We got up at 5:45 this morning and packed all of our stuff and had it ready to go when breakfast started at 6:30. We ate a quick breakfast and hit the road by 7:00 to try  to get as far as possible before the wind was supposed to pick up. It was 58 degrees when we left the hotel, but it was sunny and it felt great.

We fueled the bikes up in Heber City, and started our journey across US-40 to Steamboat Springs. Not long after we left Heber City, we got into a valley between the mountains, and the temperature dropped all the way down to 46 degrees. I was once again thankful to have my heated seat and grips! It was beautiful through this area though, so I didn’t mind the cool temperatures. At one point we were over 8,000 feet, which surprised us both, we didn’t realize we were up that high.

Once we got out of the mountains the temperature climbed back up into the 60’s, and then the 70’s, and it was a beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky and only light winds. Eventually we did run into heavier winds though, about an hour and a half from Steamboat Springs. It was no where near as bad as yesterday, though, so it was okay. I was glad that we left as early as we did so we didn’t have to ride in it very long. I am also glad that we decided to change our plans and come to Colorado instead of Northern Washington and Montana, because it was snowing there today!

We saw a lot of prairie dogs out by the road in a few sections, and I nearly hit one that rain in front of me, but he got lucky. I love watching them, they are cute and funny, but they are crazy hanging out by the road and running across it like a spastic squirrel. There were a lot of dead ones on the side of the road, you would think that they would learn!

We got to Steamboat Springs around 1:30 local time and decided to have lunch at the restaurant attached to our hotel because we were both really hungry. I got fish tacos that were fantastic and Dwayne got a bison cheeseburger and fries, which were also really good. They also have pizza, so we are going to order a small pizza to share for dinner tonight most likely, and the hotel doesn’t offer breakfast, but it offers $8 vouchers redeemable for breakfast at that restaurant, so we will probably end up eating there 3 meals in a row, lol. We just wanted to relax today and not have to go into downtown to get food, so it is convenient that there is a good restaurant on the premises.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Rocky Mountain National park, and then we will be starting the long ride home, which we are not looking forward to. It is supposed to be incredibly hot, so our plan is to take 3 days to get home and leave around 5am each morning and stop for the day around noon before it gets unbearably hot.