Home on the Range
Day 12 - Walsenburg, CO to Las Animas, CO (87 Miles and 1,500 feet of climbing)
Fully medicated on antihistamines and topical steroid cream I felt ready to ride again today. It was mostly downhill and I figured my bites were going to be uncomfortable in the car or on the bike so why not get some miles in. Unfortunately, I think I added a few more bug bites to my growing collection today. There were so many flies on the road, one even rode on my shoe for 5 miles. Whenever we stopped, we were greeted by a swarm of flies.
Other than flies we saw a buck up close and an antelope far away. Plus hundreds of beetles and large grasshoppers. It was mostly rolling hills and small bushes as far as you could see. We rode in the grass lands all day. The mountains are definitely behind us until we hit the Appalachian Mountains. But overall it was an easy ride today. I got in 43 miles through grasslands and farms, before meeting Mom to switch for the day.
Mom and Dad rode relatively fast on the flat lands and met me at the McDonalds in La Junta at mile 75. They were going to call it quits there, but Mom felt good and they went on for another 12 miles. Unfortunately, there was a brisk headwind for the last stretch. Mom ended up with 44 miles. It was perfect riding conditions, no one was on the road, it was cloudy and cool for once and it was almost all slightly downhill. Other than the headwind I don’t think it could be better.
We are getting a lot of comments about McDonalds where we seem to be every day. Just for the record, we are not eating there, we usually get unlimited drinks to quench our thirst and some days we kill time while we wait for check in at the hotel.
