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Yesterday we had a really nice day off in Salida. We ate food, went to the library, walked around and were generally lazy. Today, we rode 110 miles. I guess it all evens out.
We left this morning, headed for Pueblo. The first 20 miles went by fairly quickly. The weather was cooperative, the wind was with us and we were riding alongside the Arkansas river, which was picturesque. The only thing not working in our favor was the traffic and the lack of a shoulder on the road. Colorado roads either have luxurious, huge shoulders, or they have no shoulder at all. All on all we were making great time and enjoying our ride.
Our luck didn’t last. After a very tasty lunch in Westcliff CO, we started our final climb of the Rockies. Just before we reached the top it started to rain steadily, and we were still 30 miles from Pueblo. We were so cold that we had to stop under some trees to put on our cold weather gear. We have been fairly lucky with these afternoon rains so far, but not today. We had to decide whether to ride on through the rain, or set up camp and spend the night a bit cold and wet. We decided to press on, and we’re glad that we did. Once we got down off the mountain, the rain lessened and we were able to make it to Pueblo.
It was a really long day, but, we have officially made it through our second major mountain chain, and we should make it to Kansas by the end of the week. In retrospect maybe the cold rainy treatment we got coming out of the Rockies was the mountains giving us a sloppy wet kiss goodbye.
– Sarah