You've been wearing two gloves this entire time?

After leaving Moab / Arches and Jeremy / Dom, I headed to Grand Junction, CO. My brother hooked me up with a couch at a friend of his' house (I gave up trying to figure out the grammar for that sentence). Dustin was very accommodating and although I had only met him briefly before, we had a great time hanging out for the evening before I set off again for the northeastern side of Colorado. Also, I was able to get off to a good start thanks to an early wake-up call from Dustin's lovely daughter.

(Dustin pictured. Ladies, if you want a guy who can hunt and fish and fix cars Colorado is a good place to look.)

During my drive from Grand Junction to Golden, CO I discovered, while riding through Veil, that it gets a bit nippy at 10,000 feet on a motorcyle. I should have been more prepared for the cold considering how many times I've watched the following (start at the two minute mark). There's still a bit of snow up there on those mountains. But I just added my trusty flannel and cruised down the hill as quickly as I could to warm up.

In Golden I stayed with another one of my brother's friends, Jud. I actually knew Jud a little bit better than Dustin having been able to head out on a few backpacking trips with him and my brother when they were working together down at Redcloud in Lake City, CO.

(Jud pictured. I'm telling you, CO guys know how to tackle the elements and nature itself).

As a huge added bonus, my bro and Michelle happened to be up that way for the weekend checking out Boulder, CO. So I was able to have dinner with Jud and his wife Tara along with Patch and Michelle. They also had a trambopoline (anyone?anyone? this one's tough) that I took advantage of, sleeping on it under the stars.

Unfortunately my time there was short lived and I was headed out again for South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, where more adventure waited (I came upon a torrential downpour, more on that later).





I love me some Jack White, here with the Raconteurs and... bonus picture of Patch and Michelle (and a sleeping Asher)