2012 Trip "Out West" - Wed, Day 5 (Trinidad, CO to Cortez, CO)

Today was the first day of touring the roads of the Rocky Mountains!! The first was SR 12 (Highway of Legends). It was a beautiful sunny morning, but a little cool. It was in the upper 50's when I left Trinidad. Lots of sheer vertical walls of stone in one area too. Just realized I did not get a picture of the stone walls near the town of Stonewall! You can see them in the pics in the above link!

A very diverse ride with very little traffic.

Old coke ovens near Cokedale

Top of one of the passes on RT 12. Beautiful scenery

Lake on top of the mountain. Very clear water. Few clouds moving in.

After riding the Highway of Legends I headed west on US 160. Here is a pic on top of Wolf Creek Pass. Great ride up and over the pass! Makes me think of the old C. W. McCall's song about Wolf Creek Pass!!

I had to stop by Ted's Tacos in Mancos to see what time he would be open in the morning for breakfast. I had stopped and had breakfast and lunch at Ted's on a trip in 2009. Pretty cool as Alton Brown from The Food Network had been there on his Feasting on Asphalt series. The Fry Bread is excellent and I was really looking forward to breakfast there the next morning!!!

Ted opens for breakfast at 6:30 am!

Made it to Cortez, CO and got checked into the Tomahawk Lodge. This is Harley (I like that name), the Great Dane that meets all the guests at the check in counter (The owner's dog)! This is really a nice "All American" motel. Very clean and the owners are really nice!

Harley

The owner recommended a restaurant just down the street within walking distance. This was the actual view from my seat window. Fantastic!!

A couple from Shiprock, New Mexico (which was only about 45 miles south of Cortez) sat at the table next to mine. He is a substance abuse counselor on the Navajo Nation and she worked in the court system. Turns out they had a son in the armed forces stationed at Fort Lee in Petersburg and had traveled there to visit last year. They had also driven up I95 through Richmond and visited Washington, DC!! They were up in Cortez looking at some horses to buy for their horse ranch too. They were really nice folks!

This was my dinner for the evening! Not bad for only $7.99!! (heck, the window view was worth that!!)

When I got back to the motel a Model T Ford along with a BMW had pulled in the adjacent rooms to mine. The guy with the BMW had been to the BMW rally in Sedalia, MO that I had seen several days ago (remember I mentioned that!). He was on his way back home to San Diego, CA. The Model T Ford was a guy from Lincoln, Nebraska that had driven to San Diego, CA and was now on his way back to Lincoln! We all spent some time talking about our vehicles and travels. The Model T Ford was the most unique! It would only go a maximum speed of 40-45 mph and he traveled 200-250 miles a day. He had to carry a spare gas can and an entire set of replacement tires as he could only get about 2,000 miles from a tire. The only problem he had had so far was some broken spokes on one wheel that he had to get welded. The guy had done all the restoration and maintenance on the Model T himself. I didn't feel nearly as hot thinking back about Kansas as I am sure he was crossing over the desert in southern California in the Model T!!

Again, this was just an "All American" motel with the neon signs and now a Motel T Ford sitting in the parking lot (I should have included my Harley too!!!!).

Night time pic of the parking lot of the motel