Yesterday was a riding day. We rode with friends, Nancy and Andy, in a big loop through the mountains.

We had beautiful weather the whole day. We made a brief stop on our way to Telluride.

The Shark Week bikes were allowed to park in the median of Telluride’s main street.

We walked up and down the street and decided to move on. Telluride is an expensive resort town and the posted restaurant prices matched the resort atmosphere.

From there we rode to Ouray where we had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop.

US-550 in Colorado is also called the “Million Dollar Highway.” The origin of the name is unknown, but one possibility is that it cost $1M per mile to build in the 1920s. Another possibility is that is contains $1M of gold ore per mile. The section between Ouray and Sillverton has several switchbacks and lots of curves. There are almost no guardrails. We stopped at a lookout to take pictures of the valley and a waterfall.

We completed the loop into Durango, took showers, and rested before attending the evening’s activities. There was a raffle of motorcycle-related products and presentations for next year’s Shark Week. There were pitches for Deadwood, SD, The Catskills, NY, and Chadron, NE. The winning site will be announced tonight.

Today we decided to rest and run a few errands. A friend requested a shirt from the Durango and Silverton Railroad, so we walked uptown for breakfast and to the depot gift shop.

I did a little maintenance on my bike and Beth did some computer work. Later she attempted to move her bike in the parking lot and earned a “Shark Tooth Of Shame.” Oh well. It’s not the first time she’s dropped her bike, but this drop was very public.

This evening we went to the Harley dealer for the group photo, a cookout, awards, tee-shirt swap, and the announcement of the winner for next year’s Shark Week. This year they used a drone to take the photo. I imagine it will be published on Facebook tomorrow.

The dealer supplied and grilled hot dogs for everyone. Beth won a Shark Tooth of Shame for dropping her bike.

This year there were 225 people in attendance.Not all were on Road Glides, but the vast majority were.

Shark Week IX will be in Deadwood, SD.

Tomorrow we will head home. We plan to cover the 2000 miles in four days. If we are feeling overly tired we may take an extra half-day. I’ll probably post a summary when I get back.