Day 21 – Pueblo, CO, Rest Day, 21 Jun 2014

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Miles 1450 to 1450, 0 miles, 0 feet of climb,





Lincoln Home Orphanage, Pueblo, CO

Today started with a pleasant breakfast where nobody was in a rush. All I had to ask Jed (Jedidiah) was if he had kids, and for the next thirty minutes he told me story after wonderful story about road trips he had taken with his kids. It almost sounded like it was unfair that kids eventually grew up – he so enjoyed doing things with them. He has one child left in college, and they are thinking about another road trip with their youngest. What made the conversation fun was recalling not just the places, but significant events at those places and people that were met. Later Bill, Dan, and Bob joined and we spent an hour enjoying a very unhurried breakfast. The time reminded me of normal Saturday mornings at home where after Young and I have already done some work around the house we come back inside to enjoy taking our time to eat together.



Arkansas River RiverWalk, Downtown Pueblo



The riders can be easily segregated into two camps today. About half of the riders have family flying into town to spend a full day of activity and sightseeing. Those who stayed back to rest could be found downtown to enjoy the River Walk and artsy shops. I also rode down, about 10 miles round trip, and enjoyed the restored river front area that was modeled after San Antonio’s RiverWalk. It was nice but what really brought back the memories of childhood was going past the Lincoln Home Orphanage. Today's homes for children are nothing like what I recall from my early days. I remember so many stories about the orphange in Lake Bluff, IL, and the picture in my mind of that place was exactly like the Lincoln home - to include the bus and flag out front. Later today I treated my self to a special dinner. I walked over to Sam’s Club to get a slice of three meat pizza that I have been craving now for three weeks. I miss my time at Redstone where Lloyd and I share laughs and life on Mondays.



While riding over the repeating ‘rollers’ east of Cañon City I could organize my thoughts of a few new chapters of my third book. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘rollers’, that is what real bicyclists call hills that are about a half to a mile apart that have a deep (or shallow) valley in between. Real bicyclists love them because they pedal as fast as they can down one side, and then hope to have enough momentum to go up the other side. Obviously I am not a real bicyclist yet. I enjoy the ride down and then huff and puff back up the other side. The beauty of my strategy is that both the down and up allow me to day dream the day away. Day dreaming was one of the significant goals I had for myself on this trip, and given the week in Kansas, I should have my third book done (in my mind) by the time I cross the Missouri River. Coming into Pueblo I thought my mind was playing jokes on me. The barren landscape and heat from the road caused a mirage effect in the distances. I swore, instead of seeing oceans of water on the horizon, I was hallucinating by seeing a Walmart off on the horizon dancing as the heat distorted the image. Five miles later I discovered it really was a Walmart – one built on a roller on the edge of West Pueblo waiting for the community to grow up around it.

Bottom Line: A wonderful day of rest, and a day to remember stories from my past.