The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 45 - McClave, CO (Rest Day)

Wednesday, July 24th, 2019

Ride Report: None - Rest Day in McClave, CO (off-route)

Well, today started like a day should - especially a rest day - later than usual.  I think Susan and I slept till something like 0730.  Not especially late by my normal standards, but apparently once this waking up early thing starts, it develops a momentum of its own.  We shall put it to bed (so to speak) as soon as the opportunity arises.

We had a good time chatting with Lora and Stan last night, and that was kinda the purpose - catching up.  Today was likely a typical Wednesday for Lora and Stan, except for our mild intrusion into their daily schedule.  Stan went out to take care of things on the farm.  Lora did her morning chores.  Among other things, she's trying to start a couple of shelter belts - typically long straight rows of trees/shrubs planted to prevent soil erosion.  I know this because when I asked if there was a spigot I could use to wash Delta, she pointed me toward one near the shop that was currently hooked to a hose providing water to one of these new shelter belts.  Needless to say, I made sure to hook it back up when I was done.  For us the day was a normal rest day - catch up on laundry, bike washing, blah, blah, blah.  By now the reader knows the drill.  Oh - did I leave out napping?  I took another in my long series of Rest Day naps today as well.

I thought I might give the reader some shots of what things are like around the Kline spread here in eastern Colorado.  They look like this...

This is the old barn - by all appearances freshly painted in white with black trim.  It's in remarkably good shape for an old barn - many of which have fallen into disrepair around the country as changes in farming practices have sort of left them behind.  First thing one sees when walking out the front door in the morning.  Not bad. 

This is where we parked our "barn" last night when we arrived.  We stayed with Stan and Lora in the house behind The Rig.   It felt weird to have to walk more than three feet to find a recliner in which to repose.  I managed to pull it off and have returned there to work on this post.  I'm tellin ya, I have a body that must have been custom built for recliners...

First thing on my agenda was a bath for Delta.  Lora said I was welcome to do it on the concrete by the shed.  They must have a lot of bikes to wash here on the farm, because they had a whole building devoted to it.  It was full of tools, air compressors, oil, grease - all the stuff you need to maintain a whole fleet of bikes.  Though the fleet wasn't in evidence.  People were prolly out riding them, having gotten up earlier than me.  I may have to inquire.

As I was wandering about waiting for Delta to air dry (he hates bath towels) one of the hired guys came in from the field to fuel up this swather.  It serves to cut hay while simultaneously placing it in a windrow for later baling.  To the uninitiated it may look like a combine, but it lacks the capacity to separate grain from it's constituent plant, as does a combine.  Plus, it's a lot smaller.

This is a shot of a crop duster working a nearby milo (grain sorghum) field and spraying for bugs.  As the pic was taken, he was pulling up after having completed a pass over the milo field and was turning to prepare for another pass.  There are small pipes along the back of both wings with even smaller nozzles designed to dispense whatever soluble solution happens to be the order of the day.  In this case, an insecticide.  These guys fly REALLY low.  It's fun to imagine being in the cockpit.

Oh yes - allow me to introduce Brad Schoen - renowned cat lover.  There were several of these half grown things wandering about.  After I released this one, it was last seen chasing butterflies - with no success.

The inside of the aforementioned barn.  Most of the ones I've been in lately (which admittedly isn't a lot) have been full of extraneous farm junk.  It appears as if this one may still see occasional service.

This is the street view of Lora and Stan's house.  I think Lora said she and Stan have lived here for something like 16 years now.  Its been in the family for quite some time - Stan and Lora being the 4th generation to have lived here.  Each generation has made their own contribution to the house - the original house being the two story section in the middle.

Well - an interesting visit and a good diversion from The Thin Blue Ride, but tomorrow it's back to the daily grind.  I say this in jest, Susan and I are having the time of our lives.  Though if the wind acts tomorrow like it has for the past two days, I'll likely reprise my role as an angry sailor some time tomorrow when cursing the wind.  Should that prove to be the case, I will report same - sans quotes...

Gotta go.  Susan should be back from the grocery store soon and will prolly want the computer to finish catching up on personal finances.  I hope she gets milk.  We're out.  Kinda hard to eat half a package of Oreos without milk.  I include this information in order that the reader may grasp the depths of my suffering.

Till next time.

The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 44 - Ordway, CO to Eads, CO

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

Ride Report: 64 Miles, 2,207 Total Miles, 16.2 Avg. mph (Hey - you try 64 miles into the wind.), 850 Ft. "Climbing", 4,482 Calories.

Yesterday's forecast for today was less than promising - sunny and (relatively) moderate temperatures given what the area had gone thru recently.  So, the reader asks, what's the problem?  In a word: wind.  Predicted out of the SE and moving to the SSE at 8 with gusts to 12.  Still not too bad, but it never works out that way.  "AccuWeather" always predicts moderate winds and then as the day progresses, they go with the actual and report it at the time.  Such was the case today.  By the time I had an hour or two left in the ride, winds were out of the SSE at 12-15 with gusts to 20.  Now as wind goes, that's not terrible.  It's just that riders are acutely aware of the wind.  I once read an article on the amount of energy it takes to overcome wind resistance while riding.  I don't recall all the details, but it was something like once ya get over about 12-15 mph or so, every one mile per hour increase in speed requires that current energy input be squared.  Hence, cyclists hate anything resembling a headwind.

So, headwind = riding sucked today.  But hey, I got thru it - and  I knew going in it would be like this some days.  I guess as Karma goes, it means I've got a bad wind day in the bank and am due a tail wind at some point in the future.  At least that's what I'm holding out hope for.

As for landscape, hey, it's eastern Colorado.  I've driven thru it plenty of times over the years.  Typically in the winter getting to Summit County, CO (Breckenridge, Silverthorne, etc. from whence we just came) to go skiing with the kids.  Both Susan and I have also talked with plenty of people over the years who complain about the lack of scenery as they travel from Kansas to Colorado.  I'll be the first to admit that western Kansas can be a bit bland.  For Susan's part, she says that those same people blame eastern Colorado on Kansas.  Ha! Either way, bland is bland.  Maybe the problem is that we've become accustomed to the scenery that is the mountain west.

So - this is my long winded way of saying that I didn't take a ton of pics today.  But as always, what I have, you'll see.  Here we go...

This is the overnight stop.  That's the church in the background.  that's also Delta leaned up against the side of The Rig and ready to go this morning.  We woke up early (again - sigh) and headed out ahead of schedule.  I think we were on the road by 0645.  Less wind early.

One of the unique sensory inputs in this are of the country is the olfactory delight that cattle feed lots present.  When we set up last night in the church parking lot, we noticed the "smell of money" right away.  This morning, some 2 or 3 miles later I discovered the source of said delight.  I'm thinking they didn't pay much attention to the direction of the prevailing winds when they put the feed lot here.

This is me with the same feed lot in the background.   I made sure I was out of the "smell zone" (some technical cycling jargon there) before stopping for this shot. 

Delta is more of a morning person than I am.  Open roads, a rising sun - pretty much his definition of a good start to the day.  For my part, I didn't know there were 6s and 7s on the clock until I started riding.  I keep telling him I'm retired and shouldn't have to get up so early.  He responds with one word: wind.  I get up.  Sadly, that one word controls much of a rider's decision making.

This is the scenery in eastern Colorado.  But readers who look closely will observe the same thing I saw in the middle of this vast expanse of grass.  That's right - nothing - except for more grass.  All day...

Me - pulling in to The Rig somewhere along the route today for a break.  Take a look at that face.  That's my "wind face".  It looks markedly similar to my "climbing face".  The difference is that when climbing, one knows that eventually it will end.  Used by permission of Susan Schoen Photography, LLC.

This is Tom from London.  I ran into him on my way to Eads and he was headed to Ordway - so we're just swapping towns today.  He's doing the T/A from East to West.  We traded stories of our travels - turns out he was bitten by a dog and showed me the two puncture wounds.  Dogs are much feared by Trans-Am'ers.  Kentucky dogs particularly have a reputation for being aggressive.  Guess I'll find out when I get there...  However, he was bitten in Illinois (of all places) by (get this) a golden retriever.  Tom isn't apparently the luckiest of guys.  But we had a nice 10 minute chat and headed our separate ways.

We've planned a Rest Day tomorrow to take a small diversion from the T/A route and head south about 30 miles to visit Susan's cousin Lora and her husband, Stan.  We drove down there after I finished my ride today.  They run a herd of Hereford cattle and farm in the area.  We've never had a chance to stop by their spread and have been looking forward to doing so since initially planning the trip.  This is a picture of Susan with them.  I look at this picture and now know where all the "tall" genes went...

 Till next time...

The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 43 - Pueblo, Co to Ordway, Co

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.

The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 41 - Fairplay, CO to Canon City, CO

Saturday, July 20th, 2019

Ride Report: 66 Miles, 2,039 Total Miles, 19.8 Avg. mph, 1,873 Ft. Climbing, 4,695 Calories.

Breaking News (again)>>>New Course Speed Record = 50.8 mph.  Yes, you read that right.  It came on a section of today's route that I'd been eyeing for a couple of weeks now.  It looked like a 7% down slope in excess of a mile.  If the wind was right (or at least mild) I thought I might have a chance of hitting 50.  Luck was with me...

And in keeping with my desire to develop new talent, the remainder of today's post will once again be ghost written.  No - a different ghost this time.  We shall see if this one is any more successful at remaining anonymous.  I hold out high hopes as he married into the family.  But if not, well - ya can't blame it on genetics.

Without further ado, I shall now turn the reigns over to ghost writer number 2.

Long live the Teamsters. I just had to say it. Taking this picture is one of the many favorable reasons for having a professional Teamster on-board The Rig. Underrated and under-thanked if you ask me.

Here is Brad and his minions on the start of their second day of riding, and what a day it would be. It mostly went "downhill" from here. 

The landscape was breathtaking in all directions. We stopped for this picture, and gasped when we all turned around to see snow-capped mountains slowly disappearing in the distance. As Brad has mentioned in blogs before, pictures just don't do it justice -- a crying shame for the reader. 

Thumbs up, let's do this. Smiles all-around. Mountains in the rear-view, mountains out the driver-side window, plus a river sparkling in the morning's sunlight. It doesn't get better than this! And like I said, "downhill from here."

Flashback to RASDAK 2017, KnP were more dead-weight than riding companions. Brad would "pull" for 8 miles, and KnP would pull for 1 mile each. Contrast that to this ride, where we consistently alternated every mile. Less "I'm falling off" the pace and more "woohoo." 

Like all handy-men say, "any project is manageable if you have the right tools." Case and point here. With a well-adjusted seat height, bike shoes/clips instead of tennis shoe cages, and ample amount of preparation, this ride was "easy."

Long live Queen Susan. Here she is 20 miles into the ride, waiting for us. She never sits still for long, which is why she is a "professional." It was an honor to be served by a real life Teamster. 

After cruising along at 35 mph for over 15 miles (not exaggerating), we stopped at The Rig for lunch. Susan spotted this cottage along our route and pulled in to check it out.

The Mountain Aries Market was recently opened by two local women. The store features organic produce, food/drink and even healthy dog food. We wanted to support local efforts so we chatted them up and partook in "healthy" food choices.

Pictured here is the crew, and Ashley and Olympia, the originators of the store. We mentioned to them we had seen several "land for sale" signs along the way, but one in particular caught our attention. 800+ acres of land with an 8,000 sq ft house (if you can call it a house) to boot. Olympia mentioned the billionaire that sold the property had to put it on sale from $6.1 million to $4.6 million because "he had too many parcels of land and just needed to get rid of it." None of us felt sorry for him. Granted, the sale price is a big number, but compare that to the $40,000 price tag for ONE ACRE!!! in Breckenridge, CO.

Leave it to Brad to buy "healthy" Oreo's from Ashley and Olympia's store. Newman-O's are exempt from high fructose corn syrup and some other fake ingredients, but let's be honest, Newman-O's have no harvest season. 

Interesting story though, the "palm oil" used in Oreo's is replaced in Newman-O's by palm-fruit oil, which avoids deforestation. 

Brad's "experiments" will surely continue with the newfound variable that is organic Oreo's.

Some people have a "green thumb"making them excellent stewards of plant-life. Brad has "brown thumbs" which must be the reason he avoids vegetables at all costs. 

Since the trip started, "this is blog worthy," or "this is going in the blog" has become somewhat repetitive. It either features something interesting, noteworthy, or is used as an idle threat of embarrassment. The above picture is an example of the later.

Shout out to the benefits of UPF-rated clothing. Next best thing? Sunscreen! "Bah," Brad says. "I got a bug stuck in the sunscreen on my nose today! Another reason not to wear sunscreen." There is no convincing this man.

Did I mention the outlandish land sale price earlier? Well now you get the drift. Here is round 3 of the Porsche club that drove past us over our lunch-break. Each round of cars had 10-20 cars of various models. Everybody had their favorite, but mine was easily the red Porsche 911 with a black spoiler (3rd car in this picture). Rich man/woman's country to say the least. 

Notice how the road disappears in the foreground here? Also notice the road in the background, several hundred feet below? I wasn't lying when I said "it was all downhill," and this shot wasn't where Brad broke his T/A speed record either... 

The last 10 or so miles to Canon City was blistering hot and no longer downhill, but we made it in three complete pieces and met Susan at The Rig near the Arkansas River. Here we all are, literally feet from The Rig and the river. No mosquitoes, only rednecks buzzed around our campsite late into the evening. 

Canon City is well-known for its rafting tours of the Royal Gorge and it's two federal prisons. It seemed we had moved away from millionaire's row to death row in a matter of 67, downhill miles.

No blog can be complete without a shot of Brad kissing a statue; however, this Brachiosaurus needed more than a simple kiss on the lips.

Post Script: Not bad.  He captured the essence of my gripe with sun screen, but what the heck is a Brachiosaurus - and how on earth did he know how to spell it?  A man of many talents.

Till next time.

The Thin Blue Ride - Part 2 Day 42 - Cañon City, CO to Pueblo, Co

Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Ride Report: 43 Miles, 2,082 Total Miles, 17.0 Avg. mph, 1,722 Ft. Climbing, 3,509 Calories, Top Speed of The Day = 47.3 mph.  It was another scorcher, just not a new course Record.

A short day was planned for the day - this as a result of the previously mentioned trip over Hoosier Pass.  I continue to believe that was a good call.  And it turned out to be especially true since the wind shifted to a headwind on the last downhill leading to the entrance of tonight's overnight stop near Pueblo.  Had we another 20 miles to do when the wind shifted, it would have been into the wind.  On with the day...

As much as I appreciate the contributions of the "Ghost" twins (seen standing proudly with their rides in the pic above) anonymity just isn't their style.  So I've elected to take back control of my posts.  Well, that and this is their last day with us on The Thin Blue ride.  This is the "pre-ride" pic taken beside the Arkansas River in Canon City where we overnighted last night.  Other than a car yowling its tires at 0200 (as reported by Kelsy) and a couple shouting at each other at 0400 (as reported by the author) it was a good night.  What can I say, it was a public parking lot.  I got to watch the City guy come by and pick up trash as I dined this morning.

This is KnP listening to the day's safety briefing.  Daily safety briefings are mandatory when traveling with Teamsters.  That would be the Briefing Officer's (BO) shadow in the pic.  BO's don't concern themselves with where they cast their shadows.  BO aside, the reader should note the mountains immediately to the right of the top of The Rig.  We came thru them yesterday. 

This was early on today's ride and just outside Canon City.  The first third of the ride today was generally a descent.  The second third was a climb of around 1,200 ft., and the final third was an overall descent accomplished thru a series of rolling hills.   We enjoyed the first and last third.  We tolerated the middle third.

This is P of KnP fame.  We stopped along the road for a pic.  He's always got that thumb's up thing going.  Not sure what it would take to get a thumb's down from him.  When we stopped, he was in the lead of the mini pace line we used all day today.  

This is K (of the previously mentioned KnP).  When we stopped for the pic, she was at the end of said pace line.

This presents an excellent opportunity to educate the reader as to the utility of pace lines in cycling.  A pace line is when cyclists join forces to mutually benefit everyone's ride.  By riding close behind one another (generally within half a wheel length of the rider ahead) and trading positions in the lead of said line, cyclists can greatly reduce the effort required to make it to their destination.  While the person in the lead is giving whatever effort is required to go a given speed, the ones following have reduced their workload 20-30% by staying in the slipstream of the rider ahead of them.  In our case today, we traded positions as lead rider (called pulling) every mile.  When the leader's mile was done, they would just steer to the left of the line and gradually fade back, taking their place at the end of the line.  Since each individual only "pulls" for a third of the ride, everyone's average speed goes up.  An excellent arrangement, so long as one is riding with rider's one trusts.

We found this sign in the final third of today's ride.  I'd not seen a 9% downhill sign yet on The Thin Blue Ride.  Knowing me, KnP weren't surprised when I took off in an attempt to set a new course record.  The attempt failed, I only reached a little over 47 mph.  It might have been 9%, but it was relatively short, and we started from a standstill after taking the pic.  When I set the course record yesterday, we went past a down grade sign already rolling at about 35 mph.  Oh yeah - and the wind was a bit across my face at the time.  So - sorry to disappoint.  But it was great fun anyway.

That's a pretty remarkable ravine behind us - also known as a good photo-op.  We took advantage.  Note how the photographer stacked us in descending order of height.  Very artsy.

This is that same ravine without us in the way - and zoomed in a bit.  I love those clouds.

These always look impressive in person, but the pics never fail to disappoint.  These vast open spaces just have to be seen to be believed.

Sequentially, this is me, Kelsy and Parker rolling into the entrance of the Arkansas Point Campground at Pueblo Reservoir.  When we arrived there was a small cheering section.  Susan was there, and Parker's Mom (Lori) had come down from Monument, CO to bring him the keys to his vehicle; which had been pre-positioned at a local Wal-Mart.  The reader might wonder as to the necessity of her trip on behalf of KnP, it having been simpler to just bring the keys with them when they came.  It may or may not have something to do with the keys being left behind at their house in Palmer Lake.  In the interests of marital harmony, I'll never tell.  Regardless, we were glad to see Lori.  Susan and I had not visited with her for a while.  

Used by permission of Susan Schoen Photography, LLC.  This photograph may not be used without the express, written permission of Susan Schoen Photography, LLC.  (She makes me put that in every once in a while to prevent the theft of her intellectual property.)

When we went to grab a bite at a local hamburger shop, I ran across this fountain in Pueblo.  I thought it was kinda cool.  So did the people reclining on the grass around it.

This would be me, K, P, Susan and Lori as we headed into Bingo Burger across the street from the fountain.  Smiles all around.  There's been a lot of that on The Thin Blue Ride.  It may merit further investigation.

Finally, most riders consider Pueblo as representing the half-way point of The Thin Blue Ride - also known as the T/A.  It is also the largest town on the route until we reach the environs of Richmond, VA.  So, there ya have it readers, Pueblo = civilization.  Since good burgers are also a sign of a mature civilization, I hope I can find another good burger before then.

Till next time.