Day 20 -- Salida, CO to Pueblo, CO

Miles: 103.94
Total Miles: 1469.86
Time: 6:10
Average Speed: 16.8 mph
Max Speed: 41.0 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 7
Elevation Gain: 3025 ft
Weather: Tail winds most of the day around 95 degrees

We thought yesterday was amazing, but it was nothing compared to today. The first 50 miles were the best 50 miles I've ever ridden in my life. We thought 61 pictures was a lot yesterday, but we took 70 pictures today. Adding to the beauty was a nice tail wind... It completed the greatness of the day. We woke up around 5:00, loaded at 5:45, then went to breakfast at the Patio Pancakes. It was a good breakfast, and we were the first ones out because Fran had to make it to Pueblo by 2:30 to see his wife and son. It was rather cold at first, but it didn't even take 5 miles to warm up. In that first five miles, we began on adventure in utter magnificence. We followed the Arkansas River for 50 miles, and almost the entire time we were in a canyon. We were spoiled by how beautiful it was.

We started following the Arkansas river at about mile 1, but not until about mile 3 did we come to the really cool stuff. When we turned the first corner around a mountain and the river came into view with the cliffs on the sides, we all said the same thing at the same time... WOW. Obviously we took a picture, but like everything else, it got better the further we got. Maybe by the end of the trip we'll realize that the first awesome site we see won't be the best. Oh well, that's why we have 70 pictures. Anyway, we continued around the next cliff about a half of a mile up, and once again we all said, "WOW." We stopped and took a picture. When we went around the next cliff about a half of a mile further, we all said, "Wow." I guess the third time's the charm because we didn't stop that time. After we got around the next cliff, we looked out to our right away from the river and we all stopped again. There were snow capped mountains out to our right. This is what it was like for about the first 50 miles. The Arkansas River to our left with our road beside it bending around cliffs, and snow capped mountains to our right. How much better can you get? To top it all off, we had a tail wind, so the riding was easy too.

We rode into the first sag stop completely in awe and having the time of our lives. When we got there, I looked to my right just to check out the gorgeous scenery some more, and up on the mountain I saw about 5 mountain goats. I told everyone else, and immediately everyone got out there cameras and started taking pictures of them. For an old man like me, I have pretty good eyesight. Wade zoomed in on them and took a picture, but it's hard to see the mountain goats because they blend in with the rocks, so I'm not going to post it. Anyway, we got out of the sag stop fast because Fran was in a hurry to get back and see his wife. There was an optional route today that went up to Royal Gorge, and we were planning on doing it. The would add 8 miles to the total, which would put us over a century, there would be about 2,000 more feet of steep climbing, but the views would be amazing. Since Fran was in a hurry, the only way we could get him to go with us would be to hustle out of the sag stop. We got out fast, and Fran decided to do it.

We got to mile 50 where the optional route broke off, and we broke off with it. We rode about 2 miles before we started to climb, and those 2 miles were tough because the road was so rough. When we started to climb, it was definitely a climb. We hit a 15 to 20 percent grade and I felt like my heart was just going to blow out of my chest. I was breathing as fast as I could imagine, working as hard as I could, going as slow as I could, and Wade was behind me laughing and taking pictures of me climbing. His foot unclipped twice, so at one point he was riding with a camera in one hand, one foot on a pedal, and unable to change gears because of the camera in his hand... How was he doing it? I had to stop half way up a 0.3 mile steep section the way it was. He did get some good pictures though. We climbed for about 4 miles, I took quite a few breaks, we had to walk around a gate that said the park wasn't open, and we caught up with the fast guys. They claim that they were held up because the park wasn't open, but I bet I'm just that fast. There was only 6 of us brave enough to do this side trip.

The park opened right when we got to the top because it took us an hour to climb, then came more awe and wonder. We first had to go through a tourist trap, but just past that was an outlook post. The Royal Gorge was amazing. I can't explain it in words how gorgeous it was, but we tried to take a bunch of pictures and videos to help out.

After the lookout, we went down to the main attraction. It's the highest suspension bridge in the United States, it's made of wood, and it moves in the wind. We took some pictures before we got on the bridge, harassed Fran for being afraid of heights, then walked our bikes across it. We went as slow as possible to take as much in as we could, but we couldn't stay too long because Fran had to get to his wife in Pueblo. We all know that it would be bad news if he was late. We finished taking a bunch of pictures, then we began our descent back to our regular route. We had a nice downhill on the route right when we got back on, then we began our rolling terrain.

We had 15 miles of up and down all the way to our second sag stop. We didn't stay too long there, then we moved on into the heat. It was about 95 degrees all the way back to our hotel. We filled up with ice cold water at the sag stop, and not even 10 miles past it our water was very warm. Just about 5 miles past that, our water was no longer warm... It was hot. I could have put a coffee packet into my water bottle and had some hot coffee to drink. Wade was drinking his water and said, "Oww... I burnt my tongue." We eventually made it to Pueblo and got off of the busy road. Once we got off, we spotted a Dairy Queen. Fran went on to get to his wife while we quickly ate an ice cream cone. Before we went in, I took off my do-rag, which was soaked with sweat. It wasn't even 10 minutes before we came back out, and it was dry. That's one large difference between heat here and in Ohio. In Ohio, it would have taken 3 days for that to dry, but here it took about 10 minutes. Anyway, we finished the last mile to the hotel, got our luggage and headed upstairs to our air-conditioned room. Later that night, we met up with my sister Debbie, my niece Meaghan, and my brother-in-law Tom. We'll be with them tomorrow since it's a rest day, and hopefully we'll be able to watch USA against Ghana, GO USA. Just like Salt Lake City, we need the rest tomorrow for both our legs and our butts!!!