The Plains

We all had a great 6 rest days. Now, it’s back on the bike.


Monday, September 14, 2010, was an easy day. We are now out of the Rockies and are starting to cross the Plains. We were planning to start riding in Pueblo but, because there was no convenient place for Fran to pull over in the motor home, we ended up starting several miles east of Pueblo. We had a favorable light tailwind, with very flat terrain, made excellent time and ended up in Ordway shortly after noon. Our ride only totaled about 40 miles. Ordway is a very small town with a hotel and rv park. I rode into town and had a good lunch at Martin’s (Lisa had dinner there and said it was excellent). Fran, Dana and I had an “ok” dinner at the rv park (actually, I had an “ok” dinner; Dana and Fran really liked theirs). We spent the afternoon relaxing.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 was not quite as easy. I got started about 7:45 a.m. and made good time the first 20 to 30 miles, but then the wind picked up and, unfortunately, it was a SE wind that was pretty much in our faces the rest of the ride. We came across road construction about 30 miles into the ride and a construction worker very kindly put our bikes in the back of his truck and drove us through the construction area and into the next town where Fran was waiting to feed us. The rest of the ride was really tough, and Lisa and I were both exhausted from fighting the wind. We actually had some minor hills (they really don’t qualify as “hills”; maybe “minor inclines” is a better choice of words), that, with the headwinds added to the difficulty of the ride. I was helped into town by our new friend Andreas about 1.5 miles west of our destination, Eads. I had stopped to rest and Andreas pulled up on his bike next to me (Lisa had met him earlier in the day and had ridden a bit with him then). Andreas and I were both headed to the Friendly Lodge (the only motel/rv park in Eads) so we rode in together. I was able to concentrate on our conversation and forget how tired I was. Andreas was born in Germany, is currently living and working in Switzerland, and a few years ago lived in South Carolina for a couple of years; he is married to a woman from Peru. He started his ride in San Francisco and will complete it in South Carolina. Andreas joined us for dinner in the evening. He is planning on riding further than us tomorrow so we probably will not see him again, but we exchanged blog and email addresses.

Dana managed to see two herds of antelope, prairie dogs and rabbits on our Tuesday ride. I was too busy counting railway cars (you have to find something to keep you amused as you cross the plains!) until I got hit in the lip by a grasshopper, so I didn’t see the wildlife. Lisa also missed seeing the wildlife.

We are expecting east winds again tomorrow, so we will try to get an early start. However, we are going to actually eat breakfast in a restaurant for a change. Dana and I have a motel room tonight (not luxurious by any stretch of the imagination!) and, even though we just finished dinner, we are already talking about what we’ll have for breakfast in the morning. All of this riding makes food the Number One thing on our minds. I’ve probably lost too much weight so am making a conscious effort to eat more, which means I have to plan out my eating a day in advance (I am now stopping every 10 - 15 miles and eating something even if it’s only ½ a Luna Bar. Unfortunately, I’m also getting awfully tired of energy bars, so it really is hard to get enough food in during the ride.