Day 5, June 14, 2009
Only 220 miles to go today so we left a little later and had breakfast at a restaurant instead of McDonalds. The day began cold and damp; everyone had their rain suits on for two reasons it looked like rain and to keep warm. And the wind – it just never stops in Kansas! The wind was blowing across the prairie so hard it was difficult to control the bikes. I saw the first cowboy working a herd of beef cattle in a feed lot as we were leaving Garden City. It has been a long time since I saw a two story house – most are small bungalows or ranchers. Most have trees surrounding them to shield them from the constant wind. Other than these trees none exist and the ones that are here are small and beat-up by the wind. As we move to the western edge of Kansas I notice the change from wet flooded fields to dry and dusty. The only grass growing is prairie grass. As we enter Colorado the lack of water becomes more noticeable. The homes in the small towns have no lawns or flowers; the only thing growing is the sage brush. It appears the only road paved in this area is route 50 which is a divided highway almost all the way. Some of the small towns actually have all dirt streets. There are many fields of hay either cut and drying or ready to be cut. These are needed to feed the thousands of cattle dotting the plains. We stopped in Lamar Colorado to see the petrified wood gas station and get some pictures and then one block over we stopped to get pictures of the Madonnas of the Trail. There are 12 of these statues at various locations from east to west. While there we noticed a blade from one of the windmills on display in front of the little town museum. We learned each blade is 112 feet long and weighs 35 thousand pounds. Riding across Colorado the road begins to have a few more curves and you can see mountains far off in the distance and the wind has decreased significantly. We arrived in Pueblo around 2 PM (we had gone through one more time change) giving us time to check in to the Motel 6 and do laundry before dinner. We were joined at dinner by Lee and Cindy, friends of Bernie’s and Shirley’s. We have reserved tickets to ride the cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak tomorrow at noon. The Motel 6 on route 50 in Pueblo is clean and comfortable and very reasonably priced.
Only 220 miles to go today so we left a little later and had breakfast at a restaurant instead of McDonalds. The day began cold and damp; everyone had their rain suits on for two reasons it looked like rain and to keep warm. And the wind – it just never stops in Kansas! The wind was blowing across the prairie so hard it was difficult to control the bikes. I saw the first cowboy working a herd of beef cattle in a feed lot as we were leaving Garden City. It has been a long time since I saw a two story house – most are small bungalows or ranchers. Most have trees surrounding them to shield them from the constant wind. Other than these trees none exist and the ones that are here are small and beat-up by the wind. As we move to the western edge of Kansas I notice the change from wet flooded fields to dry and dusty. The only grass growing is prairie grass. As we enter Colorado the lack of water becomes more noticeable. The homes in the small towns have no lawns or flowers; the only thing growing is the sage brush. It appears the only road paved in this area is route 50 which is a divided highway almost all the way. Some of the small towns actually have all dirt streets. There are many fields of hay either cut and drying or ready to be cut. These are needed to feed the thousands of cattle dotting the plains. We stopped in Lamar Colorado to see the petrified wood gas station and get some pictures and then one block over we stopped to get pictures of the Madonnas of the Trail. There are 12 of these statues at various locations from east to west. While there we noticed a blade from one of the windmills on display in front of the little town museum. We learned each blade is 112 feet long and weighs 35 thousand pounds. Riding across Colorado the road begins to have a few more curves and you can see mountains far off in the distance and the wind has decreased significantly. We arrived in Pueblo around 2 PM (we had gone through one more time change) giving us time to check in to the Motel 6 and do laundry before dinner. We were joined at dinner by Lee and Cindy, friends of Bernie’s and Shirley’s. We have reserved tickets to ride the cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak tomorrow at noon. The Motel 6 on route 50 in Pueblo is clean and comfortable and very reasonably priced.
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