Monday, July 22nd, 2019
Ride Report: 61 Miles, 2,143 Total Miles, 17.4 Avg. mph, 699 Ft. Climbing, 4,653 Calories. If the reader has been perusing The Thin Blue Ride focusing on the climbing numbers with visions of Alberto Contador dancing in their heads, its time to abandon ship. Let me put it this way, when I looked for the elevation chart on Section 7 of the ACA maps (the next section) there wasn't one. That's because the ACA consists of imminently practical folks. Their only option being to draw a line at a downward angle of maybe 1% for 360 miles, they opted to leave it out entirely. This will change somewhere around Missouri. I shall update the reader then.
As an addendum to the ride report: Can the reader believe I've ridden 2,143 miles - ON A BIKE? (Sigh - OK - for you nit pickers, two bikes.) I have trouble wrapping my head around it sometimes.
Today's tome starts last night. And it looked like this...
An excellent sundown shot. Though the reader can't make it out, the mountains in the distance were illuminated, the hills in the foreground with the rock protrusions were prominent, the water was choppy due to wind - very visually pleasing. All in all it was worth looking at for several minutes, so the four of us did just that.
Unfortunately, that gorgeous sunset turned into this...
This is a screen shot of the "AccuWeather" radar (they can at least get the radar right) at 2153 hours. Much like the settler's wagon train in those long ago western movies, we wuz surrounded. Once the ill tempered clouds had completely surrounded us, they went to work. Heavy rain, lots of lightning, high winds, flash flood warnings (thankfully not where we were), localized hail (again - not where we were located), it was a mess. But until the rain obscured it, the lightning put on an excellent show.
It made for less sleep than I might have preferred before riding solo today. Yes, unfortunately solo. KnP were up with the sun (this has got to stop) as were Susan and I. While we prepped for the day's ride, they finished getting their stuff together and departed for home shortly before we left the campground this morning. While we were sad to see them go, much as was the case when KnK came to joins us, the time together was great. One of a parent's greatest joys in life is to see their children grow to be well adjusted, happy adults in secure long term relationships. We're fortunate God has blessed us with two fantastic (adult) children and their spouses. Unfortunately, having completed our time with both of them on The Thin Blue Ride, I'll now be forced to cast my thoughts upon the next big scheme in which to involve them . But back to today...
First things first, get thru Pueblo. The ACA took Delta and I off Colorado 96 highway, presumably to avoid traffic, and used a series of side streets to navigate us thru town. On one of them I came across this fountain. I thought it looked both cool and familiar, and took this pic.
Then I looked across the street and saw this burger shop. Hmmm... Looks surprisingly like Bingo Burgers at which we all dined just yesterday. Either the ACA map coincidentally took us past the same location or there's a looking glass and a Cheshire Cat around here somewhere...
What are the odds???
Delta was a bit out of his element riding thru a town of 100k people. He was both annoyed and frustrated by traffic lights. Just when he had gotten up to speed, they would turn red. His belief is that if cars were more civilized and responsible, such contrivances would be a forgone conclusion.
Passing thru Pueblo early this morning meant the end of Section 6 of the T/A maps. That's fully half of the 12 total Sections that comprise the T/A
And just to give the reader a visual depiction of this portion of our journey, this shows Section 6 taking us from Rawlins, WY to Pueblo, CO. Gone with Section 6 will be the mountain vistas, the snow capped peaks, the insufferable climbs, and the glorious descents.
But make it thru Pueblo we did. And after a mere 16ish miles we were to meet Susan on the other side of town at a "Loaf and Jug" gas station along 96. I knew I was getting close and stopped to use Find-A-Friend to see where she had set up camp. Now one would think that The Rig would be easy to spot in a convenience store parking lot. Apparently not- who knew? Having checked out the parking lot as I was riding past, I concluded that she must be further down the road and roared by the "Loaf and Jug" at 20 mph. I was dissuaded from my belief that she wasn't there when, as I passed the intersection where one turned to go to the "Loaf and Jug", I saw a small blonde woman running frantically toward me while waving and shouting my name. Believing her to be one my legion of fans, I was tempted to continue on, but there was something familiar about this fan. Then I thought to myself, "Hey - that's no fan - that's my wife!" I stopped. For her part, she was mumbling something about her Teamster's contract not including language requiring her to chase down wayward husbands. Teamsters are a generally happy lot, but when they have to chase down a cyclist riding at 20 mph - not so much. Again - who knew?
The previously mentioned mountain views will be replaced by this; open, flat landscapes, brush, bright skies, heat, insufferable wind (frankly I'd rather climb in the cold), and monotonously straight highways. But somehow I suspect they will contain their own sort of beauty. Although there is this... When I stopped in the mountains with cell phone in hand, people knew I was snapping a pic. Doing so was apparently a frequent enough occurrence that no one stopped to inquire as to my well being. This pic was the first stop I made for a pic in eastern Colorado. A helpful local was concerned enough that he turned around and came back to ask if I was OK. When I thanked him and told him that I was fine and had just been taking a photo, he looked puzzled and said, "Really? Of what?" There ya have it, eastern Colorado in a nutshell. Helpful people snared in a boring landscape.
But I'm taking things out of order. And there were some sights to see today. Like this...
This is one of two Federal Prisons located in small communities in eastern Colorado. Oh - and I was passed by a Federal Prison bus on the road today. White, barred windows, dark glass all around - you know the drill. Well, OK - maybe you don't know the drill. But what I just told ya is the drill. Not a lot of people know it, but the Feds (as well as States) have regular reason to move inmates between facilities. They use mostly buses - despite what Nicholas Cage and the movie "Con Air" might lead you to believe.
These were fairly typical. I think that of the four small towns I passed thru today, three of them had something similar at their main entrance. I liked the one at Crowley best.
And at the end of the day's ride, we had made it to the River of Life church parking lot in Ordway - where we'll set up for the night. The nice lady Susan talked with on the phone said we were welcome to do so. The reader may note that in the pic above, the wind is treating Susan's hair abominably. It did no less to me for the duration of today's ride - which was into said wind for 61 miles. I've had better riding days. Susan has had better hair days. But that's life on The Thin Blue Ride.
Till next time.
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