Try this. Ask a group of riders which states they would choose to ride in if they lucked into a free tour. I've done it, and invariably the answers will cluster around Colorado and the Southwest. Freedom Tours' various routes offer you the chance to sample not only Colorado's high passes, great roads, and those memorable little restaurants, but also those same types of attractions in the Southwest.

I too Freedom Tours' eight-day Colorado Rjockies tour a few years ago on my own bike, and turly enjoyed it. The tours are run by Mike and Llinda Broadstreet, an amiable couple who are based in Longmont, Colorado (just north of Denver). They also can arrange for you to rent a bike, including most Harley models, if you so desire.

The usual deal is that mike briefs you over breakfast about the day's ride, then you're free to ride with him in a group, or to strike out on your own (try to go with at least one other rider) with the maps provided. Linda drives the luggage van. Mike will fill you in on all sorts of lore and stories at each stop. Just be at the next hotel in time for dinner, or call so they won't worry.

Accomodations range from luxury modern hotels to rustic cabins. At an average pace of a little under 200 miles a day, there's time for photos, to explore the ruins at Mesa Verde, to do some shopping, and have a leisurely lunch. Or get in early and check out the hot tubs tha some of the resorts offer. The luggage van carries a CB radio, cell phone, and spare motorcycle. There's also water, odds and ends, and the occasional picnic lunch.

Here's what the Broadstreets are like. They took us to one restaurant that served mostly Italian food and was deocrated in railroad motif. The owners had set up a complete model rairoad track overhead and around the edges of the building. You'd be eating lunch, hear a trail whistle, and here came some little scale-model engine and freight cars chugging overhead. The only thing they could have done neater is if the flatcars had brought in the rolls.

And late one afternoon, in Grand Junction, Mike led us up around a deep, scenic canyon to where Linda's van was parked. Af few hundred feet through the forest, at the canyon's edge, they had a full, hot, take-out picnic dinner waiting for us, and a full complement of drinks. Then Mike began playing his Indian flute as the sun set over the canyon with the lights of Grand Junction far in the distance. It was magic!