The Mountains are in Sight!

I. Slept. For. 10. Hours. I woke up once last night just before midnight. I couldn’t believe how I already felt well rested and it hadn’t struck midnight yet. I slept so well that I actually felt tired in the morning. Old Timer woke me up to head over for breakfast, which by then my stomach was saying FEED ME. I consumed some oatmeal packets as my morning ritual, drank a cup of hazelnut coffee the hotel owner brewed, and headed straight for the Mom and Pop restaurant. The owner opened her cafe early for us cyclists, she was an absolute sweetheart. After much debate, I chose the cheese omelette with rye toast and hash browns. The meal reminded me of my mom, who will only ever get a cheese omelet from diners. I sipped on some coffee and chugged water to hydrate myself. It’s known now that I’m the Garbage Disposal of the group, so any food left uneaten usually ends up in front of me. I like starting the day off pretty full because I hate having to stop every hour to eat; I’m more of a three large meals kind of guy.

Eventually, we left the hotel for our end goal of Ordway, Colorado. Today’s ride was only 60 miles, and I say only because we’ve been averaging 73+ miles/day for some time. The league of extraordinary gentleman rolled on into the already risen sun. Our first stop was 22 miles away, but these miles flew by because of intriguing conversations being held amongst the group. I talked a lot with Patrick about his impressive hiking feats of thru hiking the AT, CDT, and part of the PCT. The landscape was once again breathtaking, and I highly recommend highway 96 as a bike touring route. Not much heavy traffic with absolute incredible views. We took our time with this section, and snapped picture after picture.

Town rolled up on us, and being that we had 38 miles until the next convenience store we loaded up. I made a couple peanut butter sandwiches and snacked on brown sugar pop tarts. Without a cloud in the bright blue sky, we applied sunscreen generously to our leathered skin. My farmer’s tan is fabulous.

On the road again was enthusiastically sung by Jim as we took to the gravel. The wild flowers were in full bloom along the road. Even the sunflowers were demonstrating their beauty; I instantly thought of Liz, who loves them even more than myself. One of my favorite stretches was this patch of alfalfa that lined the road. It reminded me of bushes leading to a front door. The wildlife started to show itself in Colorado too! Hundreds and hundreds of prairie dogs popped their tiny bodies out of their homey holes. We even noticed antelope skipping away into the herd of cows. Hawks and osprey lined the telephone polls, leaving me thinking where they ever found any shade.

After a miserable bumpy road leading into Sugar City, we decided to take a small break 5 miles from our destination. Another small town with limited services, but I love these little places. Everyone knows each other, and are super friendly. We rolled on five more miles to our end destination of Ordway. We passed a HUGE feedlot, which ended up stinking up the town for the rest of our day. We searched for a restaurant that was open, and founds Boomer’s cafe. We all treated ourselves to malts and shakes, which is turning into a daily ritual. The dudes ordered some delicious looking entrees that were smothered in cheese larger than my head. Needless to say, the group left completely stuffed. We rolled to the city park, and made our daily phone calls and jotted down journal notes. The town unfortunately smelled like doo-doo from the feedlot several miles away, so that put a damper on my attitude. The kids from the town were vulgar as well, until Old Timer worked his magic and brought enlightenment to their lives. By the end of Old Timer talking to them, they were all holding hands and praying. They even promised to head to bible school on Sunday. The joy this brought Old Timer was warming inside, and I couldn’t be happier to see him feel this wonderful.

We set-up our tents under the pavilion, reflected on some of our favorite memories thus far, and easily drifted to sleep in the cool breeze. Tomorrow we head to Pueblo for a rest day, and will stay with Jim’s friend for a couple days. I’m greatly looking forward to some time in a large Colorado town for good coffee, beer, and great friends.

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