Pulled out of Wild Bill’s Guffey Garage, and the historic, marvelous, treasure that it is. I just have to say, if you ever get the chance to meet Bill, you owe it to yourself to witness this national treasure. What he is doing to preserve the Wild West is commendable. He is an original TransAm trail angel, right up there with June Curry the Cookie Lady. Got a 6:15am start to be able to tackle the significant elevation ahead and still meet our friend and host Joe Knopinski in Fairplay.
The ride from Guffey to Fairplay was pretty straightforward; beautiful rolling high desert, granite outcroppings, grazing cattle. All this in a persistent drizzle. Eric called it riding through the Irish moors.
We calculated that we would pull into Fairplay around 12:30/1:00-ish, what with all the elevation, but we actually arrived around 10:30! Man, we are faster and stronger than we thought! As we were rolling into Fairplay we heard someone yell our names and it was Joe. Bill and I meet Joe and his wife Cheri on our Portugal bike trip. They graciously offered to host us for the night in their mountain cabin. Mind you, his cabin (more like a 4000 sq ft chalet) is 30 miles away. He arranged with the fire department to stow our bikes so we could get up to the cabin without the hassle of transporting the bikes. The Fire Chief and two of the firemen on shift were so helpful and encouranging. So nice of them to stow our bikes. After taking us on a short tour of historic mining town Fairplay, running errands at the sporting goods store and good old Dollar General we had lunch at South Park Brewery. Yes, this area is the locale and hometown of the South Park kids Cartman, Buttars and Kenny.
Then, on up to the Knopinski mountain manse! And oh what a Shangri La it was! I took a quick survey of the gang for their appetite for taking a “zero” day and they were up for it. Joe and Cheri generously rearranged their schedules and proceeded to feed, nurture and delight us for the next two nights. Highlights include sleeping en suite, high thread count, beef stroganoff dinner, “farm hand” breakfast, fine wines, yoga in the basement with Cheri, doggo time with Kona, epsom salt soaking in their master tub and interesting and lively conversation. A real treat was hiking on their 40 acre property which abuts the National Forest. Joe has done tremendous work trail building and being a steward of the forest by cutting down and chipping trees designated by the forest service and needing to be removed. It is a Herculean effort, and Joe is Hercules. We will never forget Joe and Cheri’s hospitality and look forward to seeing our friends again.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please 1) select to sign with "Name/URL" in the drop down or 2) sign your name at the end of your post so we know who you are. Otherwise the default is “Anonymous”.