Day 44 – Pueblo, Colorado to Ordway, Colorado

Done with the Hills

This morning it was time to pack up to leave Donald and Kristy’s place. Kristy had asked me to attend the big football game between her old high school, Central, and their crosstown rival, Centennial. This is the oldest high school rivalry west of the Mississippi and has been going on since 1892, which is pretty amazing.  It’s nicknamed the Bell Game and it’s a big deal in the city of Pueblo.

The winning team gets to hold on to a rather large bell for the year–which I was able to ring in the Central High School lobby and felt very priviledged.  However, to attend the game I’d have to take a third rest day in a row and I didn’t want to be off the road that long.  With that said, between biking around town, playing tennis both days and also playing “trampoline football” with Donald and Kristy’s kids each night, I was still getting my fair share of exercise.

So after a great stay in Pueblo it was time to once and for all start heading east and towards Virginia after traveling south/southeast for the past several weeks. A patch was put on my front tire’s tube as a slow leak made for the second flat of the trip, so I was now ready to hit the road for the 51 miles to Ordway.

I mentioned a few days ago that there weren’t many easy days of riding on this trip so far.  Well, today was one of them. What a difference no hills and (virtually) no wind make. There was a minor hill leaving Pueblo and a few ever so slight inclines along the way to Ordway. Other than that, just a level road for miles upon miles, which was a big change. It was so easy by comparison to the past six weeks of riding that you forgot days like these were possible.  The only drawback was that there were no big downhills, but I didn’t mind as much of the ride I was cruising along at 15 mph. The scenery also toned down a lot.  There wasn’t much to see and I expect that will continue for quite some time with finally being out of the mountains.

Along the way hundreds of riders passed me in small groups going the other way who are part of a three day Pedaling the Prairie ride. They only had one person to wave or smile or nod at (me), while I had to look at all of them passing by and wave or smile or nod, which was getting somewhat tiresome by the end. I’ve found that a lot of the racing types on this trip aren’t even interested in saying hello in any form anyway. So it’s nice to run into someone who’s touring because you know you have something in common with them and always stop to talk to them.

The city park in Ordway allows camping, which was good news, and the extreme cold of some of those nights in Montana, Wyoming and northern Colorado are over (for now), which is also good news.

The Bits and Spurs Cafe was busy tonight with all sorts of people and conversation, including a woman whose husband just had throat surgery. Apparently it was a big success because now not only can he not smoke,  but he also can’t yell at her anymore.

Just one more full day in Colorado tomorrow before entering Kansas on Sunday.