July 6 Crossing America
Pueblo, CO – Westcliff, CO Distance 61 miles, rode 61 miles
Total distance traveled 2,397 miles, on bicycle 1,970.
Greenhorn Mountain Range in distance
On the road at 8:20 AM the first 6 ½ miles was like a leisurely Sunday afternoon ride then
the hills began. The first break stop was at 32 miles at a nice Country store which had sandwiches and pleasant folks to visit. All the old geezers as usual arrived fairly close together. Thus we had our sandwiches and snacks while marveling at the beauty of the distant mountains. They might not be so marvelous once we have to start climbing them.
After the nice break we all set off on at our own pace, of course I immediately fell to the rear. The next 16 miles were all up with an average grade of 6%. My speed on the climb was between 3 ½ – 5 ½ mile per hour, I didn’t find the climb to be all that difficult physically but mentally it was monotonous. It did give me an opportunity to stop and take pictures so that was good. The last 10 miles was mostly downhill and allowing me to raise my average speed for the day to 9.9 mph.
Storm clouds passed ahead of me
Westcliff was a quaint little community with a business district about 6 blocks long with
boutique and tourist type shops as well as a few restaurants. I stopped at one place the Wine Mine and met Ingrid the bartender and waitress combination. The menu selection had only two entrees and there was a sausage appetizer special of the day which I tried along with having two Laughing Lab amber beers from a brewery located in Colorado Springs, kept one bottle for my beer bottle collection back home. There was a nice selection of wine offerings but skipped trying any of them as I would go over budget. Ended up going to a local bowling alley for dinner as it had a better selection of food choices and reasonable prices, unfortunately I ordered a hot beef sandwich that was
sub-par, you get what you pay for. They did have an excellent strawberry rhubarb pie that made up for the entrée.
Skelton Guard at a Hot Dog stand along road
Our camp this evening is 3 miles off route and I rode out to it with Aaron and Trish. We were the last 3 to arrive and finding a level spot to set-up our tents was non-existent. I went over to an RV camper and introduced myself to the couple occupying it, Steve and Kathryn from Lousiana and asked if I might pitch my tent on the grass pad next to their camper which they agreed, too. Found they were on vacation and heading to the Salmon River for a few days of wild water rubber rafting a favorite sport of theirs. Since my family and I have done a fair amount of rafting over the years the Louisianans have been on many of the same rivers and were able to share stories of those adventures. Shortly after my tent was up Mark the owner of the campground came over and told me my tent had to come down as tents are notallowed on the grass. He further advised me I needed to be with my group not taking space away from another camper. I told Mark the folks had invited me to be their guest. Next Kathryn said I could pitch my tent right next to their camper on the dirt pad for tents. Not wanting to cause more problems I went to Mark and told him of this offer before relocating my tent to the pad. Mark was very short and said, “Now they are trying to run my campground. They signed a contract which clearly states only one camper per campsite”. He acted like he was going to throw Steve and Kathryn out of his campground. I quickly told him, “Mark this is why I’m here asking you if setting up on their dirt pad is Ok before doing it”. This calmed him down and as a consolation to me he said I could pay him $15.00 instead of $20.00 to place my tent on the adjacent campsite. I declined his offer and thanked him for his considerations. I then went to our group area and placed my tent almost on top of four other tents clustered in a very tiny area, our tents being only a foot or soapart. If you are ever camping in Westcliff, I highly recommend NOT staying at the Grape Creek Campground 3 miles south on Hwy. 69. The facility is interested in your money but not being friendly or civil.
It was after 10 before I had my tent relocated and taken a shower. I was exhausted and went to bed leaving this journal day until I had time two days later.
Cattle ranch
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