Day 60 - Holyoke to Julesburg - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far - CycleBlaze

June 7, 2021

Day 60 - Holyoke to Julesburg

Tailwinds!

Heart 2 Comment 0

Today's ride was short, hot and fast.  We had a strong tailwind most of the way and when we stopped for lunch just before we got to our motel, our average was 16.1 mph.  That's the fastest for this tour and not bad on a loaded recumbent tandem.  We have to give credit for this to Mother Nature.  We had lots of stretches where we rolled along at 20 mph and a long downhill to the South Platte River coming into Julesburg where Kerry held us to less than 35 mph for safety.  The high temperature was in the 90's again and there's no breeze with the direct tailwind, but it wasn't bad.

Our start this morning was delayed for about 30 minutes when we had a front flat less than two miles into the ride.  It was a slow leak and Kerry spotted what looked like a business a short distance up the road.  We pulled into the shade under this awning and felt lucky to find such a clean, safe and sheltered place to fix a flat.

A perfect location for changing a flat.
Heart 2 Comment 0

A couple of minutes after we pulled in, this woman came over from the adjacent house.   It turns out that we were not using a business, but her private property for our bike work.  We immediately offered to leave, but she was very nice and said we could stay there to fix the flat and offered us any help we needed.  Kerry told her we just appreciated the use of her place but didn't need anything else.  Her name is Sherri.  She and her fiance farm 3000 acres in the area.  

Sherri - thanks for the use of your building!
Heart 2 Comment 1
Keith A. SpanglerThank you for being nice!
Reply to this comment
2 years ago

After we talked for a few minutes, Sherri said she really had to get going as she had to take the truck to meet her fiancee who was out in the fields on the tractor.  She walked back toward her house and pretty soon waved at us from her vehicle heading up the road.

Sherri is off to work.
Heart 2 Comment 0

We passed this large piece of equipment and even Kerry didn't have any idea what it was.  We think it is used to load trucks because of the scales, but we have no real idea.

We think this is used to load trucks but we're not sure. Anyone have an answer?
Heart 1 Comment 0
The machine in the previous photo is on the left egde of this photo. This looks like a set of scales. There were no piles of anything in sight, so we don't know if they're using the site for sand, gravel, fertilizer or even grain.
Heart 1 Comment 0

It's hard to capture in a still picture, but we have been seeing true waves of grain.

The different shades of green are from the wind blowing the grain. It really does makes waves.
Heart 3 Comment 0

There was a crop growing that, agricultural experts that we are, we knew for sure wasn't corn, wheat or potatoes.  We stopped to get closer photos so we could "harvest" the knowledge of our readers.

The plants from above
Heart 1 Comment 0
A little closer
Heart 1 Comment 0
And a close up. We're guessing some kind of peas.
Heart 1 Comment 1
Bill ShaneyfeltI think you are correct.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago

We were disappointed that we didn't see big fields of sunflowers in Kansas, but here is a Colorado sunflower which  blooms all the time and apparently even shines at night.

A cheerful roadside sight. What looks like a swarm of fireflies is actually minitature green Christmas lights.
Heart 3 Comment 0
On the flyover entering Julesburg, we saw a track repair train.
Heart 0 Comment 0
There were a dozen of so cars ahead of these empties that were full of ballast. This line also is a Union Pacific mainline. Our hotel is just in front of the tracks, and it seems like a train goes by every 20 minutes or so.
Heart 1 Comment 0

I told Kerry earlier today that I was going to stop taking pictures of grain elevators.  You all must be getting bored with them, as am I.  But coming into Julesburg, I saw these with "drive-thrus".  Since that was new to this trip, I decided to go ahead and post them.

Heart 3 Comment 1
Keith A. SpanglerYou guys should have passedthru and got your panniers filled!
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Heart 1 Comment 0

We'll be in Julesburg tomorrow to explore the town and visit a couple of museums.  It's supposed to be another very hot day.

Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 2,397 miles (3,858 km)

Rate this entry's writing Heart 6
Comment on this entry Comment 5
George HallYou have a great journal here. Looking forward to meeting up with you soon. Best wishes,

Buddy Hall
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Kenneth KoehnHi Jeanna, Ken here at Monte. That belt loading machine reminds me of similar equipment I seen where my son lives at Grand View, Idaho. There they pile sugar beets up with a conveyor that looks like that. You don't suppose they raise any sugar beets in that area. And those plants made me think of sugar beets also, although I couldn't positively identify them. Just a wild guess.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Jeanna & Kerry SmithTo Kenneth KoehnKen,

You're probably right. At the Fort Sedgwick Museum in Julesburg, they had some signage and ads about an old local sugar beet business. Thanks!
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Ron PikeDay 61: That is a "beet dump". Farmers deliver and dump them in the hopper, then the conveyor part loads them into trucks in that instance. At one time, they would load them into rail cars if set up along the tracks.

There are probably several processing plants, but Great Western Sugar processes them into granulated sugar everyone buys in the grocery store (if not cane sugar), or used to at least. I know they had a large plant in Scottsbluff, NE and probably other smaller cities in the area. They are white beets, and as makes sense, have a high sugar content.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Jeanna & Kerry SmithTo Ron PikeThank you for all that information!
Reply to this comment
2 years ago