Places to see ...: A Grand View and Circles

After multiple trips going north and south along the Peak-to-Peak highway, we're ready to find some new routes. Turns out that Bob has never ridden Lookout Road toward the west - so today that is where we headed. However, I didn't take any pics... something about hand holding a camera while also trying to keep control of a bike inhibits my picture taking.

Riding down Boulder Canyon we ended up behind a covey of touring bikes (no pic for that either), Goldwings and the like. Very impressive riding through the narrows - and we would have continued riding with them but they turned off at a gas station once we got to Boulder.

And there are butterflies flitting around - I still do my best to avoid them if I can.

We wound our way through Boulder traffic and off to the east we went.The trees here are starting to bud and flower (imagine white flowered trees) so riding was filled with sweet fragrances along Valmont and Isabelle roads. We had a short section of 287 and hardly any traffic - got to blow some carbon out of the engine for the few miles until Lookout. We ooh'd and ahhh'd as the front range and continental divide mountains rose into view as crested the hill - somewhere I have some pics of this, again, not today.

Since it was lunch time I took Bob to one of my local favorites, Ajuua Restaurant in Niwot. While the wait-staff watched the Rockies and Braves battle out game three of their away-stand, Bob and I munched on some great carnitas and shrimp and sipped on iced tea.

After waddling back to our bikes, I decided that now would be a good time for me to practice slow speed U-turns, so off we went to a local deserted business parking lot near where I work. It wasn't working for me, so I had Bob demonstrate one more time:

It still wasn't working for me - my circles were still the width of parking lot and 4 lanes wide. And then I had him stand in the middle of the 'ideal' circle so I could focus on him. Voila! Suddenly I could make smaller circles - half hour later they were almost acceptable. It wasn't so much that I hasn't turning my head, it was that I didn't know where to look!

By now our lunches had worked their way to where we really needed to -- so off to Celestial Seasonings we rode. In addition to the awesome tea shop is their tasting room where you can try any tea that they sell. My new acquisition was the Acai Mango Zinger, which provided a nice robust flavor - although I wonder if its a sustainable product.