day six: crossing into colorado

Sorry this i out of order!  Me and Mike were catching up from he day we missed and he published his assignment 'day seven' before I could.  

To begin day 6 we woke early on Saturday morning, caught a quick breakfast and departed Las Vegas, NM.  We rode up highway 518, which is a beautiful road with numerous winding curves which climb through terrains with different tree types (juniper, pines, fir/spruce, aspen).  At one of the pull-offs we met a great Iowa girl, Suzie Konz, who teaches at Oklahoma State who chose to drive through New Mexico for her break instead of going home because she knew her parents would not respect her degrees, which are many, and make her work!  Suzie, I hope they don’t get the opportunity to read this!  We said goodbye and descended the mountain into Taos.  From here, we crossed into Colorado, our tenth state, and came into the little town of San Luis.  San Luis is the oldest town in Colorado and, more important to Mike and me, has a small restaurant called Café Rosa Mystica, where we had a great lunch.  Meredith, the owner gave us great service and sent us on our way.  If you’re ever in San Luis try it out.  Steve Tingle recommended that we see the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  This is one of the truly interesting to the point of weird points of interest our country has to offer.  These are Sahara-like dunes in the middle of the country at the foot of a mountain range but unlike the Sahara, they have a river running by their base.  Weird is the best word I can think of.  Mike and I left the park headed for Monarch.  On the way we ran into first rain and then hail.  It is impressive to have ice start “tinking” on your helmet and then begin to hit your knees, arms, etc.  Michael and I even joked about our being Presbyterian after one particularly large piece of hail hit him in a particularly bad area!  Whatever your religious persuasion we can all agree that a hail storm on a motorcycle is a bad thing.  We made it to a campsite called Shavano near Maysville, CO.  Mike says he always lays awake all night when he camps out.  He slept like a baby.  I, however, stayed awake hoping no one came around to run us out of the as yet unopened campground, hoping the bears didn’t eat us and most practically of all, hoping I didn’t have to get up and use the bathroom more than once!  No one bothered us and the bears left us alone but I got up three times!  I know, TMI.  See you in the next episode of the continuing saga of the Martin mototrip.