We started in Durango today. The picture is of the Animas River in town. The guys bought me breakfast for my birthday. Feels strange being so far away from home with no plans for a celebration. I miss Jane!

After breakfast, Marty took his bike to the dealers to have the tire changed. Clif and I decided to go walking. We went by the train station of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge railroad. I had taken this train trip many years ago and it is spectacular.

We got to the station just as the 9:00 train was pulling out. You can see the pictures below. I also took a short movie with my camera, complete with sound. If you have a high speed connection, you can watch it. (Note: this is a 6MB file so it will take some time to download.)

Marty's tire change took quite awhile and we didn't leave Durango until 10:30am. Naturally, we were immediately held up by yet more construction. I think a trip theme is emerging. Overcome by some sort of Rocky Mountain high, Charlie sang a rendition of "Happy Birthday" as we rode out over the mountains. Not exactly the Sound of Music but much appreciated. I hope the FCC doesn't still monitor the Citizen's Band!

The mountains between Durango and Ouray were spectacular. We had some fun in the turns when we weren't behind some 18-wheeler. Ate lunch in Ouray. It was already well past 1:30pm when we left Ouray and we still had many miles to go before Provo. Charlie had wanted to take a very scenic route (141) through the mountains but there just wasn't time.

The rest of the day was spent in a fairly unspectacular, windy ride. Marty's bike has developed a shimmy above 65 MPH so we couldn't make up any time. We go to Provo about 10:30pm. The ride got annoying with the sun directly at us and then somewhat scary as dusk fell and deer started to appear along the road. Not the sort of position we should be in and not one that I will participate in again. We had paid reservations in Provo which drove us more than common sense.

We had dinner at a Subway somewhere and I bought a piece of carrot cake for my birthday cake. When we reached Provo, I got a room by myself just to unwind and kind of celebrate the remaining hour of my birthday. Not even a drink to mark the occassion. Wish it would have paid off in a better night's sleep.

We had a lot of planning meetings for this trip but it's now clear (to me) that we bit off a lot more distance vs. activity than we can absorb. We dawdle a lot at gas and rest stops and then don't have the time we might like at real places of interest. I think we'll get better as we go. My back also complains bitterly a lot of the time in spite of the stretches that Jane showed me. I'm thinking of starting a motorcycle version of Bridget Jones's Diary to log meals eaten, number of stops, how many times Charlie points out the obvious, etc. ;-)