Long Day

Wednesday we had a 600+ mile,13+ hour day. We rode mostly interstate.  :( The wind was strong throughout the day, and for a short time it seemed to be trying it's best to blow us off the road (very strong wind gusts). As we headed towards Denver we hit some rain, but thankfully we skirted around some really bad looking weather. We hit Denver during rush hour and as seems pretty common in big cities across America, there was a lot of roadwork to maneuver through as well. We planned to stay in Boulder, but after braving the traffic through Denver we discovered there were no rooms available in the whole town.  We had the choice of riding back to Denver, or heading out of town towards Estes Park. Jim found rooms for us in Estes park, so weary travelers as we were, we hopped back on our bikes and headed that direction. On the way, we again found major roadwork going on. Last year in that area, there was a major flood that washed some of the roads out. Evidently they haven't yet completed the road repairs. Some of the roadway that we encountered literally had no asphalt or any solid surface, so we had to travel over dirt, mud and gravel. I am hopeful that all of this years travel challenges are behind us now, and the rest of the trip will be smooth riding! I would count this as one of the most challenging days of riding that I have ever experienced. But (thankfully), we made it to Estes Park, CO. tired, but safe.