A Snowy Colorado Goodbye for ScooterBob

Along with some pretty cold temperatures, (high today was 3°F (-16.1°C) and about 2-3 inches of snow, it was a good day to get ScooterBob for one last outing with myself and one of my rigs.

Scarlett is the one best equipped to let me deal with cold weather riding so she got to go out in the pre-dawn hour to see what we could see.  The battery however, is not holding a charge very well unless once keeps her on a charger.  It's less than three years old but I guess I am hard on batteries.

Still, she was OK once I jump-started her and we headed off into the lightening gray skies covering the Metro Denver area.

I also need to, it seems, replace the pusher tire as I was not getting good traction with the rubber that remains on it.  I had to engage 2WD to get out of the cul-de-sac and actually left it engaged through the entire ride!

Stayed close to home due to the battery issue, temperature was -2°F (-18.8°C) as we started the ride and it was rise to perhaps 1°F (-17.2°C) an hour later when I returned home.

 A view of the cul-de-sac, the untouched snow a blank canvas...

 Trees at the local high school where Martha used to work....

 A couple of shots of the tree lined street near yet another local high school

 A view of the Mormon Stakehouse across the street from Eaglecrest H.S.

 All wheels nicely packed with the fresh snow....

 I'd mentioned the cul-de-sac was a blank canvas?  

Hopefully you can the the markings left by Scarlett as she headed out

and came back in, doing a few donuts in the snow of course.

 ScooterBob let me know, as I was putting Scarlett back on the charger

that he wanted to go out once last time while here in Colorado.

Scarlett and I, this time with ScooterBob in the trunk, left shortly before Noon to take my oldest son Patrick to work at the local Sprouts grocery store.

As we were out, and the sun was out, it was time to visit the somewhat nearby ranching neighborhood to see what we could see.

There wasn't as much snow in this area as in my neighborhood, but we made do:

ScooterBob declared his satisfaction with the snow conditions, and then said it was now OK to leave the sub-freezing 3°F (-16°C) temperatures and go back home.

Roads remained snow-packed but the sun was already working on clearing some spots.  Cagers of course were in their usual rush to get somewhere; which made the last couple of miles of riding interesting but with no incidents.

Shortly before sunset, we all headed out one more time, this time to catch the sunset and to pick up Patrick from his job at 5:00PM.

We decided to head down to the tower located in the Tuscany neighborhood down the road from our own neighborhood.

 The tower is purely decorative, my guess it's supposed to evoke

thoughts of Tuscany, Italy's architecture style.

It was 0°F (-17.7°C) when Patrick finally clocked out and we four headed home in the darkness.  Scarlett convinced me do do a couple of donuts in the cul-de-sac, both surprising Patrick and hopefully amusing my next door neighbor who was out there shoveling his driveway in the dark.

ScooterBob will be packed up tomorrow, along with all his belongings, and shipped all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska.  The idea is for him to experience some "really cold" weather while being hosted by RichardM.  Richard being a fellow Ural/Beemer rider who has real experience in riding in extreme cold weather, ScooterBob will have so much fun.....  ;)

ScooterBob enjoys some Cold Weather in Metro Denver area

We experienced some true winter weather here in the Metro Denver area this week, finally!

Lots of snow in the mountains of course, to the delight of skiers and the ski resorts but all we got around my home neighborhoods was about an inch or so.

Still, it was so cold (low teens) that it was the fluffy kind of snow, so not hard to clear off one's driveway but it stuck around long enough for me to get some pictures.

Here's some from Wednesday morning, after the snow had started falling the evening before:

Here's what it looked like on Thursday morning, after the storm clouds had gone east and the sun came out:

To finish off the week, we had a pretty good sunset this Friday evening.  The roads are dry and the snow has pretty much disappeared from the metro area roads.  More snowy weather coming I hear, we'll see what shows up.

 The above shot to give you an idea of how small the puddle was that

I used to get the reflecton shots.

Red skies over Colorado Springs, that's Pikes Peak in the distance.

ScooterBob Rides in New Mexico and Colorado

From redlegsrides:

a couple more ride reports involving ScooterBob as Martha and Dom enjoy some riding in the Angel Fire area of New Mexico recently:

Birthday Ride with my Sweetie up above the Angel Fire Ski Resort

A lazy day for the most part in terms of riding.  Work had to be done you see, before one could do fun stuff.

Martha and I headed out on Fiona after 3PM and wandered down to Black Lake to see what we could see, not much as it turned out.  The wind was blowing pretty hard too and with temperatures in the 50s, it really wasn't a lot of fun.

We returned to the Angel Fire area and decided to explore the ski resort.  It's a pretty small resort, when compared to such resorts as Aspen and Vail, but nice enough.

Martha had me drive down a roughly paved road leading away and up from the ski resort.  The road was called Camino Real or Royal Road and it would wind us up into the heights way above the ski resort, on the west side of Agua Fria Peak I think.

Sparsely settled with mountain homes secluded in the thick pine forest, there was much evidence of new construction as well.  The road turned to gravel and dirt soon after leaving the resort and we just chugged our way up, Fiona taking it all in stride by the way.

A few miles after the above picture, we came to what basically was the end of the road.  Had we had another Ural rig with us, we could have possibly continued onwards into what looked like the makings of more road but not today.

Fiona took us back down to the ski resort with no incidents and we stopped at a local restaurant for "Tapas Night" to celebrate my birthday.  The food was pretty good and after dinner we rode over to the local food market for some supplies, gas for Fiona and rode on home in the chilly darkness.

All in all, a good way to end a brief sojourn in the Angel Fire area.  We decamp tomorrow for the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado.

The Great Sand Dunes National Monument

We're back in Colorado this evening, overnighting near the Great Sand Dunes Monument.

It was less than three hours from Angel Fire, NM to our present location.  The day dawned with us in heavy fog and cold temperatures.

Work delayed our departure till shortly before 10:30 AM, but the drive to Mosca, CO where the RV park was located was under warmer temperatures and sunny skies.

We got situated, I finished work and then shortly before 5:00 PM we headed out on Fiona from our campsite.

The Sand Dunes monument was less than five miles from the RV park.  As it was late in the day, we didn't have to pay the entrance fee because the gate was unmanned and the sign said to go ahead.  We cruised into the park, located the nearest point to the dunes but elected not to go on them.

We made our way out of the park, trying different parking spots/overlooks for "the right angle" for shots as the sun kept making its way down towards the horizon.

 ScooterBob looks right at home doesn't he?

Can you tell the "golden hour" was upon us?

The sunset's last few rays of light were too high to give good light to the sand dunes and so we headed back to the RV park where we caught the after effects of the sunset.

Tonight's repose

ScooterBob at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, New Mexico

ScooterBob came along on a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park near Angel Fire, New Mexico:

From redlegsrides:

A somewhat late start for us today, what with work tasks and all.

Today we were headed to visit the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park and a subsequent lunch in Taos after which we visited the nearby Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

We rode the northern half of the Enchanted Circle, and while less twisty, it was in our opinion more scenic.

ScooterBob accompanied us as we toured the Vietnam Veterans Memorial museum.  A very nicely done museum by the way, and its chapel was small but rather artistic in it's structure as you can see above and below.

I thought perhaps it would evoke a shape or message from an overhead view perhaps, but nothing comes to mind.

source: GoogleMaps

Saddling back up on Fiona, we headed to the village of Eagles Nest, spotting an American Bald Eagle in flight along the way, quite magnificent it was.

Martha and Fiona along the way to Taos

The road to Taos took us through Eagles Nest, Red River and Questa before finally depositing us on the outskirts of Taos.  Lunch was at "La Cueva", a very small Mexican restaurant whose food was quite delicious.  After lunch we wandered a bit among the shops in the Taos Plaza which I think functioned as the town square back in its founding days under Spanish rule.

Next stop, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge about seven miles to the west of Taos along State Highway 64.

Pictures at the bridge done with, we headed on back to Angel Fire, retracing our route along Highway 522 to Highway 30.

We did stop at the Lazy L Ranch's gate to photograph what we dubbed as "Nessie".  

Moreno Valley Dragon

We got back to the RV park with no incidents, Fiona having done great once again and this time not having issue starting up in the morning.  (We did have to wait till temperatures were warmer than yesterday morning which probably helped).

Update: found a youtube video with photos of the Moreno Valley Dragon: