Day 15: Our First Real Mountains

We got up early in Naturita in hopes of making a big day to Montrose Colorado.  We stopped in at the Ray Motel in town where we got breakfast in the form of biscuits and gravy and homemade cinnamon rolls.  We were on the road by 7:30 which felt great after such a slow start one day earlier.  We climbed out of Naturita into a beautiful farming area with snow capped mountains in front of us.  After stopping a few times to pump up Jody's tire we found ourselves moving through Norwood, and a few other small towns before dropping down a very very steep hill down to the river.  We then followed this river as it wound its way through the mountains.  This was what all of us had imagined Colorado to be, ice cold rivers and mountain views.  After being halted for a little by a road crew we evaded the fresh tar and chips and began what turned into a very very large climb out of the valley.  It was graded very well as we slowly trekked up the mountain which eased our passing.  When we neared the top we were blown away by the grandeur of the mountains.  We topped out at 9,740 feet at Dallas Divide(this could be wrong) and then dropped down into Ridgeway where we planned to enjoy our lunch.  Apparently Ralph Lauren owned much of the beautiful land enclosed by split-rail fence and framed by snow capped mountains that we passed.  We knocked out about 58 miles in the morning and were very ready to get off of our bikes and rest, for awhile.  While dining outside of Subway we met a man from West Virginia wearing a motorcycle shop shirt from Lancaster Pa.  After making a connection we arranged the possibility of us staying with him and his wife in a few weeks.  Lunch also brought the good news that one of the couch surfing requests Lyle had sent out that morning had been accepted and we would be sleeping inside tonight.  We rolled out the last 26 miles of the day to Montrose with relative ease since we had done most of our days work in the morning.  Before entering the town we finished our 1,000th mile of the trip which was quite an exciting landmark.  We were all ecstatic to meet Rob and Robyn who shared their home with us.  They exceeded all of our hopes by providing an amazing spaghetti dinner, showers, and opportunity to do wash for the first time since Las Vegas.