Days 41, 42 and 43 – Canon City, Colorado to Pueblo, Colorado; 2 rest days

The Halfway Point

For the first seven miles of the ride on Tuesday, I went a different way than the map suggested.  I got back on route again, but in those seven miles there was lots of great scenery, with farmland and lakes and rivers. If I had been on route from the beginning I would have missed it so it was a reminder of how, even though I’m crossing the entire country, I’m still only seeing a small fraction of it.

The weather was overcast and a bit cool and wasn’t a concern throughout the ride. About 15 miles in I heard a bell off to the side of the road and looked to my left to see a huge school complex away from the road on a hill.  I thought maybe the bell signaled a change of classes, but upon passing the entrance to the place I realized that it was a state prison, not a school– although many students think of them as the same thing. I thought about the people in there and then appreciated that I was on the outside and had the freedom to keep riding.

The ride for the day would be 50 miles and was pretty straightforward. (I won’t even comment on the wind as I’m tired of writing about that.) One significant part was a bend around 20 miles into the day where the road turned east.  All through Oregon I was essentially heading east, but after that it was northeast to Montana or south to Wyoming and Colorado.  This particular turn meant that, for the most part, I was through heading south and that all progress now would be towards Virginia and the east coast.

I also passed over 2,000 miles for the trip on this day.  Pueblo is noted as the halfway point of the Trans Am. Maybe not exactly, but close enough.  So when I was just a few miles away from the edge of the city I started to think of all the things that had gone on since I had left the parking lot of the Silver Sands Motel in Florence back on August 4th and all the people I’ve met. The trip has easily lived up to expectations so far.

Pueblo is the third of five cities that I’ll  go through with a population larger than 20,000, and it’s the second largest on the route (after Eugene, Orgon) with just over 100,000 people.  Luckily, my friends Donald and Kristy live here and put me up in the house they have right next door to theirs. Since I’m ahead of my schedule for finishing the trip, I decided to take two days off before hitting the road again on Friday.

Northern Colorado was nice enough with Breckenridge and some of the tourist towns, but the southern cities I’ve been in offer a more authentic feel. So it’s good to be in Pueblo.

Today (Wednesday) Kristy asked me to come to her school to be a guest speaker, talking to her middle school students about my ride and places I’ve lived and traveled to around the world.  Strange to all the sudden be back in a classroom again talking to students, but also somewhat neat to share some stories with them, answer their questions and try to get them interested in the world outside of Pueblo. I can’t say that I’m missing going to work, but it was actually enjoyable to speak with a group of students again.

So another rest day on Thursday before beginning part two on Friday. In leaving the mountains and the west behind, it’s going to be interesting to see how eastern Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and the remainder of the route compare with the first six weeks.