My First Motorcycle trip

It took about 2000 miles for me to feel confident enough to strike out on a road trip but the day finally came. As are most vacations with the Doughertys, Lee just came home and asked me if I wanted to go somewhere cooler. That was our plan, be cooler. So we took off to Colorado and I was totally hooked on motorcycle travel. I remember coming around a bend in the road at Gunnison, CO where the Blue Mesa Reservoir opens up and thinking "I can't believe I am seeing this from my own bike". I know, it's corny. We visited places that my family had gone to for many summers. My father loved Colorado. He was a great western historian and trips with him were too interesting! He knew every mine story and mountain man story ever written. I asked Lee if we could go to Ouray. We went there for several summers when I was younger and stayed in a hotel there that was owned by a family. They had a daughter my age and we ran all over Ouray. It was very different then. Not near as built up and, to my recollection, there were only two hotels. As we were driving down the main street, I asked Lee if we could stay here one night and walk around. It just so happened that the parking lot we turned into was the hotel that I had stayed at so many times as a young girl. It was totally different than I remembered. As a child, the front door opened up into a living room, now it is a lobby. Still, a great "find". We loved Ouray but on leaving on the Million Dollar Highway, I decided that there were just some places that roads should not be!