Riding with Patrick

Not Saint Patrick, mind you.  That was yesterday!

Today I set out for the vicinity of the Denver Zoo, where I would later meet fellow Uralista Darrell S so he could deliver to me the Myrcenary Double IPA Tacker from the ODell Brewing Company.  He and soon to be fellow Uralista Greg P (who presently rides a GS Sidecar Rig) had gone there yesterday to sample the brew and also to visit Randy at Unique Rides.

First thing though was a meandering rides on side streets to the visitor center of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge.  This national refuge within the city limits of Commerce City, Colorado was created due to the discovery of nesting Bald Eagles sometime after it was decommissioned as a US Army site where chemical munitions were manufactured back in the day.

Patrick and I briefly toured the visitor center, got ourselves a sparse paper map and headed out to see what we could find in terms of wildlife and scenery.  We wandered about on paved roads throughout the interior of the refuge but found not much.  It was a very windy day here in the Denver Metro area and this caused some dust storms as we rode about.

I think it was this same wind which caused most of the wildlife to take shelter.  All we see was some prairie dogs, one lone Coyote and some deer in one of the sparsely located copse of trees.

 Patrick and a Bison

 One of the few small lakes one can hike around within the refuge.

Arsenal Refuge Deer Herd

The rest of the refuge was basically rolling grasslands and sparse trees, add some dust storms and driving winds and it was not the best place for a motorcycle ride today.

We left the refuge around 12:30 and headed in a southerly direction towards the are around the Denver Zoo.  Lunch was at a KFC where I watched folks admire Valencia in the parking lot as Patrick and I munched on chicken.

Met up with Darrell S. soon after lunch and he gave me the tacker.  We chatted for a bit and he told me how he'd almost lost his spare tire-mounted cargo rack yesterday while riding home.  Somehow, the metal cap that kept things secured had gone missing!  Luckily, except for the cap, nothing else fell off andhe made it home just fine after securing things with some baling wire he found on the side of the road.

After we said our goodbyes, Patrick and I headed home by side streets and byways.  We were in the area of the Wings over the Rockies Air Museum which is located in the Lowery Air Force Base neighborhoods.  It's a "renewed" urban neighborhood setting with lots of new construction and houses where Denver's main airport used to be.

Art Display near Wings over the Rockies Museum

We stopped briefly at the entrance to the Air Museum to pose Valencia by the restored B-52 Stratofortress Bomber that's located there:

 At the Wings over the Rockies Air Museum

 Mr "Cool"

I bet you could fit a few of Valencia's kin inside this bomber.

The rest of the ride was a long slog home in ever strengthening winds coming at us from the South.  These strong winds felt like someone was throwing soft body blows into me at times, it would have been no fun on two wheels I'll admit.

We home home safe and sound, Patrick tells me he had fun and I am thinking he must have....for at one point I heard him whistling in the sidecar.  I heard the whistling sounds first and thought there was something untoward with Valencia's engine!  Imagine my delight when I saw it was just my son whistling!

I look forward to tasting this Microbrew one day.

Thanks Darrell, for picking this up for me.