Gunnison and Harmel's and bad weatherDay 7

A cabin on the Taylor River in Almont, Colorado

0 Miles

1780 Total Miles

A pleasant night at Harmel's Resort was followed by a fun, yet unproductive morning of trout fishing. Could it be that we have neglected our fishing over the past year? Has our motorcyclemania become so obsessive that we have let our fly-fishing skills deteriorate? We chose to think not. We fault the weather. That's our story so believe it.

Harmel's is a nice place. They offer fly-fishing on private water, horseback riding and good and plentiful food. It's run by a very accommodating guy named Steve. He is a San Diego Charger fan and was thrilled with the Titan's win over the Oakland Raiders.

Rain started late morning accompanied by decreasing temperatures, so post-lunch was devoted to reading and napping.

Bo on the porch of our cabin

The storm caused a power outage so dinner was by candlelight. We both would have preferred having a candlelight dinner with our spouses, rather than with each other!

We played pool after dinner and then watched a DVD on the iBook. Cape Fear (the new one) is intense stuff to watch during an electrical storm.

George Wright and Bo checking out the forecast online

Jim Cato shooting pool poorly

Paul Rosenblatt setting up

Harmel's has been fun, but we miss the open road. Our minds are on motorcycling, not fishing. We plan to leave tomorrow. Our destination depends on the weather forecast.

Day 8

Harmel's Resort to Gunnison

75 Miles

1855 Total Miles

Ok, every day can't be wonderful. As a matter of fact, today was a not so good.

We awoke to steady rain. The temperature was down to 42 degrees and the weather report called for snow in the high passes. One look at our map made it clear that there was no escape from the Gunnison area without crossing a pass in excess of 9,000 feet. So we decided to take a chance and try Highway 50 back to Pueblo. The only obstacle would be Monarch Pass, which tops out at 11,312 feet.

The donned our rain gear, packed our bike and departed Harmel's.

The first 10 miles or so we fine. As we continued on the temperature kept dropping and the riding became terrible. We were about 30 miles out of Gunnison, our hands were freezing (we didn't think we would need our winter driving gloves on this trip) and it started snowing. We decided not to be heroes (or fools). We turned around and drove back to Gunnison. By the time we reached Love's (a c-store chain) we were totally miserable. Cindy, who ran the cash register at Love's, said that she didn't mind us dripping all over her store as we desperately downed hot cups of coffee. She suggested the new Comfort Inn near downtown as a good place to hole up.

We found a motorcycle dealer and purchased warm, waterproof riding gloves and Bo found new highway pegs. So the day wasn't a total disaster.

Threatening skies kept us holed up in Gunnison

So...as we write this update, we are safely ensconced at the Comfort Inn watching an old Burt Lancaster movie.

We had dinner at Serrano's Mexican. We asked the four guys at the table next to us is they knew anything about road conditions. We talked a while and they asked where we were from. It turned out they too were from Nashville. One of them owned a cabin in Gunnison and knew the area well. We talked a lot with J.R. Spencer of Faairview, Tennessee, who owns a Harley and tries to make it to Sturgis every year.

JR and Bo

Not the day we hoped for. But we're in Colorado, dinner was good and we're not at work, so we're not complaining too hard.

"W" on Gunnison hillside for WCU

It's expected to warm up tomorrow. Wish us luck.