Road Trip: Day 30

Last night was another filled with thunderstorms… unfortunately this time it was accompanied with hail. ACK! I inspected the G8 in the morning and didn’t see any damage, but I’ll have to take a closer look when I get home just to make sure.

Traffic the morning was heavier than I expected, so I avoided driving into Denver on route to the mountains for some fun driving on twisty roads!

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The first road I drove was up and down Lookout Mountain; which was the perfect “wake-up call”. After letting a local Jeep past, I disregarded the 20mph speed limit and had a total blast chasing him down. Have I mentioned before how much I love switchbacks?

The next portion of the drive was on Highway 6 through a deep river gorge. The road closely followed the river, but several times needed tunnels to keep-up. If the speed limit was a little higher it would have been great fun… although it wouldn’t have mattered. The only thing I hate more than slow speed limits are slower drivers! In this case it was exceptionally bad… I’m guessing it was a blue haired person heading to the casinos.

After stopping for breakfast in Idaho Springs I back-tracked a little to “Exit 243” in search of the “Central City Parkway“. While the road wasn’t anything spectacular, the whole area is filled with trees whose leaves have changed to a brilliant golden color. Even with overcast skies it looked like someone had spattered paint across the mountainsides.

The area around Central City and Black Hawk was once known as “the Richest Square Mile on Earth”. It has now turned into a Casino town, but I really liked how it still had an “old mining town” feel.

After making my way back into Idaho Springs I started my climb up to Mt Evans. Just as I exited the interstate the sky opened-up and the rain poured-down… reminding me why the road to the summit was closed.

I’m really glad I decided to make the trip, even if to just get a photo in front of the barricade. The drive was beautiful; every corner was a photograph waiting to happen. To make it even more special, the road was steaming from the earlier rain!

The road leading away from Mt Evans was fun and the light dusting of snow (from the rain I experienced earlier) made it even more challenging. I’m running Bridgestone RE-11’s… an “Extreme Performance Summer” tire that is “not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow, or on ice”. I can now vouch that they do not work at all in the snow… seems like a trip up Pikes Peak is out of the question.

I arrived in Colorado Springs early in the afternoon and decided it was time to service the G8. I re-filled the windshield washer fluid and even had the oil changed! What… isn’t it normal for people to travel thousands of miles with 9 quarts of oil and a filter?

Tomorrow I had planned on driving up Pikes Peak, but they are still forecasting a 30% chance of snow. Given how incapable my tires are in the snow, I think I’ll be spending the day recovering.