Wow - I was actually on the road at 7:20 this morning. That's a first for me on this trip. Who knows, it could be a last too! I pulled into Pueblo at 1 PM, at least partially due to my early start. It was another no services day. There was supposed to be a store and a good cafe in Olney Springs, but they were both closed. It's Monday, and some of these tiny towns seem to be closed up on Mondays. I had extra Gatorade and food with me as usual, so no problem on the fuel front. And I've found that the railroad tracks running parallel to the road provide a good hiding place for bathroom breaks. I just climb over the tracks to the ditch on the other side, not bad.
Yesterday the terrain turned back into flat farmlands. Today started that way, then the land got brown and rolling with scrub vegetation again. I could see the mountains in the distance almost all day. I was about 45 miles from Pueblo when I noticed a dark blue line across the horizon. I know the Rocky Mountains are very big, but I still find it amazing that they can be seen from so far away. It's another mind picture only though. I didn't take any pictures of the mountains in the distance because they just disappeared into the haze on the horizon whenever I looked through the camera. I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to take pictures of the mountains when I hit the road again.
I stopped at the city park in Boone to stretch. A guy who as about to go into the grocery / hardware store (there wasn't much in there, that's why I didn't consider that it was a service stop) stopped to talk. When he heard I was headed to Pueblo he said "be careful where you stay there - it's not safe". Here we go again! Why do people insist on painting cities (big cities, or not their cities) as bad? Pueblo is the largest city I've passed through in a long time, but in the overall scheme of things it's not that big. The Adventure Cycling map has the population at 98,000, which is a far cry from the 800 to 1,000 population towns I've been staying in the past few nights!
I had two very different things to watch as I got into the Pueblo area - Air Force planes flying in formation in the skies, and ground squirrels (or are they ground hogs) popping in and out of their holes in the ground. It was probably a good thing that I was riding on a wide shoulder at the time, so I could keep a half of an eye on the road ahead of me and still watch the planes and the animals. The animals definitely make me laugh.
The Pueblo Chamber of Commerce was right on my route, so I stopped in to get maps and information on where to stay. I wanted to stay downtown, in walking distance to the historic district, Riverwalk, and a bike shop. As usual, most of the motels are on the outskirts of town. There were a couple of funky motels that I was going to check out, but then I saw the Marriott and decided to go overboard and treat myself. I know my sister will approve of my home for tonight more than she would of the mom and pop places where I've been staying.
I also stopped at the Great Divide bike shop to see if they could fit my bike in for a tune-up tomorrow. The answer was yes - Terry told me that they always do what they can to make sure that they take care of the Transam cyclists. I called Bike Friday and asked them to ship me two new tires. They should be delivered to the bike shop tomorrow morning. It's probably a good thing I did that because when I got back from dinner I found a flat rear tire. That's flat tire number 3 for the trip - 1 trailer tire, and both bike tires. The rear tire is pretty worn. The front tire still looks pretty good, but I'm going to replace it anyway. I'm not going to change the flat tonight since I was planning on having the bike shop change the tires for me along with doing the tuneup - I'll just pump the tire up before I walk the bike 3 blocks to the bike shop. I figure if I keep my bike happy that it will keep me happy.
After I got settled in I went out to do a bit of wandering. Pueblo has a street gallery that they call "art & soul" with sculptures placed on the streets of downtown. I looked at the sculptures, then went over to the Riverwalk. I only saw a piece of the Riverwalk before I realized that I was pretty tired and it might be a good idea to go back to the hotel and relax. That was a good thing to do, and I'll get back to the Riverwalk and the historic district tomorrow.
One of the things I wanted to do while I'm in Pueblo was to have some non-diner food. I'm well on my way to reaching that goal since I had a very nice trout dinner tonight.
Rest day tomorrow...
