Epic Summer Vacation

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Day 4 - Well we didn't put lots of miles on but we sure got lots of altitude...14,000+ feet to the top of Pikes Peak. We got to do the ride with a couple Minnesota SpyderLovers, Neal and Richard. It was incredible to ride up there and then to top it off the Hill Climb is this coming weekend so we got to see several of the racers coming down the mountain after their practice ride. Got to check another ride off our bucket list!

When we got back to town we stopped at this great hot dog stand for lunch. When you order they ask if you'd like it "George" sized...bigger and better looking...George is the guy who takes your orders...he was great. And so was the food!

Later after resting up from our mountain ride we waited for the daily storms to break so we could drive thru the Garden of the Gods. Those are some of the most beautiful rock formations around...truly amazing how they are formed by the wind erosion.

After supper we met up with Seth for a visit. It was a Minnesota invasion in Colorado Springs!
Not a bad first official day of Butch's vacation!

 

[PW2013STL]

Day 4 - Well we didn't put lots of miles on but we sure got lots of altitude...14,000+ feet to the top of Pikes Peak. We got to do the ride with a couple Minnesota SpyderLovers, Neal and Richard. It was incredible to ride up there and then to top it off the Hill Climb is this coming weekend so we got to see several of the racers coming down the mountain after their practice ride. Got to check another ride off our bucket list!
When we got back to town we stopped at this great hot dog stand for lunch. When you order they ask if you'd like it "George" sized...bigger and better looking...George is the guy who takes your orders...he was great. And so was the food!
Later after resting up from our mountain ride we waited for the daily storms to break so we could drive thru the Garden of the Gods. Those are some of the most beautiful rock formations around...truly amazing how they are formed by the wind erosion.
After supper we met up with Seth for a visit. It was a Minnesota invasion in Colorado Springs!
Not a bad first official day of Butch's vacation!

Sounds like a great day! Would love to do the top of Pikes Peak, but discovered that I am one of the lucky ones who suffer from altitude sickness. Last time I tried Pikes I started feeling bad and got worse the higher I got. I did not know what was happening at the time, but discovered the reason when it happened at the summit of Bear Tooth Pass. The lower I got the better I felt.
:agree: The Garden of the Gods is fantastic - a must see :yes:

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Day 5-6-7: Our trip into Durango was another great travel day. As we got closer the more spyders we saw, and the longer it would take at gas stations, everyone wanted to chat and then more would come along. It was fun to find out where they were all traveling in from too. Then as we traveled along it was like a great game of leap frog...we'd keep passing up and then beinging passed by the same spyders!
One the prettiest parts of ride was Wolf Creek Pass.

Pulling into Durango and checking into our motel we came across more spyder friends. We had alot of fun just hanging out in our parking lot! Thanks to Peggy, Gary, Paula, and Scott for helping Butch find our motel room.

He kept looking at our room key upside down so they helped out by renumbering our room!
We had quite the Minnesota invasion: Us, Seth, Chuck, Les & Kathy, Richard and Neal (who missed the photo)

The owners event was so much fun...we reconnected with old friends, got to know others much better, met lots of new friends and the riding was great. So many options of places to go.but I had one destination to check off my bucket list...so off to Mesa Verde we went, and Kathy and Les joined us. The ride into the park is so very beautiful much less walking around where these fasinating people carved out their homes in the mountainside.

When we got bach from our ride it was time to head to Sleeping Beauty Ranch for the BBQ and more visiting...we do alot of that! The last day of the event we had a good lunch and then headed downtown Durango for a street party...spyders everywhere and a really good band. Butch and I did not win the trip to Europe...bummer...but when you get to spend time with great people and ride around in this beauriful part of our country I would say we were winners any ways! Its always sad when one of these events comes to an end...but we just say good bye until the next event...and there are getting to be more and more all acrocc the country...one of them is bound to close to us or on our way to another destination. Thanks BRP for putting on another fun event...looking forward to hearing where next years will be!

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Day 8 - We said good-bye to Durango and started heading out on the rest of our vacation. 360 miles later we are in Winter Park, CO. We stayed on state highways as much as possible, but eventually had to get on I40....if you have to ride on a freeway this has to be the MOST beautiful one around!

At some p

oints of our ride today we were almost even with the treeline and in several areas there was snow next to the road or in the forest nearby....makes me wonder if I packed warm enough clothes for this trip! Might have to do some shopping...oh darn!
I know I've said this before but I keep thinking of those pioneers that did this trip in covered wagons....I claim to be an outdoorsy person and somewhat hearty...I don't think I could've made it...they were very special people to have made it over these mountains!
Winter Park was on Butch's bucket list....being the train fan that he is brought us here to see the Moffat Tunnel! One of the longer tunnels at 5 1/2 miles long and the main throughofare...it was pretty cool to see...just too bad there wasn't a train!

Well time to hit the hay and get a good nights sleep and be all ready for tomorrows ride!

 

[cptjam]

Awesome

So nice to see you guys! What a wonderful trip! Pictures are superb! Keep them coming!

 

[Big Arm]

Thanks for posting such great pictures, and the nice write-up of your trip. Wishing you all the best on your way home. Keep us updated. :thumbup:

 

[SethO]

i made back and had to go early to go shooting (made my first 1600 yard shot with a 260 remington in canon city)then burned back 1144 miles straight to dirt town.

hope the rest of your vacation goes great. SOME of us had to come back to work.

 

[PW2013STL]

i made back and had to go early to go shooting (made my first 1600 yard shot with a 260 remington in canon city)then burned back 1144 miles straight to dirt town.

hope the rest of your vacation goes great. SOME of us had to come back to work.

:bowdown: 1144 miles in one run - You truly have a iron butt!

Glad you made it home safely and was nice talking with you at the event. :congrats: On the shot :yes::yes:

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Well....we are in Great Falls, Montana after spending 6 days in the Grand Teton and Yellowstone area! The scenery is fabulous the riding was great and you couldn't ask for better weather, but the cell and wifi was so sketchy that is wasn't very often that we could stay connected to post much less add photos. We stayed at the Headwaters Flag Ranch located right between the two national parks. We haven't camped in quite a few years, it sure was fun...although having limited space we didn't pack any cooking items...darn we had to eat out...and there were plenty of options.
We saw 4 spyders while in this area and were able to talk to one couple that were from South Dakota.
We said good-bye to Yellowstone and saw one last bison on our side of the road just walking along probably wondering what all the fuss was about! Road 340 some miles to Great Falls, Montana, through some more beautiful country. Tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park!
Here are some photos from our stay here:

 

[PW2013STL]

Sounds fantastic!! I hope the great weather you have continues. We made it home Saturday night.

Les & Kathy

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Sounds fantastic!! I hope the great weather you have continues. We made it home Saturday night.

Les & Kathy

Glad to hear you are home...see you at our next ride on July 26.

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

We'll here we are in East Glacier, staying at the Whistling Swan Motel (10 rooms!) no breakfast. But there is a great bakery around the corner and one block over!

We had a beautiful ride up here on two lane roads and only minor road. Construction that made awfully happy we were on Spyders an not two wheels! Our route had us on the Lewis and Clark Trail winding through plains and foothills. Short ride today only 283 miles. I can't believe the weather we are having I hope the weather gods continue to look favorably on us! Meet a couple from Alberta in Browning today that have a Spyder and cycle and we chatted while eating our lunch in the parking lot. There hasn't been a single day on this trip that we haven't meet a fellow Spyder owner or someone happy to see one up close. BRP should be giving us a kick back for all the advertising we are doing! Sort of a lazy day today and then we will tour around Glacier National Park.

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Day 21 - we said good-bye to East Glacier today at 7am and 489 miles later we are in Glendive, MT in time for supper.
I know I keep saying the scenery is a awesome, but these mountains are just that. Glacier doesn't have the rugged peaks of the Tetons but when you ride the Going to the Sun Road and get into the center of all those mountains with snow fields and glaciers it is so cool.
We were lucky that they just opened Logan's Pass last week and were able to do the whole route. There was still some drifts that were over Butch's head.
We took a boat tour on Lake McDonald and the water was such a pretty color so different than our Minnesota lakes.
If you ever go out that way we would highly recommend staying in East Glacier (Whistling Swan Motel) stopping at the Rock and Roll Bakery and eating at Two Medicine Grill. All great places in our opinion and great people.
As for Glendive, CC's Family Restaurant was really good too (the Spanish omelette, yum).
Well gotta get some shut eye so we can rest up for tomorrow ride towards home.

 

[PW2013STL]

Day 21 - we said good-bye to East Glacier today at 7am and 489 miles later we are in Glendive, MT in time for supper.
I know I keep saying the scenery is a awesome, but these mountains are just that. Glacier doesn't have the rugged peaks of the Tetons but when you ride the Going to the Sun Road and get into the center of all those mountains with snow fields and glaciers it is so cool.
We were lucky that they just opened Logan's Pass last week and were able to do the whole route. There was still some drifts that were over Butch's head.
We took a boat tour on Lake McDonald and the water was such a pretty color so different than our Minnesota lakes.
If you ever go out that way we would highly recommend staying in East Glacier (Whistling Swan Motel) stopping at the Rock and Roll Bakery and eating at Two Medicine Grill. All great places in our opinion and great people.
As for Glendive, CC's Family Restaurant was really good too (the Spanish omelette, yum).
Well gotta get some shut eye so we can rest up for tomorrow ride towards home.

Sounds like a fantastic trip hyea: Looks like you are heading back in time to expeareance our cool down, high of 64 on Monday. Hope you miss the rain - not that we have had much of that :shocked:.
Stay safe and see you both on the 26 :yes:

 

[Paula(Butch2025)]

Home!!!! Made it home from Durango today after putting in a 630ish mile day...yes Seth we should've stopped by but we figured we would come bug you for a whole 3 day weekend next month!!!!

All in all we did 5,216 miles...21 days...and we're still talking! I will have to download the photos from my canon camera later...wifi was just not consitant enough along the route to do that and then upload them here...so that's a job for the next couple of days while I'm doing laundry.

We met some of the greatest people along this trip...so we don't just have scenic memories but people too. Of course every gas stop turns into an infomercial for BRP, we figured at least 8 people we talked to were going to go test ride one or buy one! We had an Asian man approach us in Yellowstone Park all excited to see our Spyders, he took several photos...didn't want much to do with my black one he was very into Butch's yellow STs...ended up motioning to him to sit on it and took his photo...he left us all smiles and giving us thumbs up several times!

This was quite the epic summer vacation, so glad that Butch needed to use up some of his vacation days!!!!

 

[SpyderAnn01]

Looks like you had a great trip and I am looking forward to seeing the pictures.

 

[Jim&Teresa]

Home!!!! Made it home from Durango today after putting in a 630ish mile day...yes Seth we should've stopped by but we figured we would come bug you for a whole 3 day weekend next month!!!!

All in all we did 5,216 miles...21 days...and we're still talking! I will have to download the photos from my canon camera later...wifi was just not consitant enough along the route to do that and then upload them here...so that's a job for the next couple of days while I'm doing laundry.

We met some of the greatest people along this trip...so we don't just have scenic memories but people too. Of course every gas stop turns into an infomercial for BRP, we figured at least 8 people we talked to were going to go test ride one or buy one! We had an Asian man approach us in Yellowstone Park all excited to see our Spyders, he took several photos...didn't want much to do with my black one he was very into Butch's yellow STs...ended up motioning to him to sit on it and took his photo...he left us all smiles and giving us thumbs up several times!

This was quite the epic summer vacation, so glad that Butch needed to use up some of his vacation days!!!!

Congrats on an "epic vacation" -- it looked and sounded great.:thumbup: Thanks for keeping us updated. Welcome home.....