If you click into the picture and look veerrryy carefully at the horizon, you can just barely make out the Rockies! I can't imagine doing this west to east doing the best parts first.
Very easy day today. I got in 62 miles in about 4 hours riding a tailwind into Ordway (record speed of 15.3 mph!). I definitely could have made it to Pueblo, but I'm not sure if another century would be a great idea right now and I need my legs for the Rockies. Tomorrow's going to be another easy day.
A lot of the small towns in eastern CO are making an effort to try to make the area as bicycle friendly as possible (expanded shoulders, share the road signs, etc). It's quite nice. I think the center of the effort is in Ordway. It seems everyone in town knows they're on the TransAm route and are very welcoming to cyclists. They even have little brochures about it with a services by town grid and other info. It's a shame there are so many boarded up storefronts.
Speaking of friendly, one lady in town, Gillian, takes in cyclists for free. I'm using her computer right now and I've never even met her! I met Nick, a cyclist who's taking a rest day here and he showed me around. She had 16 cyclists last night! A bunch of them were that group I was riding with awhile back. They're heading for Pueblo today and I won't see them again since our paths diverge. Ahh well.
Saw 6 east-bounders today (3 groups of 2). At least 2 of them were here last night. They're the ones who told me about the place.
I'll try to upload some photos from my digital camera to a Picasa album. The computer has an SD card slot and a pretty decent internet connection. I haven't been taking toooo many pictures, but I'm getting a little better.
There are countless grasshoppers on the road. They all jump as you ride by... sometimes right into my spokes.
Colorado just sounds nicer than Kansas. Fascinating to follow your trip. Maybe I will go with you next trip. Rockies are beautiful. Of course I never rode a bike over them. You folks are looking forward to seeing you and I will be looking forward to hearing from them when I see them on the 4th. Hang in there and good luck.
ReplyDeleteMr. Molinari
Gotcha, Kansas is off my list of places to go and see. Is that a train I see to the right of the picture? Photos and a diary are a must (for posterity).
ReplyDeleteSay hi to Mom and Dad.
Love,
Nah. Kansas probably isn't that bad to travel in. It just sucks for biking. A lot of bikers actually like it though... I think it's just because it's very flat terrain.
ReplyDeleteThe train is funny. It's about 20 miles of parked train cars. It has something to do with a nearby town increasing the cost of using the track and the train companies leaving that train there and using a parallel track instead. Drama!