It had been a few months since Alan and I had met for another motorcycle ride. It was now a little more than a year since we had met in person. My job had become a little more demanding of my time, leading to less opportunities to decompress and get in some stress reducing Harley time. Alan worked mostly from home, as was kind of normal since the recent planetary plague they called COVID. I was still unsure exactly what he did. He would talk about it a little, but when you're not in the industry and someone starts using industry terms, the layman has a tendency to tune out while still maintaining the look of interest. I just knew he had the freedom of working from home, and as long as his work was done on time, he could set his own hours. This led to his ability to take off in the middle of a normal workweek for whatever he wanted. In our case it was motorcycles and occasional carnal activities. The middle of a normal workweek was my normal days off anyway, so I didn't need to take time off.
"Wanna ride?" was the normal text I would receive from Alan when he was once again in the mood.
I had to turn down the last couple of requests, as I had been scheduled extra days at work for covering vacations and additional security necessary for the site for one reason or another. Things finally calmed down at work and once I knew I would have my normal days off, I sent a text to Alan, which was unusual for me. I hardly ever initialized contact.
"Wanna ride?" I texted.
The answer wasn't immediate, but I didn't expect it to be. It was the middle of the day, I was still at work, and I figured he might be busy as well. Even though it was a Saturday, not all days off were days of rest. Eventually I did get a response though.
"Can't. Got a conference in Denver this week. I'm actually heading to the airport tomorrow afternoon."
"Ooohh. Look at you with your fancy job. My job doesn't involve things like conferences or travel."
"Trust me, I'd rather not have to go. They're worse than they sound, but I'm required to attend. At least this year I'm staying in the same hotel the conference is being held at. Last time I was halfway across the city. That sucked."
"Where's it at?"
"The Hyatt Regency. Nice place. I've stayed there before."
I really couldn't picture Alan at a conference. I knew him a little differently. Between the tattoos and leather vest, I found it funny to picture him rubbing elbows with the regular conference attending modern snowflake types.
"So is it 'all work and no play' or do you get a chance to see some sights?"
"It actually looks like I don't have any sessions or workshops on Wednesday, but other than that it's a pretty full week."
"I bet that's a shock to your system from your regular schedule of whenever you want."
"Yeah. I've kinda gotten spoiled by working from home. I'm not gonna be happy if they ever try to make me work from the office like we used to."
From the information he had given, and my desire for a repeat of our hotel experience, a plan had started to form in my head. Once I got out of work, I went home and started looking at routes, directions, weather forecasts, and anything I felt I needed to know to enact my plan. A couple of hours later I decided to text Alan again.
"Wanna ride?"
The response was quicker this time.
"Did you get hit on the head by a coconut or something? We already talked about that."
"You said that you have Wednesday off. So do I. I can be up there Tuesday night and we can ride through some the mountain roads close to Denver on Wednesday. I don't have to be back at work until Friday."
"I'm flying back and forth on the company's dime. I won't have my bike."
"Then you've got a couple of options there. You can double up on mine and we can take turns on the back, or you can rent one for the day."
"I don't think it'll work this time around. If we had planned farther ahead maybe I could have gotten my company to agree to pay mileage or something else so I could take my bike. If you're back to getting your days off, we'll plan something after I get back into town."
I was disappointed, but understood his reasoning. My disappointment was not just about missing another hotel encounter, but Colorado had some excellent motorcycle routes. One such route was only an hour outside of Denver. It was on my list of places to go, I just hadn't gotten out there yet. Sunday and Monday at work I remained distracted. The open road was calling. While I seemed to enjoy it more riding around with Alan, I had always enjoyed riding on my own before that. By the time I got home on Monday afternoon I had made my decision. After my decision I made my plan. By Tuesday morning I was on the road and headed to the mountains of Colorado. By Tuesday evening I was in a cheap hotel in Fort Carson, just a short ride away from the first destination point on my trip.
I checked in on social media once I got settled in town. I am not big on social media, but I do post things occasionally. I like to get reminders and look back at other things I've posted. Also it lets my wife know where I'm at. She doesn't ride, and she doesn't want to ride. Unfortunately her fear overcomes her sense of adventure, and she has no interest in the open road. After finding a halfway decent restaurant close by and once I returned to my room, I was getting ready for bed when I got a text.
"Decided to ride huh?"
I was surprised that he knew. Then I recalled that we were now friends on social media as well. So when I posted my location, I guess it popped up on Alan's radar.
"Yep. Been wanting to ride Colorado for some time. Already had a plan in place, so decided now was as good of a time as any."
"I hear ya. Wish I had taken you up on that, but it looks like they added a workshop to my Wednesday morning schedule after all. Watch out for the wildlife out here."
Wednesday morning was colder in the mountains than I expected, but I was prepared. Alan's wildlife comment seemed to be clairvoyant in nature. Although I was used to seeing deer, the bighorn sheep crossing the main road was a little bit of a surprise. I also spotted a mountain lion as I rode through the scenic passes. It seemed to be wary of the traffic, even more so of the loud rumble of my Harley's engine.
After reaching the summit of the mountain, and of course taking the normal pictures one would kind of expect, I rode north with another scenic route in mind for my next destination. The numerous curves and elevation changes made it perfect for two wheeled riding. I always enjoyed leaning into the turns on a bike rather than turning a steering wheel of a car, and this route was made for my style of riding.
When just looking at the number of miles it seemed like I should have been able to cover more ground in order to add a third destination. But when you're riding a motorcycle and stop at every overlook or scenic vista, that eats up quite a bit of daylight. By the time I had ridden the fifty-ish miles of my second route, it was way too late to add a third. The sun was not down yet, but it was time to think about lodging. I pulled off at a rest stop and kicked back at a table as I took out my phone. I saw a text message from an hour before.
"Wanna ride?"
"You're a little late. I've been riding all day. I'm actually looking for a hotel now."
"I know, but I figured that would get your attention. Wanna grab a bite?"
I had been looking for accommodations, but food was also on my list. After some back and forth, I agreed to meet Alan in the lobby of his hotel. I ended up parking in a secure parking garage and taking my overnight bag into the lobby to meet him. The rest of my gear was locked in my saddlebags. This wasn't some cheap hotel where just anyone could wander around the vehicles, so I took my chances in that regard. When I got into the lobby area, I glanced around to see if I could quickly locate my host. Failing that, I took out my phone in order to text him my arrival.
"Wanna ride?" I heard.
I looked around and saw a guy standing near me. It took a couple seconds but I finally recognized Alan. I couldn't help but laugh as he stood there. I was used to Biker Alan. This was Conference Alan. I guess the action figure was the same, just the accessories were different.