I rode out in brisk temperatures, about 17°F or so, shortly before 8:15 AM from my house, and took city streets to cross westward through the Denver Metro Area for the town of Morrison, CO. The rendezvous point was the Red Rocks Grill in Morrison, and I was meeting up with Deana, Jay and Tim L, along with their respective URAL sidecar rigs.
The cold was just starting to seep in past my warming layers when I arrived at Morrison, I dismounted and as I removed my helmet, saw Deana and Jay arrive right behind on their '07 Patrol. I walked in while Deana and Jay de-geared and found Tim sipping hot tea at one of the larger tables in the back of the diner.
Breakfast was a leisurely affair, Tim had grabbed the biggest table and so there was plenty of room to stretch out and hang our riding jackets and such. Deana, in the course of conversation, mentioned to us that they'd failed to get her a Mimosa yesterday when they'd been at another place for brunch. She would be making up for that failure today, for she readily ordered the "large" Mimosa when asked by our waitress:
Now that, is the largest Mimosa any of us had ever seen.....
I am happy to report, that Deana got about $11 dollars worth of the $12 drink, though there would be consequences later.
We all gathered outside for the ritual pictures, but due to some white balance issues on Jay's camera, I had to resort to making it a 1960's B&W picture for clarity:
Tim had to leave us at this point though as he and his family were going to go see the Colorado Rapids (Soccer Team) play today. That left Jay and Deana's Rig and my rig Valencia to challenge the snowy parking lots of Red Rocks Park.
Yours truly going through the tunnel that leads down to the main part of
Red Rocks Park from the North Parking Lot
photo courtesy of Jay and Deana
Video courtesy of Deana and Jay
photo courtesy of Jay and Deana
Valley View
photo courtesy of Jay and Deana
photo courtesy of Jay and Deana
Jay and Deana negotiate the North Parking Lot
You can see the snow was not too deep, perhaps 12 inches
in the areas where it had built up due to other vehicles
having tried their luck in the snow
Some sedate, scenic shots to show it wasn't all just
hooliganism in the parking lots on our part.
A last shot of the rigs together before Deana and Jay
went back towards their home.
You remember that picture of Deana and her "large" Mimosa? Well, the full effects of that drink, the bright Colorado sun and the fact that temperatures had soared into the mid-30s had the predicted effect on Deana.
Hey, why is Deana's head leaned over so far to the right?
zzzzzz....
Deana did wake up as Jay started their rig's engine, and they both waved cheery goodbyes as they left Red Rocks. Finding ourselves alone, Valencia and I motored over to the area near Ship's Rock and got this shot:
Ship's Rock
A parting view of Creation Valley
It was not late in the day as I exited Red Rocks myself, so Valencia and I turned right at the exit and proceeded to look for canyon sights along Bear Creek Canyon Road. Not sure why, but there was very little traffic heading into the mountains and a ton of it heading towards the city!
Sights along Bear Creek Canyon Road
As you can see, a brilliantly sunny and beautiful day here in the Great State of Colorado. The company of good friends at brunch, fun riding in snowy conditions afterwards and warmish temperatures to comfort one on the way home.....
Here's a couple of videos, one from Deana and Jay and one from me.....you get to see both sides of the same time sequence!
Here's a couple of videos, one from Deana and Jay and one from me.....you get to see both sides of the same time sequence!
Video courtesy of Deana and Jay
Here's hoping you got a ride in today!
Previously: A Dissapointing Winter Storm Ride
6 comments:
I'm glad to see you've got the "heroic pose" down, now!
+1 to what Jay Barry said. Love the heroic pose!
You guys rock! The vids look like you are having tons of fun. I had to snicker at Deana suffering from the 'Mimosa effect'.
Took me enough times! Fun day today!
Thanks SonjaM, it's taken me awhile to get the pose right....now I am wondering if Deana was feeling sleepy during some of those snow runs!
I'm impressed by the deep snow ability of the Ural in the video. I thought it would get high centered. Looks like great fun!
I had figured we'd get stuck a lot, RichardM, but the rigs did great! It helped that the parking lots are dirt/gravel and the snow was very soft and not too wet.
I managed to catch a little air trying to bulldoze my way through a snow mount at the entrance of one of the lots...instead the rig rode over it and I could feel the pusher tire briefly in the air.....quite surprising!
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