Day Ride: Two-Wheel Therapy

Today we thought we'd go down to Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest and maybe hang around to see this year's Saturday night headliner, the Steve Miller Band. The NewWestFest is a free, community music festival that takes place in the heart of Old Town Fort Collins every summer. Northern Colorado has a very active music scene, and Bohemian Nights is just a small part of that scene.

Parking is a hassle in downtown Fort Collins on a good day, let alone during one of the street fair events. And with free entertainment like the Steve Miller Band, the Old Town area promised to be packed -- rumor had it that event organizers were expecting as many as 30,000 people for the concert tonight.

Donna and I decided to take the motorcycles downtown because they are easier to park than a car. As we were donning our riding gear, I got a text from our friends Lisa and Vickie asking if we wanted to join them for a late lunch / early dinner. We decided to accept that invitation. In the end, we opted to meet them for dinner and take our friend Laura (in the chrome helmet, with Donna and Lin) out for a little two-wheel therapy.

I didn't tell Laura that we were on the bikes when I texted her and told her we were coming over to say hi. She used to ride with us, but the residual effects of West Nile Virus have changed a lot of things for her. Now, our circle of friends is very conscious about mosquitoes.

Lin led us out toward the Rawhide Power Plant on the county roads and then back into the Fort. Again, the weather gods favored us. The cloud cover kept us cool, and we managed to time the ride so that we rode between the rain storms. The winds were behind us for most of the trip -- well, except when we turned east, the wind was pretty mean out of the north, and it pushed me around a little.

All in all, we rode about 55 miles before Laura was ready to go home. When we got her off the bike in front of her house, she was wearing an ear-to-ear grin.

Another of our friends, Denise, arrived at Laura's before we left for Old Town. Because Denise is leaving us for a short time to learn how to be an organic farmer (and to see if that's really what she wants to do), Donna and I decided to take her to dinner with us, so she rode with Lin when we went to Old Town.

After dinner, we wandered around the booths at the street fair, but by that time most of the vendors were packing up for the day. The streets were getting crowded and noisy, so we decided to pack it in for the day as well. The ride back to the garage didn't take as long as I thought it might and we parked the bikes before it got dark.

It was another great day for a ride and we managed to miss the worst of the weather. Good friends, good rides, good food. You can't ask for more than that.

Until next time. Ride on.