Blanding, UT to Gunnison, CO

The thought of finally getting out of Utah with it's continual climbing and horrible road surfaces was maintaining me through some tough riding. Colorado was the promised land, it would have silky smooth roads and have beautiful scenery and all would be right with the world. Not quite.

I left Blanding early because it was an 80 mile ride to Delores, CO . I was enjoying the smooth asphalt when a state trooper pulled me over and informed me I couldn't ride on his road. He said I had to ride on the shoulder. I informed him the shoulder was full of debris and would cut my tires. He didn't seem to care. I waited until he left and continued on the road. We made it to Delores without further incident.

The next morning I began the 50 mile climb up Lizard Head Pass and on to Ridgeway CO . The grade was not as bad as I anticipated and I made it over the top in about 6 hours and had another brake frying coast into Ridgeway.

The ride from Ridgeway to Gunnison began good enough. I caught up with a rider named Jeff from Louisville. I was wearing my UK jersey and he made some good natured rude remarks about it. We were almost to Gunnison when I realized the sag lady hadn't caught up. She will have to tell the rest of the story.

My morning at the campground had been lovely. Look out the window over the kitchen sink and see snow capped mountains, look out the dining table window and see a large reservoir nestled in mountains, oh the tranquility. I became restless and decided to pull out a little ahead of schedule and do a little shopping in Montrose. I found Dakota bread at the Great Harvest and a 50% off sale at Penney's. Took off toward Colby who had more than a 4 hour head start. I started up the first climb and was tickled when I could pass another large camper being pulled by a Tundra. Usually I'm the one who gets passed by the diesel pick-ups. Up I go to the summit feeling smug and then as I start descending it became apparent that something was not right. There was hardly any shoulder but I managed to get it over just outside the white line. Got out to look...driver side fine...passenger side....oh no....trailer tire blown to smithereens. Got the cell phone out only to find no bars. Stood there a while as cars and campers and semis raced down the mountain with no one stopping. I knew I could cry or try to do something. Doing something was a daunting thought as I had never even changed a tire on a car. Thought about unhitching and going on to get Colby but it was such a steep grade I was pretty sure the trailer would not hold. Wasn't sure if insurance covered accidental launches off mountains....so I began my task.

The extent of training Colby had given me was ...1.get the bolts loose before jacking and 2. you don't have to unhitch. Alrighty...the bolts came off fairly easy and now to get the bottle jack under the axle.....oops....it fit for Colby when the tires were inflated but it did not fit when they were flat. I had to dig a hole using a piece of pipe and a piece of 2 x 4. Got it under, jacked er up got the new tire on and was about to do the final tightening when a young man, his wife and friends stopped. He cranked the nuts down hard for me and made sure I got off ok before leaving me. So for those of you thinking about applying for sag lady you might want to think twice or bring a blond in a bikini with you in case of breakdowns