Day 35: Dolores, CO

Day 35

June 20, 2015

Miles: 36

Dove Creek to Dolores

The savvy reader may have deduced from the title of this post that Di and I did not make it to Rico, but stopped in Dolores instead.  And you would be correct.  However, I do not view the fact we rode only 36 miles when we intended to ride 73 as failure.  Instead, I view it as an opportunity.  Unfortunately for any reader of this blog, it was an opportunity to drop by the local bar and have a couple of beers.  As those of you who know me, that's a couple of beers over my limit, so that doesn't bode well for the quality of this post.

We left our hotel by 7am, but the restaurant where we wanted to eat breakfast was closed.  We were forced to go to the town's only gas station to find some food.  What we found was the gas station offered only one breakfast meal: sausage with cheese in a biscuit sandwich.  Unfortunately. the biscuit was like my humor -  very dry.  We each ate one anyway.

Di with her dry biscuit sandwich

The first 25 miles were up and down as we went over one hill after another.  Even though we had some climbing, it was nice to finally have some downhills on our ride.  The countryside was lush with green and healthy looking plants, which is a very welcome sight after the dryness of Arizona and Utah.  As I was riding, I heard a familiar sound that I hadn't heard in a long time and reminded me of home: the chirping of birds.  We saw horses and cattle grazing, but the most interesting thing we saw were prairie dogs.  Prairie dogs are essentially squirrels with no tail that build tunnels under ground.  I tried to get a picture of one of them, but they were too quick.  I then thought of taking a picture of one of the road kill prairie dogs, but Di thought that would be in bad taste.  If I had drank those beers earlier in the day, you probably would be seeing a regrettable sight right now, but instead, I present two grazing (and living) horses.

Real live horses grazing away

Colorado has another thing Utah didn't show us much of - water.

Colorado has water hanging around

We arrived in Lewis around 11:30 after riding for 25 miles.  We took only a short break at a gas station (again) because we wanted to have lunch in Dolores, which was 11 miles away.  The ride to Dolores was mostly uphill, but it wasn't too bad and we found ourselves arriving in town around 12:45.  We still had 37 miles to get to Rico, but we had plenty of time.  That was before we hit the local bike shop, Lizard Head Cyclery.  As we were riding down the main street, Di saw the bike shop and wanted to stop in to see if she could buy a better handlebar bag (the current one is too small).  The owner, Nicholas, helped Di select a new bag.  Then, he checked out her bike to see why her shifting was so rough.  He cleaned the cable housing and oiled the cable wires.  He put on a new chain.  He put on a new seat.  He adjusted her handlebars.  He rewrapped the handlebar tape.  This all took about 2 hours.  Nicholas then asked if I wanted him to look at my bike.  After all the TLC Di's bike just got, I felt I wanted my bike to get the same treatment.  So Nicholas cleaned all the dirt out of my cable housing and chain rings.  He put a new chain on my bike, also.  He tuned the gears.  He put on a new seat.  He measured my handlebars and determined it wasn't centered properly.  He then machined shims for my cleats from a dirt bike chain to help compensate for my right leg being shorter than the left (side effect of hip replacement surgery).  Nicholas was incredibly thorough and precise.  He claims it is because he is OCD and German.  By the time Nicholas was done, Di and I had spent over four hours in his shop.

Nicholas working on Di's bike

One hour after working on Di's bike, Nicholas introduces himself to Di

It was 5pm and all desire to continue riding had left us.  Di and I made plans with Nicholas to meet him at the local pub at 7:30pm.  We then went to the Outpost Motel and got a room for the night. 

The Outpost is right on the Dolores River

We relaxed for a couple of hours and then went to the pub to meet Nicholas and have some pizza and beer.  Both the pizza and beer were excellent and we had a great time talking with Nicholas.

Pizza and beer at the end of the day

There was one more thing that happened today that was interesting.  Joey, a boy around 10 years old, was hanging around the bike shop while Di and I were there.  Apparently, he loves to bike and is often found hanging around the bike shop.  Di and I talked with him a bit, so we were on friendly terms.  When Di and I arrived at the pub, we heard someone yell, "Hey, you guys!"  We turned and saw Joey and his friend riding towards us on their. bikes.  "What are you guys doing?", he asked.  We told him we were going to meet Nicholas and get a pizza.  "Before you go in, I have a treat for you", he said.  He nodded at his friend and the friend then produced a small plastic bag that held some deadly looking red peppers.  "I grow these myself", said Joey, "and I want you to have some."  "No way", I said, "They look really spicy and hot!"  "No, they're not", protested Joey, "they aren't hot at all.  C'mon, just try a small one."  "I'll try one if you promise me it won't be hot", I said.  "I promise!", Joey said.  So I reached into the bag, grabbed a pepper, popped the entire thing in my mouth, and started chewing.  Joey just looked at me, smiling.  All of a sudden, my mouth is on fire, tears are pouring down my face, and I'm yelling, "My mouth is burning! My mouth is burning!"  Joey threw his hands in the air in exultation, looked at his friend, and yelled "Yeah!  We got someone to eat one!"  Joey and his friend rode off, laughing.  By this time I was coughing in addition to crying and having my mouth on fire.  Di was shaking her head and asked me why would I eat one of those peppers when it was so obvious they were really hot and spicy.  "Are you kidding?", I replied.  "I didn't want to disappoint them.  Now they can tell all their friends about the guy they got to eat a hot pepper."

When I told Nicholas this story, he asked how my mouth was feeling now.  I said it was still burning, so he insisted I order a glass of milk to help take off some of the sting.  So, in addition to having two glasses of beer, I also had one glass of milk.  And one hot pepper.

Tomorrow, to Rico, and beyond (maybe)!