My second stop in Denver was to visit my long time friend and former Air Force roommate in CA, Johnnie Cooper. It was great to see him after all these years and to meet his wife Julie, and their awesome cats and dogs. He's got a great place that backs up to open space and has a nice view of the front range. The view was obscured somewhat from a wildfire up in Ft Collins, but once the sun set the outline of the front range was beautiful. And typical of any lazy Sunday afternoon, we sat on the deck as the sun went down and baited mouse traps to launch an all out offensive in the ongoing war between Johnnie and the small rodents invading his back yard. Johnnie grilled us some tasty burgers and brats to the sound of 10 or so mouse traps snapping shut at various intervals. Johnnie quietly chuckled demonically as he turned the delicious meat on the grill. It was a good day.
It was a good day for another reason too--I had another random encounter with a fellow motorcyclist. At Johnnie's place I had parked my motorcycle in his driveway. One of his neighbors, seeing the loaded down bike, knocked on the door to find out what the story was. So I came out and we chatted about the usual biker stuff, and then he offered to ride with me out of town whenever I decided to leave Denver. His name is Randy, and he rides a beautiful Kawasaki Concourse, a sport tourer like my bike. I've been looking at the map and as you can imagine, there are a lot of great roads leaving Denver through the mountains and into Wyoming.
Denver is my point of departure from the lower 48 basically. When I leave Denver I'm riding due north through Wyoming and Montana and into Canada. From here on out the ride will be mostly through open space, mountains and wilderness. The rest of the way I don't know anyone to visit or stay with. I expect to be camping more from this point onward. I am welcoming this phase of the journey, but don't know how the solitude will affect me. That is part of what makes this trip an adventure.
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