Then, headed back to daVinci to pay them the balance and head out. They were taking photos of the bike, so I snuck one of my own:

And while there, asked two of the guys to pose with it for us. Todd Schusterman on the right, and when I get his name, I’ll pop it in for the guy on the left:

Todd has a good sense of humor, but still let us get a serious shot:

We were hoping to hit the dirt with it today, but the day got away from us – we headed back to Fort Collins to show the bike off to the folks at Peloton. Woohoo!

GSD day, since we’re pretty much just marking time until the truck gets fixed.

Hit one of the local bike shops to get some stuff for the tandem, which we will go pick up tomorrow. Peloton Cycles is the place we’ve gone to every time we’ve been in Fort Collins, and they’re a fine bunch of folks. A great gl there also pointed us to “The Mayor of Old Town”, a pub fairly close by, so we headed there for lunch. I think I found heaven!

100 beers on tap! And the rumor is, when a keg runs out, they don’t restock that particular beer for 30 days, so that they keep rotating what beers they carry. I’m guessing that does not hold for all 100, but it might. Oh, and these are ALL Colorado craft beers!

Tomorrow – Tandem day! Woohoo!

Rest day! A very well-deserved rest, at that! Slept in WAY late. Back is MUCH better, so that’s a great thing. And went out to shoot some REAL photos of the canyon, so here are a few of the better ones:

What do you think?

Monday. Early to rise, free breakfast, which was pretty good – scrambled eggs, bacon, decaf and orange juice – that pretty much covers it! Time to walk to the dealer. It’s sprinkling now, after some rain last night … hope it’s not an omen!

Well, we arrive pretty soon, and the truck is still outside – not a good sign. We walk in, and Jesse (the truck guy – really nice, and always very helpful, BTW) is right there, eager to help, as usual. Tells us he’s got a car coming to pick us up, to put us in a rental from Enterprise … ooookkkay. We had some issues when we tried to rent from them in Amarillo, if you’ll remember (if you don’t remember, it was on day 14, page 13 of the website if you want a shortcut, though that will change in time as more are added). Well, the dealer sent a P.O., so we should be good to go, and when we get there – we are! They have a RAM truck for us, red or black – we say we don’t care, and get a red 4×4 1500. With a trailer hitch … hmmmm … possibilities! I can move the trailer if I have to, though it doesn’t have a brake controller, so I’d be driving it without trailer brakes. I’ll try hard not to do that. Here’s the truck at Dan’s place:

Pretty truck! It has no gearshift lever, just a knob you turn. Hard to get used to. Progress? Not too sure about that … BUT – we have wheels! Woohoo!

Oh, that’s the apartment and shop beside the truck – Dan re-roofed it a couple of years ago.

Sooooo, anyway … it’s been raining … we walk into the cabin to make lunch … and there’s water on the stove … oooops! Looks like a minor leak around the vent-a-hood, so should be no big deal, but it’s a good thing we came back and saw it, so we can tell Dan – I don’t think anyone was coming back here for a while, and even though it’s a small leak, it’s good to know about it, especially if it worked out that folks showed up when it had not been raining, and he did not find out about it for months – very bad! Glad I could be of service, Dan! Can I go up there and fix it? Ummm … no. Sorry, but I still don’t do high places.  But at least you know about it!

Ok, so – we have a truck to get around with, which is good, because we’re one bottle down on gas, and it’s been cold at night, so we go out to refill it. Nice to have wheels! They’ve got it rented until Friday, but I sure hope it doesn’t take that long. Not that I really mind, it IS beautiful up here (I’ll go out and take some photos tomorrow so you can see), and we do get to stay for free (THANKS DAN!!!), but we’re basically just killing time, and not getting any riding done, since there’s really nowhere to ride close by. Ugh. By the time we get the tandem, we’ll be in no shape to ride it – double UGH. Oh, well.

Well, it’s all done! Here it is, from the back:

Only thing left is the cleanup, and we’ll get that done in the next few days. Whew! Dan is justifiably proud. Me, not so much. I feel bad that my back kept me from helping the last two days, but I’ll get everything cleaned up so it looks nice, we’ll be here long enough.

And speaking of “long enough” … tonight we’ll go into Fort Collins and get a hotel room, so we can walk over to the dealership and get a loaner, so we can get around while our truck gets fixed. Can’t wait – it SUCKS to be without transportation, especially as here we are an hour away by car. Yes, it’s only about 40 miles, but it takes at least an hour to make the drive. It is beautiful once you get here, though. COULD bicycle it, but there’s no way I’d ride that road on a bicycle – it would be suicide! No shoulder to speak of and big trucks on occasion – no thank you!

We’ll se what happens tomorrow …