Fowler, CO

Today’s ride of 78 miles took us from the middle of the high plains to a half day’s ride from Pueblo. Late in the ride we could see the Front Range in the distance, our first view of the Rocky Mountains. It was an unusual weather day with temperatures in the 60’s, almost no wind, clouds, and scattered showers. The nature of the landscape changed dramatically from scrubby sparsely populated range land to more inhabited ranch land as the route entered the Arkansas River valley. We noted that here the Arkansas had a lot more water than in Kansas, so someone is using it. I should mention that we have been following KS and then CO State Route 96 for days now. I don’t want to say this is a remote route, but there were times when 15 minutes would pass without a vehicle in either direction. We also discovered a sign of the economy perhaps. A rail spur paralleled Route 96 for miles. There was a stretch of 10-11 miles that was lined with empty stock cars, obviously in storage. In case you ever wanted to know, there are 56 rail cars per mile. It was something to do. Late in the day I suffered my second flat, glass not the dreaded local goat-head thorns. (Sally picked 37 thorns out of her Crocs from one trip across the RR tracks to the rest area bathroom, where we were camping.) So I am averaging one flat per 1000 miles.

A word about last night’s camping neighbors: Tim and Cindy have been cycling pretty continuously since 2002 in places like Alaska, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and the US. Their current trip will take them to the East Coast and back around to Indiana. On the way they will experience their first RAGBRAI, the bike ride across Iowa we have done. We were able to give them an introduction to the experience that is RAGBRAI. You can check out their site at http://www.downtheroad.org/. Tim will be speaking in Omaha and Ottumwa, and was interviewed on local TV as they cycled through Pueblo a couple of days ago. They have two books published, and plan more.

For the first time, sleeves were required last evening, and Sally will be in long sleeves and wool socks tomorrow morning, as we climb higher. Up to 4300 feet, now.