Day fifty eight, mount evans and blackhawk day ride

Today was supposed to be a great days riding, firstly it’s Bryn,s first full day on the Harley, a good time to get used to it and take in some nice scenery. Secondly, it’s Marie’s last day on the bike as she flys to Paris tonight to spend 3 weeks with Ashley and the grandies before we head home in September.

To be fair, the riding itself was excellent but what a hell day in terms of traffic and the habits of the American driver.!!!! You want me to explain myself don,t you?

OK, today starts off as we jump onto the I70 west from our accom in Wheatridge, Denver and immediately get stuck in a log jam of traffic caused by some lane closures about 10 km west. Nightmare. We had planned to ride Mount Evans first, but my patience was wearing thin with the logjam on the interstate, so we took an off ramp and headed to Blackhawk on Route 6 and 119 through the Clear Creek Canyon as our morning ride. This is an outstanding ride and gorgeous scenery. We were going to do this in the afternoon anyway. The blog pics show some canyon shots and then the cute town shots are of Blackhawk and Central City. These two old gold mining towns are a strange phenomenon, they have historic homes restored, but also new builds. Both towns are 100 percent casino,s and nothing else. Cute architecture, a neat environment build in rock canyons but what a hideous concept, spoiling this with casino,s. !!!!

Down the Central City Parkway to Idaho Springs for coffee before heading up Mt Evans. sadly on this road we got stuck in A long line of traffic behind this absolute drop kick doing like 20 mph on the corners, 23-24 mph up the hill. Now the posted speed limit says 30 mph but this driver could not even manage 20.

When the line of traffic behind him built up to about 20 vehicles, a couple of cars in front of me could see I was getting a tad impatient and waved me past, I could see the anticipation on their faces that they wanted me to have a quiet word with this driver.

I kid you not, even Marie on the back was over this dickhead.

On a bit of a straight, Now not the happiest of motorcyclists, I managed to pull up beside the white Ute. the wanker was on his cellphone. I tooted ever so vigorously and then told him to get off the road and lets people pass. I even spoke to him by name.

I hear you commenting to yourselves asking how I knew this mans name? Well I have to confess the name I used was unlikely the name his Mumma gave him at birth, nor that with which he was christened with, but in fact the name I addressed him with was more than appropriate, And by the look on his face, he clearly recognised the name I was addressing him with was meant for him, so there you go. it would have been beeped out if there was footage on the Tele if you know what I mean.

We then roared past and Bryn followed close behind so we made a show of force. When the troops caught up to us at the visitor center, they confirmed he had pulled over to let everyone past, so either he got the message, or perhaps …….. by sheer coincidence, the name I used to address him was in fact correct, he recognised he had been called that before by other drivers, a name never previously used by his mummy to address him……………perhaps thought I was a good friend of his, and pulled over as a courtesy? I think I could be onto it here.?

Anyway, my anger at this dickhead on the Mt Evans road was bought about by a number of similar experiences in recent weeks on a variety of roads. I am thinking I could get hold of that guy with the orange hair that lives in the Trump Tower sometimes and wise him up with a massive overseas debt savings he could make for the good old US of A.

My suggestion to the intrepid republican joker would be that he could negotiate. A trade deal with Japan, more specifically Japanese car manufacturers and suggest that they put no rear vision mirror on either side of all cars exported to America and no rear vision mirror mounted to the inside of the windscreen. I make this suggestion as all three mirrors on cars imported into America, appear to be a complete waste of time. I have yet to witness them being used by an American driver. The trend over here seems to be drive as slow as you like, ignore how many cars are behind you, drive as far as you like and don,t give a toss. There have been an uncountable number of drivers that I have witnessed not giving a damn about what is behind them. I have to say generally U.S. drivers are considerably more polite than kiwi drivers, We must have the worst drivers in the world in NZ, but I don,t know what it is about American drivers and there total ignorance of what a mirror is put onto a car for.

Maybe old Trumpywumpy could invest in a nation wide driver education program as to what rear vision mirrors are for?

Right, sorry you had to read that bleat but it had to be said, they are driving me to the piss, ………..seriously.

Anyway, back to the ride, we Summit Mt Evans, took. A few pics which I will post but they don’ t really show the scale of the scenery up there, 14000’ asl. After that, back down and back into Denver as Marie had to get organised and get an Uber to the airport for a 6.00 pm checkin.

Bryn enjoyed his first day on the bike and suggested the Harley was. A breeze to ride, Marie flew to Paris and we have texts and pics of her with the Grandies. Marie will fly back to LA the same day we arrive there to take the bikes back to Mainfreight for shipping home.

A great day ride out of Denver, a hell day for traffic, both congestion and absolute dickhead drivers. get me out of the big city, away from tourist routes and out into the boonies where there is no traffic.