Day 11 - Main St. Cafe - Naturita
We got up fairly early, only to discover that the coffee pot in the room didn't work. Harper Valley Road looked interesting when we were at the Dinosaur Visitor Center in Colorado. After getting our stamps, we followed it up to the Canyon Overlook. The canyon was cool, but the ride was disappointing.
The ride down Blue Mountain Road back to Rangely was nicer. It was noon and the Main Street Cafe was our choice for lunch. The waitress, a single mom with five children, was so cool! With our encouragement, we talked through our entire meal. A couple other bikers came in just as we were finishing.
The route down CO-139 over Douglas Pass was beautiful! Riding through the Colorado National Monument to Grand Junction was spectacular, and so was CO-141 to Naturita, where we stopped for the night. There was very little traffic and fantastic scenery. South west Colorado is by far my most favourite part of the state! I regret not taking more pictures, but even if I had my Ion Action Cam on Cherise, it would have been long out of memory capacity.
A stop at the General Store in Gateway gained us fuel and a few photos. By time I realized I was getting the shakes the store had closed. A couple fruit bars in my pack carried me over until we reached Naturita. Uncle Reed's restaurant is combined with the RimRock Motel, which is gorgeous. We got one of the last two rooms, then went down for dinner. The food ws excellent and we were having a good time, until the waitress copped an atitude when Skye asked for her change.
Our room was very nice, one of the disabled accessible, so the bathroom was quite large. Unfortunately, whatever laundry detergent they use kicked up my allergies as soon as I put my head on the pillow. The massive headache I woke with at 1 am was alleviated by Advil by morning, but I coughed all night.