Another stop,
another GPS point -
this time at an Atmospheric
Phenomenon Research Facility
west of Denver.

Not too far down the road,
we picked up Louisville for
three more IBE points.
After working our way up past Fort Collins
and hitting the back roads once again,
we made what was quite possibly the
single most important stop on our entire trip:  
Taco Johns!  

At the behest of my slightly looney husband,
I actually paid $5 to download a set of custom
POIs (Points of Interest) to the Zumo;
when we were within 30 miles of a
Taco Johns, Zumo would let us know.  

(I even modified it to show a little picture of
a dancing taco on the map at the location of
the Taco Johns.  Hey, I readily admit it -
I'm a little looney too.)  

We had to pass up the first Taco Johns we saw
due to poor planning (we had eaten breakfast just
outside the 30 mile alert radius), but this time we
were on it like... well, like hicks on a taco burger.  

Ain't nothin' wrong with that.
Mike actually just walked in the room
right now while I was creating this portion
of the site and said, "Mmmmmmm...
Taco Johns.  I miss you Taco Burger."  
Obsessed, that man is.  

Completely obsessed.
Following a hearty breakfast of
Taco Burgers and Potatoes Ole,
we cruised on to hit another GPS point.  

The road leading to the point followed
a river for about 2 1/2 hours, and we
could have easily been right here
at home riding along the Kern River.  
Needless to say, it was just beautiful.  

The GPS point itself was a little lacking,
however - an empty meadow 8 miles
up a slippery-slick dirt road, thanks to
a full day of intermittent sprinkles.  

Hmmm... Could have passed on that,
but hey - three points is three points.  
Besides, we've ridden worse.  
Oh, was I just complaining about
a little dirt road just now?  

Well, Zumo seemed to be on a roll because
despite the fact that I had specifically
asked it not to route us on dirt roads,
it kept insisting that we travel on dirt roads.  
(I guess it just wanted to test it's
level of impact resistance.)  

Finally, after a few hours of Zumo calling us
pansies and threatening to tell all our friends,
we agreed to take one of the dirt roads.  

Ultimately, we were glad we took to road
less travelled; the surface was fairly well
maintained, but the views were outstanding.  
Even the rain looked amazing across the
sweeping valleys.  There was also quite a bit of
wildlife - deer, hawks, voles.  

I guess it goes to show you, Zumo really does
know what he's talking about.
That winding tan line is the road we were following
Back on asphalt, it was only
a short ride to reach IBE point
Grand Lake, Colorado.  

With the drizzly day and
heavy rains elsewhere in the state,
the ride was even graced with
several pretty little waterfalls.  

Boy, not a bad ride for a rainy day!
.
Continuing our journey through Colorado,
we made our way to the next
GPS waypoint - the grave of Buffalo Bill.

We've been dodging the worst of the bad weather
for most of this trip, but every once in a while it
reminded us that it wasn't too far off.  

After scooting under a mean-looking storm
on the way up, we came out from the museum to find
that a little bit of the rain had stuck around for us.  

We had hoped to visit some of Mike's family in the
area, but with all the weather-related itinerary
modifications, we were running a bit behind schedule
and couldn't catch them while we were passing
through.  
Oh, well - there's always next time!  
(And since we LOVE riding in Colorado,
there certainly will be a next time.)