Comforts of friends in Loveland, CO

In many ways, we've made it (though we do have a short jaunt to go to Denver). But we are here in Loveland enjoying the hospitality of our friend, Bill and his missing wife, Maggie, whom he assures us is alive and well but taking care of their son's place near the Boulder area.

Bill met us in Fort Collins and all three of us made the short ride to Loveland. We've been lucky, even on such roads as Colorado 40 (Rabbit Ears Pass) or 14 (Cameron Pass/Poudre River) we've not had too busy commuter or tourist traffic, so it's been a strange shift for Alaine and me to be dealing with city cycling or car point-to-point roads used by cars and trucks and RVs. It felt like almost like the Oregon Coast. (Okay, well, the highway we had to take to Rawlins was the worst by far.)

Bill has been showing us many sights in the area and on Saturday drove us up into Rocky Mountain National Park - the way we didn't go due to the thunderstorm forecast. Below are a couple shots from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Patk, on the way.

We continued on up into the national park which we were grateful to get to see, as it was on our original plan for getting from our Great Divide route to Loveland. We were able, first hand (vs google maps) able to imagine what it would have been like to ride. Doable, yes. Beautiful, yes. Super heavily trafficked, yes. Shoulderless, yes, most of the time. We are so glad we ended up with Cameron Pass and Poudre Canyon (thanks, again, Dave, and Callen and Bill too!).

Back down in Loveland we went to the Benson Sculpture Garden, home of around 140 pieces scattered along a couple miles of pathway. We didn't get to see everything because Loveland is also home to one of the largest sculpture festivals being held next week, so a portion of the park was closed off but it was still quite amazing.

Handsome (but dirty (faced)) Paul and Dirty Dan Harris. I ran into a friend far from home, but I felt a newfound kinship with him... of the scruffy family. Might have to sever those ties, disown that guy, soon...

I'm replacing my Brooks saddle with this more comfortable bronze version.

It's now Monday morning, and we're shortly off to go visit with Maggie near Boulder, maybe get to see Boulder too, and all the beauties between here and there. Tomorrow morning we head to Denver for a couple days for a long overdue visit to Alaine's brother Callen. 

We got in all of 8 miles of riding yesterday, day-I-don't-know. Woohoo.