July 7th - Pueblo to Ordway, CO

If you have the time to go back and look at previous posts, you may find that we have added some pictures.

Gloria

I'd like to say I'm getting used to waking up at 4 am...but that would be a lie.  Although I was still half-asleep, we left our less than fair hotel in Pueblo around 5:05 am.  

Positives for the day:

~ Only a 50 mile bike ride

~ We had decent to good shoulders the whole way 

~ Michael had a deer trot alongside him (behind a fence) for about 1/4 mile

~ Traffic was not too bad

~ Drivers were courteous all morning

Most importantly for me:

~ The ride was pretty flat or downhill

~ We arrived in Ordway before the temperature reached the predicted 104 degrees

One thing we've noticed is that there are a lot of dead snakes on the shoulders.  As a female, I often have to make use of "the facilities" on the side of the road.  Seeing all these dead snakes has me a bit skiddish about going too deep into grass and under trees.  

There really were no negatives today.  It was a pretty smooth ride. We arrived at Hotel Ordway around 10:00 am.  Since our rooms were not ready, the hotel owner, Carol, showed us where to put our bikes and suggested we go next door for a meal.  We were hungry, so that's exactly what we did!  Boomer's Cafe was a delight!  We even shared a slice of pie...and Michael had a chocolate shake!

I remember Hotel Ordway from 10 years ago.  Bob and I stayed here with Margie & Dan Watkins, Julie Jenks, Yinka Kerr and Everard James.  

Here is a post that was written about our stay in Ordway 10 years ago:

Written (with Bob’s permission) by guest writers Yinka, Margie and Julie
After a restful night at the lovely Hotel Ordway, the group decided to make the earliest start of the week. We learned from the intense afternoon heat of the previous days that maybe (just maybe) Bob was right about the early morning start. Possibly attributable to the lack of hydration options in Ordway, and the humiliation of our gents who’d lost at pool to local cowboys the night before, we decided it was best to get out of town early. On our bikes by 6:00 a.m., we clearly felt the anticipation of our long promised “downhill day.”After breakfast at the truck-stop, including 2 huge bowls of Hatch (New Mexico) green chili and a bit of coffee, we were raring to go by 7:10. 

In 2007, we did not get the downhill ride we were hoping for.  Instead, we had terrible headwinds.  I hope that doesn't happen tomorrow.  I may have to call an Uber driver!

Even with the early starts of late, life is SO good!