[Lisa] We called my cousin Becky Bailey in Norwood. We arranged to meet her and her husband, Michael for lunch in Norwood at the Lone Cone Restaurant, across the street from Becky's gift shop, Free Range Gifts.

This old train at the museum in Ridgway (CO) reminds me to check my brake 
pads! Lisa standing ankle-deep in cottonwood tree pollen. Becky's shop sign 
for Free Range Gifts in Norwood (CO)

[Lisa] We left spectacular Ouray, a very special place, and took a leisurely ride to Norwood. It was great, too! Norwood is beautiful, with woods, farms and mountains. We got a tour of Becky's shop, then had a fantastic lunch at the "Lone Cone". Again, this turned out to be a "Five Star Super Duper" and a "we'll definitely be back".

[Craig] Right after lunch we faced some ferocious crosswinds between Norwood and Naturita. In Naturita we pulled over for a quick break and a Sheriff drove up and warned us about 75MPG gusts predicted for SR-141 (an awesome road recommended by dbl_aitch from the http://www.vstrom.info/ forum). I assured him we would take his warning seriously and stop or turn back if necessary. As it turns out we had just faced the worst winds of the day already by that point.

[Lisa] After lunch, we hopped back on the V-Strom and rode through a canyon that was like a cross between Grand Canyon and Yosemite. We saw the Hanging Flume in this canyon, which was a flume built to bring water over 30 miles to use for mining. The canyon was layered red and brown and tan rock, cut through by the river and polished by the wind. Amazing.

[Lisa] Then, the weather turned nasty. Okay, we thought, we'll put on the rain jackets, but we're heading the other way and probably won't need the rain pants. OOPS, wrong answer.... We got pelted by sideways rain that soaked us through the pants in no time. We could see the pre-tornado clouds in the sky (no surprise that the next day a small tornado touched down in Colorado Springs!) It was interesting, to say the least. But, neither of us totally minded riding in the rain. It's stopping in the rain that gets rough.

[Lisa] Arriving in Craig, Colorado, soaking wet from the waist down and through our gloves, we pulled into a restaurant to eat dinner and look for a place to stay. The folks there were so friendly and nice! The food was good, too. We met some nice people who called a local hotel for us and got us a room. They'd stayed at the Bear Valley Inn for a few months during a remodel, and said that the rooms were nice and Brooke and her family who owned the place were tops.

[Lisa] We were lucky to get the room, because there was a carnival in town, and precious few rooms were available. Brooke let me pet their dog, and I explained about Huckleberry. She got tears in her eyes and said that she totally understood. She was so sweet!

Next: Day 5