Day Three - Snowmass Village to Grand Junction

I believe I metioned the horrible front desk incompetence that enables Westin to ruin what would otherwise have been a very pleasant stay? Well, they managed to carry that through to the check out process as well. No more about it here, don't want to waste any more time, but there is a hotel chain that seriously needs to rethink it's customer interface.

Breakfast at the hotel would have been $30US for the buffet.  We declined and took the elevator down one more floor to Starbucks. Coffee and an egg muffin much more reasonably priced and we were on our way.

Once we turned south and west at Carbondale we were treated to a wonderful ride through a scenic canyon with the White River rushing alongside.  Brad chose to add to the already dangerous stream flow!

 
 

No really serious climbs today, just a gradual transition from forest and stream to desert. And surprise, surprise a slew of wineries.  It reminded LZB of home.

We made a stop in Paonia for a late morning coffee.  What a stop! Strudel fresh out of the oven, a single slice serving defeated almost all of us - although some rose to the challenge.

 
 


From there the road grew less interesting and seriously hotter as we headed into the western part of the state towards Grand Junction. Avid readers will have noticed a curious fact.  So far our band of brothers hasn't hit a single Harley store but with Don's bike low on oil and having a burned out turn signal that was remedied.  And of course t-shirts were bought to add to already burgeoning collections.  Did we mention that Brad's bike also hit a problem after gassing up?  Well it did, stalling at the first light and refusing to start for quite some time. It did this again  at the hotel and we witnessed a new phenomenon.  The gas in the tank was actually vaporising in the 104F heat!  That's what you get for renting a black bike!

 



Grand Junction turns out to be a pretty cool place (not literally of course) and a great micro brewery got us in the mood for the coming evening street market and dinner at an Italian bistro.  Very interesting public art abounded on the sidewalks and street corners.

 
 
This is a huge Ford pickup truck limo!

  



A very eclectic mix of people, stalls and displays.

 
  

That's probably enough for today. Tomorrow we ride south and back into the mountains a bit.  Maybe it will cool off?

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