Day 2 – Feeling Excited

After a rough start we were finally on the road.  This was our original route and schedule.

 Day 1:  Mesa, AZ to Cortez, CO

Day 2: Cortez, CO to Craig, CO (with a stop in Telluride, CO)

Day 3:  Craig, CO to Douglas, WY

Day 4: Douglas, WY to Eagle Butte, SD (going through the black hills and Sturgis)

Day 5: Eagle Butte, SD to Fargo, ND

Day 6:  Fargo, ND to Eau Claire, WI

Day 7:  Eau Claire, WI to Sheboygan, WI (with a stop in Milwaukee at the Harley Museum)

Day 8:  Sheboygan, WI to Mackinaw City, MI

Day 9:  Mackinaw City, MI to St. Joseph, MI

 

That is not what happened….(see Tip 1 in Tips and Tricks)  Since we got a very late start on Day 1 and only made it to Payson, AZ, it kind of messed up the schedule so we had to regroup.  I would tell you what we came up with but it changed so many times along the trip as you will see.

After trying to readjust the schedule in order to stay on track, we decided to stay the night during on Day 2 in Telluride, CO instead of Cortez, Co.  That way we wouldn’t be too far off and regroup once we were at the hotel there.  We still wanted to stop at the Four Corners Monument and check that out.  Kirk wanted to make sure we could say that we had ridden the motorcycle in Utah (we have already ridden through New Mexico on a previous trip), so we drove around the outside of the monument, hitting all of the states. Then parked and took a look around.
  We rested and had our picture taken, then got back on the road and headed to Telluride, CO.  We had been riding in the hot sun for several hours when I realized that I had forgotten to put sunscreen on.  I promptly stopped and put some on, but when we stopped for the night I looked like this. (See Tip 2)

We made it to Cortez about the time that we would normally like to be stopping for the night but we had to make it to Telluride.  First, because we had a hotel reservation and second, because we had to be in St. Joseph, MI by Sunday night.  We did stop to eat dinner in Cortez though because we were so hungry.  Cortez is a very small town in the mountains.  I didn’t really have time to look around there, but we found a really good Italian restaurant called Nero’s Italian Restaurant.  It was so tiny inside, but the waitress was very good and the food tasted great. If you are ever going through there, you should stop and check them out.

We got back on the road to Telluride.  It was getting dark and cold very fast.  Many times we considered stopping to put on warmer clothes but we were both so tired that we agreed to just get there as fast as possible.  That turned out to be slower than normal because being in the mountains the deer and Elk were everywhere. They would just stand in the middle of the road and look at us like “what? Oh, you want us to move?”  We had to go super slow because if they weren’t in the road they were on the side of it waiting to jump in front of us.  I would have pictures, but I was too cold to move to take them.

We made it, finally, to Telluride, but I forgot which hotel we were staying at so we went to the wrong one and this really snobby guy came out and basically was saying anything to get us to get away from his hotel. It apparently is one that is super expensive (I looked it up, they have lofts that ran about 2500 a night).  I think we scared him, we did look pretty rough.

We found our correct hotel, The Hotel Telluride.  If I ever go back, it is definitely someplace that I would stay again. The lobby was so rustic but classy. I would love to see it decorated for Christmas.  I am sure it would be just beautiful.

The front desk personnel were so helpful and pleasant. The rooms are very nice with a nice balcony. We had an amazing view from our balcony.
 

They had the most comfortable bed on the entire trip. It was so big, I literally had to climb up on it. They had a microwave, a larger than normal mini-refrigerator, a nice coffee maker, real dishes and glasses (including wine glasses), and silverware.  They offered grocery delivery from a local organic store, and had a restaurant/bar on the property.

We slept so well.  Didn’t want to get up and start the next day, but onward we went.