Earache

That wasn't entirely the issue at the Dragon. The main issue was the number of emergency runs and injuries that occurred on 129. And guess when that became an issue - when all of the HD';s descended upon the place about 5 years ago and instantly began crashing all over the place. For 20 years prior to that, they were no problems as only sportbikes and sport tourers frequented the place - they had crashes as well, but not 10-15 per day. In the 1980's the place was pure heaven to ride. Then the Harley's came and fucked it all up with talentless riders, loud pipes, group rides of 25 bikes, etc. Fuck Harleys. Fuck'em all.

Gotta be more to it than just the names. That'd never be grounds for removing kids from a home. How many Benito' or Osama's are in the USA? Gotta be a few and they probably stayed with their wacky parents through childhood.

I went to Jerez and Cadiz for the GP a while back. Get your butt over to Barnes and noble and find some toursit books on Spain. They'll list all sorts of B&B's and othe places to stay. We stayed at hotels the whole time - I'll see if I can find the names of them. Being on the Costa Del Sol, they we're exactly cheap. But we stayed in the oldest part of Cadiz - one of Yurp's oldest cities - and it was pretty cool and a little bit less expensive. It's no different than any other kind of trip - you can pre-plan each night and make reservations or just wing it and get a place when you get there. Advantages / disadvantages to both.

I usually decide at the last minute - if I ride, I'll go on the Honda. If I trailer, then I'll take a Duc. If I do ride, I can meet up with you guys on the way or swing through Cinti from Indy.

Pretty much. Keep in mind, I don't consider going to "Deal's Gap" as riding the 11 miles of the actual Gap all weekend. I consider it going to Tennessee, North Carolina, Northern Georgia and riding all over the area. True, I do ride the actual Gap once or twice, but only as a means to get to the south side of it. Traffic and cops on weekends are nothing to worry about - you won't see either once you pass the actual Gap area....and that's 11 miles of the 700 or so that I do on a weekend down there. So plan your ride for any date - you'll have fun.

Same here. I do 7-8 trips down there each summer and can generally go on just about any weekend that I don't already have something planned. Post up as soon as you get a firm date so I can add it to my riding calendar.

I'm gonna have to agree with ya there. That dude gives me nightmares - not sure he was "acting" in that movie.

Never touched the lines in corners...much. And there was only 2 riders...not much of a pack

Ben and I hammered out some firmer details of the trip over a couple of beers at The Elevator Bar last night.... Not now, but within the next 60 days, we need to firm up who's going and figure out who's rooming with whom. Then we need to get some reservations going. We should have enough flex room to add or delete one or two people. I'll get the reservations all sorted out as I know where the hotels are, etc. You'll just need to give me a credit card number and I'll do the rest, (no, I won't buy a bunch of Slim Whitman CD's with your cards). I'll email each of the particpants a daily route sheet that will list how to get to the hotel for the night - most are easy to find - and a suggested fast route, scenic route, food/gas stops, etc. This way, we won't have to ride in one big group and you can go as fast or as slow as you want. And hopefully no one will get lost for very long. If you have any suggestions, now would be a good time to raise them.

Simple solution: quit riding like a bunch of squids in packs of 40. Then no one will talk shit about you.

No kiddin' - open that shit up a bit before you hit someone in the ass. That many bikes at one time in one place scares the shit outta me....but I ride like a little girl. I ride street, but with only 2-3 bikes at a time. edit: but who am I to judge? Hope you guys have fun and stay upright on these rides

Nah, most of them were taken while driving - I never even slowed down for them. Just stuck the camera out the window and snapped.

That's it. I have a shitload more pictures of stuff. If there's anything in particular you want to see more of, let me know and I'll post more pics of it. I'll be doing a solo ride out here around July 2-13 and then again for the Ohio Rider's group trip in September. Hope these pics entice some of the fence sitters into coming along with us in September!

Early the next day and we're heading up to Interstate 70 for the drive home. Had planned on going over Red Mountain Pass, but it was closed due to heavy snows and the avalanche cannon crews were in the hills blasting away. Did get to see some caribou though. Early morning with low light, so the pics kinda suck... Cruising on Route 50 North. This will be one of the plast pics of the hills until I return next summer on the bike...

Last day of the trip before the long drive home. We're in the sleepy little town of Ouray, Colorado tonight... Beautiful drive into town...

Our goal for the day is to make it to Bedrock to pick up a Christmas gift for my riding bud from Ireland. We stopped here last summer on our way to California for fuel and he liked the place. Bedrock, Colorado consists of one building, the Bedrock Store... The store... They don't stock a lot of items, just the basics.... And a classy shirt for my Irish friend..... Liquor is in the next room... A great old western store...

Roads turn to shit again, but we're not alone out here this time. Goldie says "hi"...

Getting that sinking feeling that I shouldn't be out here again...

And then it coulds up and gets ready to start snowing again. Weather changes dramatically every 15 minutes or so. Kinda like England...

Water pipe has a slight leak... Some wild turkeys are out and about...

It's only a couple of inches, so it won't impede our trip down the canyon and onto Bedrock, Colorado... Halfway there and the sun comes out again...

View of the restaurant and bar from our room... It's getting cloudy now.... Snow blowing off of the canyon rim... 10 minutes later and it's snowing again...

The next day dawns bright and sunny, we're at our favorite place in the World; Gateway! This place is owned by John Hendricks; founder of the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the Military Channel and loads of other channels I don't watch. He loved the area and built this first class hotel here as there isnt' another hotel - or anything else for that matter - within 75 miles. It has a gas station, grocery store, car museum, spa, horse stables and loads of other stuff. And we are the only ones here!

Even a deer taking refuge under a tree looked at me as if to say "what the fuck are you doing out here?"... Just at dusk, the sun peeked out from under the clouds to give us the last glimmer of light before nightfall.... We crept along at 15 mph during the whiteout portionsof the storm, barely able to see the sign posts on the road and made it to gateway, Colorado...in 13 hours. Never wanna do that again.

It's getting quite dark and I'm beginning to think that putting my wife in danger of being stranded on the rural roads wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done...