Day n+1: Eagle CO -> Larrington Towers And Beyond

'tis fewer than 150 of your Earth miles from Eagle to Denver airport.  Hurrah!  I don't have to be in a frantic rush, because the Horrible Honda doesn't have to be back in the hands of National until hours 16:00 of the clock and I took out the option to return it with a not-full tank so I don't have to undergo Ordeal By Gas Station near the airport.  So the scenic route via Loveland Pass was in order, rather than the Eisenhower-Johnson^[1] Memorial Tunnel on I-70.

Natch there are roadworks on I-70 before reaching the junction for US-6 over the pass.  Specifically, single lane traffic all the way up Vail Pass.  Which is long.  And steep.  And knocks trucks down to a cra-a-a-a-a-a-wl.  Pin the "range to empty" figure with a Hard Stare.

The Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel is more than 11,000 feet above sea level and has two bores, opened in 1973 (Eisenhower, westbound) and 1979 (Johnson, eastbound).  Before that, traffic had to climb a further > 800 feet over Loveland Pass, which is still the official route for oversized loads and hazardous cargo.

Petril™ tankers eastbound on Loveland Pass
Horrible Honda on the right

They've just come up here...

You do not want to be sat behind someone hauling a double-wide or hefty lump of construction machinery on this bit of road...

Autumn Fall comes early up here

The summit of the pass is a smidge under 12,000 feet up.  Or roughly 12,010 feet above New Orleans.  But you can climb a flight of steps to get a bit higher.

The only way is down...

Down the twisties and back onto I-70, with manic truckers ignoring both the speed limits and the "no trucks in Lane 2" signs.  Yes, Mr UPS man, I surely do mean you.

I-70 is practically all downhill from the Loveland Ski Area to Denver, on the edge of the not-quite-flatlands that stretch all the way to Kansas City, and the traffic gets heavier and more daftly driven the closer you get chiz.  Dumped the Horrible Honda:

• early, and
• just before it started to rain

DEN is so amazingly primitive it doesn't have a little clockwork train to whisk the traveller 'twixt car hire and terminal but I didn't have to wait long for the bus.  Instead I did have to wait an age for BA to open their check-in desk, but having opted for World Traveller Plus and extra legroom this year meant not having to queue with the riff-raff in Cattle Class.

The Shiny Metal Birb was late leaving - natch - but there was a useful tailwind so the Nigels up front plonked the Airbus onto LHR's tarmac pretty much on time.  Painless no-queue at at the passport control Daleks machines.  USAnian airports take note.  Long wait for The Luggage, though, plus a fair amount of hanging around for the Lizzy Line to L'poo Street and the Weaver Line to 'stow Central.

Larrington Towers still where I left it.  Better yet, the summer's new boiler hasn't exploded.  Up the road for a pint of milk and an Indian takeaway followed by catching up with missed motorsport.  Ferrari's F1 team being mostly a Rubbish as is the norm this season and frightful oik Ash Sutton having one and a half paws^[2] on his 5th BRITISH Touring Car Championship.

As a postscript, I travelled to Newport on Saturday, that I might Observe my grate frend James Coxon's assault on the Masters' Hour Record for recumbent bikes the following day and while the result is still subject to confirmation, Reader: he smashed it:

James, shortly before saying "Never again!!1!" for the third time since 2022

With bike builder Malric Leborgne

Additional: learned yesterday that Matilde Vitillo, who rode for Team Policumbent at the 2022 and 2023 Battle Mountain events and topped 75 mph in the process, has been injured in a collision with a tractor on a training ride, her day job being "Professional Racing Cyclist".  GWS, Matilde!

Happier times 2023: Matilde debriefed by Larry Lem following a run on the 305

1. The "Johnson" in question being former State Senator/Governor of Colorado Edwin C. Johnson, not LBJ.
2. Which he subsequently clinched in Race 2 at Silverstone on Sunday :-(