July 3 - Tuesday - Grand Junction CO to Boulder CO - 326 miles

Brilliant sunshine, like every other morning the last week or two, looks like not as hot as yesterday and I will be up high so cooler today (yeah!). Pretty quite in the coffee room (maybe the bad coffee scared them away). The plan today is to get to Boulder in time to catch one of the Kawasaki shops to talk about service, or at the least and oil filter. The bike sounds and acts perfect so I'm not too worried. I am using full synthetic oil so not too worried about that either. I ran full synthetic in the BMW the last 10 years of it's life ("I'm not dead yet..") and also use it in my cars which lets you stretch things out, oil change wise. Even Toyota stretches oil changes with synthetic.
There was a route that wiggled north up over a pass, but after looking at the satellite pics, it looked like gravel and my luck with Google maps and dead end roads made me decide aggainst i. So the only way to make it to Boulder in time was Rt70, the interstate (yuck).
So fill with gas in Grand Junction and on the entrance ramp and set the speed to 65.
The long and short of it today was that this section of Rt 70 is not bad at all. There are not a lot of people up here so not a lot of exits so not a lot of Motel 6 (none), McDonalds (1 or 2), Taco Bell (none) signs on the exits (not too many of those either).
I must have never actually ridden on this stretch because I don't remember how much of it winds through canyons with 50 mph speed limits. So actually a pretty darn pleasant ride on the interstate (never thought I'd hear my self say that!).

The temps were in the 70's, until, I started the decent down into Denver. I stopped for gas before the final drop and let Google take me the back way through Golden and on to the Kawasaki shop in Boulder. The shop was closed. Crap. I called the other shop up in Longmont and it was closed today and tomorrow for the Jul 4th holiday. OK, plan B. I'll just do an oil change and let it go at that. Oddly, the oil I use, 10-40 full synthetic motorcycle oil, is sold in Walmart. And there is a Walmart in every town so I struck out on the first one, but found it at the second one. Also got a disposable drip pan.
It was still early so I decided to head up the Boulder canyon to cool off. It was mid-90's but not too bad and by the time I climbed the canyon to Nederland, it was 75. Stopped at the local bakery, but no coffee??, so a Diet Coke and long chat with a local woman about how much Nedeland has changed. It used to be a one gas station town an now it's pretty big with all kinds of shops.
The black clouds soon started dropping great big slot sized drops so I bolted. I got a damp, not wet zooming down the canyon ahead of the cloud and finally beat it out half way down. It quickly evaporated, which cooled me off and I was completely dry by the time I got back to Boulder.
I messaged Laura that i was headed her way, picked up some beer and got to her place around 5:30. My brother and I stopped last summer so it was good to catch up again.
They have a July 4th neighborhood event which she organizes so her son Ben is my boss tonight and tomorrow to help set everything up. I'll report back.


Odometer = 26652