Day Two – Oakley to Ouray
After stopping for gas and coffee first thing in the morning we headed west on U.S.40 through Sharon Springs KS, Cheyenne Wells CO, and Kit Carson CO before we turned left at Aroya and continued west on C94. This is the road we tried to take in 2001 when we realized there were no services for 70+ miles and we didn't have enough gas in our tanks to make it. This time, with gas in the tank, it was not a factor and we pushed on across the flat terrain marked by an occasional and slight elevation change as we crossed a creek. Before we knew it we were in Colorado Springs where we stopped for a quick lunch and continued on. We planned to pick up some front sprockets for the bikes in Gunnison CO on U.S.50 which forced us on this route rather than the, perhaps easier, I-70 route. When we got to Gunnison we realized the motorcycle shop we had called was actually in Montrose CO. So, as it turned out we didn't really need to go across U.S.50 but it wasn't that difficult to drive. We stopped in Montrose at the Davis Service Center and picked up our sprockets with fewer teeth and continued south on U.S.550 and we were in Ouray before we knew it. We unloaded at our lodging site, Riverside Inn & Cabins, where we had a camping cabin waiting for us. We played a couple of games of corn hole before heading to dinner. Corn Hole is a game we like to think originated in Cincinnati but we really don't know for sure. We walked down the Uncompahgre River trail to the Timber Ridge campground where they serve excellent home cooked meals. This would be the first of many trips to the campground to eat. After dinner we played some more corn hole and got ready for the ride the next day.
