Colorado Springs Touring Club Poker Run on 5/21/06

Life has been so busy with both sons graduating (one from elementary school & the other high school) and then school ending and all the activities involved with that (whew!). I need a summer vacation after all that!!! My husband & I did the above run that benefited the El Paso County Search & Rescue. Some of those folks manned tables at the D.A.V. hall in Colorado Springs all day. They looked pooped by the end of the day. It was a great day for a ride and we were excited to be a part of it. We met and chatted with a few very nice people along the way. We even saw some fellow Mountain Shadow Riders. The DAV hall was Check Point #1 on the run. We checked in, payed, signed waivers, got the map and etc. and then we were off. They were offering a breakfast, but we were anxious to get started. We get our card's first punch here before taking off. The card is in an envelop, so we won't know how we're doing till it's all over.
After leaving the hall, we weaved through Colorado Springs and eventually came out onto Hwy 24 and headed west. The above picture is of Check Point #2 which was our next destination. It's Jackie's Sports Bar & Grill, 11115 W. Hwy 24 in Divide. As always, the drive on Hwy 24 from Colorado Springs going west to Divide is a bikers favorite. It has wonderful twisties and beautiful scenes to drink in and enjoy. We stop at Ck Pt #2 and get our card punched. We pause a few minutes to chat and laugh with others.

After leaving Ck Pt 2, the directions tell us to go down Hwy 24, west, for 1.7 miles and then turn left onto Teller County Rd 42. We have never been on this road before and discover we love it. It's paved and in pretty good condition. There are lots of ranches along this road.

We've followed this for a ways and we round a turn and I can see the intersection for our next turn when I ride right through a dust devil. At first I had no idea what was happening. The first thing to happen was I was wrenched a couple of feet to my left and at the same time I can feel the wind trying to swirl me. It's going in a counter-clockwise rotation. My face shield gets bombbarded with dust and mini gravel. It gets flung up under the shield and into my eyes. I'm just praying to keep upright and not crash. Then I get flung to the right and it's all over and I'm still up and going. Whewww, I couldn't believe that brief moment. I'm not too much into swearing, but that was definitely an "Oh Sh*!*t" moment. I hope to NEVER!! go through that again. Later I tell my husband about it and it had caught him too. As we were just coming out of a turn and he was far enough ahead, I wasn't sure if he went through it. I'm glad we weren't close.

So after that wonderful (?!?) adventure of nature, we come to the cross-sectioning intersection and then turn left onto Teller County Rd #1. Once again, in farming country. It's just beautiful out here away from the major highways, us and many other motorcyclists (lol). I never realized how popular llamas are. It seems they are everywhere in Colorado. Riding all these country roads this last year has really enlightened me.

I wanted to stop at a ranch that was snuggled in at the bottom of two mountains and get a picture. It was beautiful and they had llamas, but Bill was far enough ahead I didn't. There was no way to get word to him. I want to drive this again sometime and will stop then. Bill did stop a few miles after we started to climb into the mountains. Above is a view of some of the mountains. Bill thinks he's far enough to the left to not be in the picture (HA!!).

Here he is again. He recently bought the beads you put on car seats and attached it to his motorcycle seat. He had to cut, and not sure what else, to get it to fit. We had been reading a lot of emails on the Yamaha group yahoo about how great they are. This is his first venture out since attaching them. Later he couldn't tell if it helped him or not. If he keeps them on, he plans on painting them black to blend in. He was going to try them on his bike before buying another to put on my bike. I'm actually the one complaining of the hurting tush after many miles (lol).

The rest of the drive up to Cripple Creek on Teller County Rd 1 is breath taking. Lots of trees and periodic views of the mountains. Above we are at Ck Pt #3. It's in Cripple Creek in front of the Womack's Event Center. I look at my watch and it's 11:20am and lunch time. Quite a few people park their motorcycles and go find lunch. We are hungry, but decide to press on to the next check point and maybe get a bite to eat there.
We leave Cripple Creek, following their directions, and get onto Hwy 67. Above is a bridge that we are told is the highest bridge of Colorado's 8,479 state bridges.
We cross over the bridge and stop again. The above is taken from the bridge. I wish my camera could convey better the breath-taking view we were privilaged to see. You can kind of see how the mountains just keep on going.