Uraling to meet the C2C50 Riders

CCjon, Lokiboy and Muzzleblast....the usernames used by Jan, Dave V. and Rudy on sovietsteeds.com and presently the stalwart riders who are undertaking the Coast to Coast via US 50 Riding Challenge on their URAL sidecar rigs.

CCjon, or Jan and I had been exchanging emails and texts for over a year now, ever since he'd gone to Alaska right after I had started returning from Alaska last year.  He had, however, started from Key West, Florida!  A much longer journey, with many challenges and many beautiful pictures generated.

Today I rode down towards Cañon City after lunch, it took me about 2.5 hours, arriving there shortly after 5:30 PM due to having to do a work-related phone call/meeting while in Colorado Springs.  The guys were already at the motel in Florence where we'd agreed to meet beforehand.

They'd spent the early afternoon at the URAL dealer in Pueblo West, Hymark Motorsports.  Dave had some work done on his carburetors (clogs apparently), Jon swapped out his front tire and Rudy just hung out with them while the work was done.  Dave S., who lives in Pueblo greeted them and escorted them to Florence.

After introductions, we chatted for a bit, looked over each other's rigs and decided after a bit to get some dinner at a Mexican restaurant that Dave S. knew about from previous trips.

We lingered a bit too long and got to Skyline Drive about 15 minutes too late to catch the prime sunset lighting but I think we did OK anyways.

 Dave S, me, Dave V, Rudy and Jan

 Slightly different angles of a rather glorious sunset, its golden

rays burning through the clouds which presented a great backdrop

At the spot where we stopped the rigs for the above pictures, there was this young couple and a photographer taking pictures.  The couple's names were Erin and Zach I believe, and Renee was the photographer.  Erin and Zach are to be married in about three weeks and they were up there for pictures for the wedding I believe.

After Renee took the group shot above, we asked if the happy couple would like to sit in one of the rigs for pictures.  They happily accepted and chose Scarlett as the rig.   Red always wins when it comes to these situations.

WTF Chuck made an appearance with the happy couple. 

Chuck the Gnome is a traveling companion to the three C2C50 Riders, often blamed for large amounts of drinking, mechanical problems, bad luck and what not.  The guys tried to get the couple to take the gnome but no luck, its staying with the riders.

LINK to short video of the rigs on skyline drive:  LINK

We lost the sun soon afterwards and we cruised on down the remainder of Skyline Drive, arriving in town after dark.  The trip back to the motel in Florence was without incident and I managed to find my way back in the dark.

We spent the rest of the night talking, comparing photos and most people writing up the day's adventures and posting photos.  Tomorrow, we're going to try and squeeze in some mountain scenery along the way to Monarch Pass.