DAY 9: OUCH......Those Raindrops Bite!

Manitou Springs, CO - July 9, 2010

If I were to tell you everything that happened today, we would need to break it down into chapters......busy, fun, painful day.....

I woke this morning to the sound of Kittie Kruger meowing.......meowing every 5 seconds......it was weird; I just couldn't understand, as I lay there in bed listening to her, why she was meowing so consistently.  About the time I talked myself into getting up to check on her, she jumped up on the bed and I noticed her mouth wasn't moving, yet the meowing continued every 5 seconds.  I could read her mind as she also wondered  where the meowing was coming from......then we both looked over at Chuck and noticed it appeared to be coming from his nose.  Ahhhhhh......I then promptly reached over to my cell phone and caught the whole thing on video......

Anyway, we decided this was a perfect day to explore on the trike.......so we loaded up extra water, layered clothing, extra snacks for Chuck and that tapeworm he must have in his stomach, and headed towards the mountains.  We had mapped out a route which took us through Cripple Creek, Canon City and Woodland Park which we knew were beautiful roads.  

Everything started out just great; beautiful 65 degree weather; few cars and gorgeous mountain roads.  We made our way to Canon City which has one of our FAVORITE motorcycle roads ever.....its called Skyline Drive and its a one lane road carved into the top of a mountain with no guardrails and major drop-offs on each side.  Check out our YouTube Video of our ride today at (once we get it on there).  

It was just as much fun as the first time we had made this ride two years ago.  We then heard of a new road just outside of Canon City that was suppose to be fantastic.....only problem was, it was 22 miles of unpaved road.  But did that stop us??  Nope, not at all.......we plunged forward and were wowed at each hairpin turn......

At about Mile Marker 19, we noticed dark clouds starting to gather over us which just kept getting darker and darker......looking a lot like a typical bruise on Liz's legs........  At about Mile Marker 20, we decided to put on our raincoats......at Mile Marker 21, we decided to listen to the weather station and heard ground-to-sky lightening was occurring, along with hail and heavy rains.....Mile Marker 22, the rain started.....but now we were on paved mountain roads which gave us peace of mind UNTIL.........the raindrops started HURTING and sounded SUPER loud.....dang....it was HAILING....and hailing HARD!  The visor to my helmet was fogging up, I couldn't see out the windshield and we were on twisty, curvy mountain roads that normally would have excited us.  Our hands and face were being pelted with hail stones and rain and there was no where to pull over and get shelter, so we pushed on until we finally, 20 minutes later, drove out of this nightmare.  

I can only imagine what the people behind us were thinking.......I'm sure, if they were like me, they were getting pictures of these two idiots on a motorcycle riding through this awful storm......

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, it SNOWED on us today too!!