Day 13 - Buena Vista to Walsenburg

I managed to spend most of last night not sleeping. This meant I woke up feeling tired and a bit cranky.

Instead of riding with the fastest folks (Dan, Brian and Ann), I chose to ride with my new friends the California girls Lori and Jeanine. We had a lovely 50 mile slight downhill with a tailwind along the Arkansas river. Several times, we all talked about getting off of our bikes and joining one of the white water rafting trips on the river instead. Even though we were all complaining about having ridden so many miles, and still having more to do, we all wouldn't change it for anything.

Lunch today was in Westcliffe, CO which apparently has an Amish community. Check out the photos for proof. It reminded me a bit of one of the old wild west towns. I half expected to see Clint Eastwood ride into town although, he probably would have been knocked down by one of the SUV's driving down Main St.

We skirted the east side of the Rockies for most of the day with a lovely tailwind and then suddenly, the mother of all headwinds appeared with about 25 miles to go. I'm not talking a little wispy headwind but the kind where you are lucky to stay upright on your bike. When I got to the final rest stop, I threw my gloves in the air and they blew about 30 feet away... Ugh.

We finally rolled into Walsenburg. OK, I use that term literally as we are in a 50's style motel about 2 miles out of town. It reminds me of the Bates motel in Psycho. The effect was furthered by the old 1968 Chevelle parked in the lot.

Tomorrow whould be interesting. I had a quick look at the Weather Channel and they have a tornado watch for some of the counties we are riding through tomorrow. Looks like we will finally get some rain... and then some..

One last note, Jeanine gave me some special drugs so I can sleep tonight. I expect to be really groggy or flying tomorrow. We'll see. Hopefully the flying isn't because of the tornadoes.

Signing out. Off to get the shuttle for an early dinner in the real Walsenburg. I'm not holding out for a Thai restaurant but, wish me luck.

Postscript. We got shuttled into Walsenburg for dinner to the local steakhouse. From the outside, it looked a bit like a concrete bunker. Opening up the front door and we saw a live cockroach lying on it's back. We quickly turned round to head back to the shuttle van only to see it peeling out of the parking lot. So, we ventured inside. It actually turned out to be pretty good and they sold more than just Coors, Bud and Miller.