Date: 2007-05-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

5-11-07Pueblo, Co47 miles today2194 miles totalToday was a planned easy day. We were only riding into Pueblo, stopping at a bike shop that I had called from back in Kansas, then getting a room for the night.It seems easy to wake up early here in the mountain time zone because to us, when we wake up at 5am, it's really 7am where we are from back east.We got up and walked to The Stockman's Cafe for breakfast, then checked out of the room and headed west.For the last 3 days, the morning wind has been in our faces, then in the afternoon, it turns to an easterly wind. It happened again today, but we didn't get the benefit of the afternoon wind because we got to Pueblo by 10am.On the way in, we were riding high above the land around us and we looked down on two coyotes that were running away from us. I took one picture just as they were getting near some brush.About 100 yards farther down the road, I looked down and saw the remains of a mule deer with huge antlers. It must have been hit by a car over the winter and stayed frozen to have still had the antlers this time of year. The passing cars couldn't see it because it was so low off the road and out of view.We were getting closer to Pueblo and the prairie dogs were playing around their mounds. They would watch us ride by and get all excited and shake their little tails before they would go into their holes.We got to town and took a road that got us closer to the bike shop. I had to call a couple times for directions, but we finally found it.Scott took us right in and put a new rear tire on my bike and cleaned and oiled the chain, then cleaned and oiled Mrs Gorp's bicycle chain.While we were there, another Trans Am rider came in with spoke problems. His name was Richard and he was doing an ultra light weight ride on a titanium bike with almost no gear. He even had an ultra light weight build, so his bike, gear and him on the bike probably only weighed 150 pounds. He wasn't even carrying a camera to save that weight. :-))He was east bound and was riding about 90 miles a day.When our bikes were done, we went towards the motel area and saw an Olive Garden on the way. We have been craving salads and you can always get a good salad in there.I also treated myself to a shrimp and scallop fetticini and that was delicious.We got a room at the Motel 6 and I took a nap. I really treated this like a zero day and the miles we rode made it seem easy. This was a long day for us in the beginning of this ride, but now it seemed like a breeze.When I woke up, we decided it was time for dinner. :-))We went to a Mexican restaurant and I had a steak fajita and Mrs Gorp had a shrimp fajita.I have to make myself clear about what I said in my last journal entry about Mrs Gorp and her not eating meat anymore.I was bad....very, very bad for saying that. I realized that when I saw the look. You know...THE look that only a woman can give.Their lips disappear, their eyes get squinty and the stare can cut right through you. Yep, I got THE look. :-))I now think it's a wise choice she has made about not eating meat and I'm very, very.....VERY sorry if I said anything that was even slightly mis-leading about the way I felt about that....ummm, situation. ;-))Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail.PS I hope I never get THE look again. :-))5-12-077 miles west of Canon City, Co43 miles today2238 miles totalToday was a day where we were waiting on the sun to rise, so we could start riding. We knew we were heading into the Rockies, but didn't have any idea where we would end the day.We started riding, but spotted a McDonald's in half a mile...and I needed coffee, so we stopped. :-))I had their big breakfast which may be a big breakfast to some, but I could have eaten 2 or 3 of them.We headed west and for the first hour or so, the wind wasn't bad, but it kicked up in our faces again and got pretty strong for a while.The terrain is definitely changing and getting nicer to me. I like the mountains and these mountains are more of a redish color and very wind blown.I can spot lots of small wildlife off to the side of where we're riding...mostly prairie dogs, but rabbits too.We stopped in Penrose and got a snack. The lady was proud to tell us this is the correctional facilities capital of the world. They have 13 correctional facilities here in Freemont County.I guess every place has to be proud of something. :-))We rode on and came to Canon City next. We stopped to take a break from the wind at McDonald's.It was getting pretty hot out. That's supposed to last through tomorrow before we cool down a little again.We sat in McDonald's for about 45 minutes. We were looking at the maps and trying to figure out what options we had. There aren't many, so we figured we'd just ride and let whatever happens, happen.There was an 8 mile uphill ride out of Canon City. The best part was that in the 45 minutes we were in McDonald's, the winds changed directions and for the fourth day in a row, we had afternoon tailwinds.The climb was long, but these roads are graded way better than the roads in the Appalachian Mountains, so it was hard, but not leg burning, gut busting hard. :-))It was hot though and I did have to stop a few times just to drink some water and get my mouth wet again.We saw a camp ground called Mountain View Trading Post and went in to get a cold drink and figure out what to do.Kim is the owner and was very helpful telling us what we had coming up.I wanted to keep going another 20+ miles to a place that had some rustic cabins, but there were thunderstorms in that direction. I looked down the road several times before I gave up on the idea of riding more miles today.They have a nice cafe and we got a cabin that is overlooking some snow capped mountains, so this turned out to be a good choice to end the day.We are over 6500 feet in elevation and will have another 3000 foot climb in the morning. I'm looking forward to that!! :-))I put my sleeping bag on the porch of the cabin and took an afternoon nap. I fell asleep looking at the mountains and listening to Pink Floyd on my mp3 player.I'm also seeing some very colorful song birds. The only one I know is the bluebird. He's different in the shade of color to the eastern bluebird, but very beautiful still.The thunderstorms did come, but it was cool to watch the rain with them...it mostly evaporated before it hit the ground because the air is so dry here.I got a nice picture showing the snow capped mountains with a storm off to the side. That picture shows the rain coming down about half way from the clouds before it evaporated. I've never seen anything like that before. :-))OK, I'm back from dinner now and I have GOOD NEWS!!!! Mrs Gorp couldn't stand it that tonight's special was prime rib. She's baaaaack!! :-))It's so good to have her back eating beef again. She's as close to normal now as she'll probably ever be. Ha!!She scarfed her prime rib down in record time and was eyeing mine, but I'm bigger...and I still had the knife in my hand, so she just watched. :-))We finished dinner off with pie alamode, then bought some huge cinnamon rolls for breakfast. They don't open till 7am and we want to be an hour into our ride by then.Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail. :-))5-13-07Fairplay, Co68 miles today2306 miles totalWe knew we were going to have a tough day climbing, so we got an early start...6am.There was a coffee maker in the cabin, so I made a pot of Starbuck's and had the two danishes for breakfast that I bought last night.We also knew there wouldn't be any services for over 50 miles, so those two danish rolls had to carry me uphill for most of that 50 miles.We headed out and it was cool, but Mrs Gorp was freezing. Her fingers were even going numb. We had a few miles of downhill riding before the big climb started.That first 1000 foot climb was pretty steep. I was in my lowest gear and working hard to get up the mountain.I waited on Mrs Gorp when I got over the steepest part, then we rode together after that.I spotted 3 antelope and got a picture of them. One had a nice rack on it.The skies were completely blue when we left, but the clouds kept building all day.We kept getting higher and higher all day too...and we started out the day at 6500 feet.We stopped at Guffy and sat down for a few minutes. There were no services, but it felt good to just sit and listen to the quiet.We headed on after about 20 minutes and started seeing more antelope. I saw the remains of an elk that had been hit by a car. I was also seeing lots of bluebirds today.We got to Hartsell. We were real happy because there was a restaurant and it was open. It was about 1pm and I was starving.I ordered a buffalo burger and it came with a large portion of homemade fries. It tasted soooo good. :-))When we were done and went outside, I heard thunder in the direction we were going. I could also see it was very dark and raining, so we waited for a bit.It seemed like we might be able to squeeze in between a couple of storms, so we headed on.In two miles, we could see that we weren't going to make it. The lightening was hitting all around just in front of us.I pulled off the road and got down in a ditch to wait it out. It was getting cooler. It had been about 70 degrees for the high today. I started putting on more clothes and we just sat there waiting.The rain started getting close, so Mrs Gorp pulled her tent out and we sat close enough to each other and draped the tent over us.That worked great...we had our backs to the wind and rain, so we stayed dry. It started hailing after about 30 minutes and the hail changed to a heavy wet slush.We sat there until the winds died down some and the slush stopped coming down.We decided to go for it because the lightening had passed. It was still raining all around us, but it wasn't coming down on us.There was over an inch of slush on the road and all around us and it was in the 40's. We were over 9000 foot in elevation.We rode on and after a few miles, we rode out of the slush and in another few miles, the road was dry.We kept riding into the wind. Today was made a bit tougher because we rode into the winds all day.We got to Fairplay and got a room. The elevation here is 9950 feet high and there's still lots of snow in all the mountains around us.We headed right up to a restaurant and ate dinner, then Mrs Gorp watched Survivor.This day ended up being our biggest climb of the whole trip. We climbed 4921 feet total and had the wind in our faces all day long...but it also ended up being a great day because it's so beautiful up here. I really enjoyed today's ride and also enjoyed seeing probably 40 to 50 antelope.Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail. :-))