Day 47: Eads, CO

Day 47

July 2, 2015

Miles: 61

Ordway to Eads

Yesterday, when we stopped in Crowley, an interesting thing happened.  Di and I went into the consignment shop and saw someone getting their hair done.  Yes, the consignment shop was also the town's hair salon.  But, that's not all.  The consignment shop/hair salon is also the town post office.  There weren't too many buildings in Crowley, so I guess they have to be efficient with the ones they have.  The owner of the consignment shop, who is also the hair dresser, said she always gives a postcard of Crowley to folks passing through.  I said I would be happy to have one because I could send it to my mom and dad.  "Well, I'd love to give you a postcard, but I'm all out.  So I'll make a copy of one and give you that instead."  She seemed so nice, I couldn't bring myself to tell her a copy of a postcard wouldn't do me much good, so I graciously accepted the postcard copy.  When I got back to the hotel room, I felt badly about throwing the copy of the postcard away.  So, I took a picture of it and then I threw the copy away.  I now I can present a picture of a copy of a postcard of Crowley.

I guess even the school must do double duty as a museum

Di and I started the day by being annoyed.  We are usually in good spirits and roll with the punches, but there was something about Ordway that didn't sit right with us.  Yesterday, the motel owner told us the restaurant on Main Street opened at 4pm.  It didn't open until 5pm.  And, as we found out the hard way, it doesn't open at all for dinner on Wednesdays.  Why wouldn't a restaurant be open on Wednesdays?  The motel owner also told us the diner next door to the restaurant opens for breakfast at 7:30am.  We arrived at 7:30 on the dot, only to discover the restaurant doesn't open until 8am.  Don't people want to eat breakfast before 8am?  We ended up having breakfast at the truck stop a couple of miles outside of town.  The food was so bad that Di told me not to take a picture of it.  When we resumed riding after breakfast we were hit with a 26 mph headwinds.  I know it was a 26 mph headwind because Di told me.  I don't know how she knew this, but Di just knows things.  A headwind is very annoying for bicyclists.  It feels better to climb hills than to struggle against a strong headwind.  As Di is fond of saying, "Stupid wind."

After riding for 6 miles, we came to Sugar City.  We were so annoyed by the wind that we stopped to take a break even though we had only ridden 6 miles.  Stupid wind.

Every town in Colorado has this type of sign

This is pretty much all of Sugar City

This is what it looks like heading out of Sugar City

This is what it looks like looking back at Sugar City

 In addition to being windy, it was hot.  Jen had given Di and me a bandana that you soak in water and you then tie around your neck to help keep you cool.  I haven't tried mine yet, but today's heat prompted Di to wear her's today .

Di showing off her new neck bandana

Di continuing to show off

 The next town we came to was Arlington, which had nothing in it but a sign announcing the town of Arlington.

Arlington doesn't have the typical town sign

 We had to ride 40 miles to get to a town that had a restaurant.  Shortly before we got there I told Di my legs were getting a little tired.  "Oh, yeah?", she said.  "Well, I'm tired, too.  And I'm hot.  And I'm hungry!"  That's the biking trifecta.  At least she wasn't thirsty.

Tired, hot, hungry, but still looking happy

 We arrived in Haswell around 2pm.

That's the typical town sign

The only restaurant in town was also the gas station which was also the town's only grocery store.  When we arrived, we saw that two other riders were already there.  We had met these riders in Ordway last night and they had told us they had ridden from Pueblo to Ordway.  We told them we had ridden from Pueblo to Ordway also and had arrived in town a couple of hours earlier.  They then told us they had gotten a late start from Pueblo, which is why they had gotten in so late.  We've met a few young riders on this trip, and it seems to me that some of them aren't that pleased that Di and I, who are more than twice their age, ride the same miles each day as they do.  When we saw these two riders in Haswell, the first thing one of them did was to ask us what time we left this morning.  Di answered that we left at 9:30.  The rider ruefully responded that they had left at 7:15.  And now we were both at the same place.  The other rider was quick to point out that they had experienced two flat tires, and that had slowed them down.  And the wind was in their face.  Yeah, we had wind in our face, too, we said.  I could tell they weren't too happy about having left over two hours earlier than us and then having us catch them, but even so, I didn't tell them that Di was wrong and we had actually left much earlier than 9:30.  Maybe I should have told them, but they were hogging the only picnic table, which had four chairs and they used the other two to put their feet up, and Di and I had to sit on uncomfortable benches instead.  Remember, I told you I was annoyed.  I now found myself feeling better.

Di filling up the water bottles in Haswell

 Our lunch was terrible, frozen sandwiches and Di said they were so bad that I couldn't take any pictures of them.  The potato chips were good, though.  We had 21 miles to go to get to Eads.  The wind had died down a bit and the riding was relatively flat and we found ourselves rolling into town at 4:45.

Egads, its Eads

We checked into our hotel and went next door for dinner.  Di took a couple of bites of her food and her assessment was summed up in one word: "Lousy".  It was so lousy she forbade me from taking a picture of it.  The day was beautiful and we had a great ride, but Di said today's food was a great disappointment.  To make up for that, we bought candy bars on the way back to the hotel.  

Tomorrow, we ride to Tribune.