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Day 25 – Pueblo to Eads

Posted by Alan on Tue, 29th Jun, 2010.
Filed under: Colorado

Tues 29th June 2010

Guy and Susan kindly woke up early to see us off and make us a porridge breakfast with coffee. We can’t believe how quickly our stay with them has gone and that we were to be on the road again. Still we were well fed and rested and in pretty good shape to continue our journey. We’ve had a great time here in Pueblo and Guy and Susan have made it very special for us.

Guy had given us a different route to get back on the Transam from their house and we followed that until we met up with highway 96 just west of Pueblo. It was easy riding and we made very good time. By 9:30am we had already covered 40 miles which was encouraging. We actually stay on Highway 96 now for the next 400 miles or so.

The sun today was unbelievably hot and there was nowhere to get shade. East of Pueblo is the start of the Great Plains and it just so open with nothing to see in any direction. As the day wore on the wind increased and by midday we had a strong side wind which made the cycling difficult and slower.

When we reached sugar City we planned to buy our food for tonight and tomorrow’s breakfast but the so called shop was derelict and we had to cycle on to our planned destination of Haswell. In Haswell there was a garage that sold drinks and junk food so there too we were unable to buy the food we needed. We’ve renamed that place Hasnothing.

So we took the decision to cycle on another 23 miles to Eads as it was marked on the map as having all services. We were still in good time and should get there by about 5:00pm despite cycling another record didtance today . About 5 miles outside Eads we came across some other cyclists, one of which had 2 broken spokes. They were unable to remove the cassette from the rear wheel as they didn’t have the proper tool. I did so we stopped to help them but it was put on so tight we were unable to move it on the side of the road. In the end we had to leave them but it made us late and the grocery store had closed in Eads. The drug store was open and we did manage to get some food to keep us going.

Our next problem was finding somewhere to stay. There was nowhere we could find to camp so after cycling around we decided to stay in the motel, only to find it had no vacancies. At the back of the motel was an area for RV’s so we just set up our tents there. I went to see if I could find somewhere to shower and by chance bumped into two dutch female cyclist who were staying in the motel. They allowed us to shower in their room so we at least were clean.

At the back of the motel I could get a wi-fi signal but not in my tent. I tried to post this blog last night but as it started to get dark I was being eaten by mosquitoes and had to abandon the idea, hence the delay.It’s Wednesday morning as I write this and the sun is already coming up, it’s going to be a hot one.

Daily Mileage – 128.3 miles

Time in Saddle -9 hrs 30 mins

Total Climbing -1,637 ft