END LOCATION: Loveland, CO
MILES TRAVELED: 732.6
TOTAL MILES TO DATE: 2055.2
WEATHER SUMMARY: Sunny and WINDY
Today was the last day of pushing-hard interstate riding (or so we thought) to get to the fun stuff. We left Moore, Oklahoma at 6:30'ish to start the ride to Loveland, and things immediately got interesting. A couple of us had their GPS units set to avoid toll roads, and our route as designed had us using... you guessed it... toll roads. So we rerouted on the fly and went places we had no intention of going. Actually, I don't think the change cost us many miles or much time - but it served as a bit of a frustration for me, as I had to idea where we were going except to trust the GPS to recalculate a route and get us to Loveland.
At the end of the day, I would say the unplanned revision resulted in our seeing much more interesting scenery - sights we would not see out on the super slab. So I count it a win in some respects. Most importantly, we all managed the frustration and sense of responsibility with grace, because this is really more about relationship than the ride. We did what we do. We laughed and pressed on.
The real story of the day that can be told was the wind. Oh, my goodness. On day 0, I said I had never ridden through rain like the soakers I experienced. Today, we were trying to decide how the wind we encountered today compared to that which we experienced a few years ago in South Dakota. I'm honestly not sure which was worse, but I can tell you we have never ridden through sustained winds with frequent gusts that would blow us across our lane for so many hours. I mean, it got to the point that I was physically, mentally, and emotionally spent by the stress of dealing with the gusts. It was just crazy. We watched big rig drivers as well as RVers work to manage the wind, and often saw those guys blown onto the shoulder of the road.
Much of our ride today was on heavily-travelled two-lane roads. Another added dimension to the wind was the unusually strong gusts coming from the oncoming trucks. Man, oh man... All of this made for a new experience I don't think any of us want to duplicate.
And then there was another bike issue. And it was my fault. Thursday night, in an effort to diagnose and repair the clutch control / cruise control problem I was having, I tried checking the clutch fluid level. In putting things back together, I guess I damaged the gasket thing that is part of the clutch fluid reservoir. As we were riding today, I noticed that my bike was leaking clutch fluid pretty badly. This presented a dilemma. We were in the middle of nowhere, with no Harley dealerships even close to nearby. There are a number of dealerships in the Denver metroplex, but we were too far out to get to any of those dealers before closing. But another couple of heroes came to my rescue.
This time, my wife Annette went to work - first identifying dealership along the route, then helping to call dealerships to find the parts I needed. And then Bill at Greeley Harley-Davidson in Greeley, Colorado sold the things I needed to Annette and found a clever hiding place to leave those parts until I could get there, well after closing time. I love that wife of mine, who I know will do anything to be a blessing to me. And I am grateful for the Harley-Davidson dealer network that is committed to their product, their customers, and who are particularly willing to help traveling riders.
So that's enough for today. Tomorrow, we will try to ride Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. The forecast is not good, so we're leaving early to try to beat the rain.
Rain or shine - we ride.
I must sleep. Until tomorrow...
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