The Kindness Of Strangers

 

Along with liberal helpings of inch thick pancakes and eggs and bacon - your donations give us the motivation to keep going, so keep 'em coming! Spread the word.

5 burgers, 0 miles = Good Rest! Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~Mark Twain

Today was our first real rest day since the 4th April. We lay in till 8, then ate all the doughnuts at our hotel's breakfast, before retiring back to bed. We spent the morning sorting out laundry, and emailing, and working out where it will be best to go white-water rafting.

At 1 we went for lunch in Taco Bell, a mexican fast food chain. While munching on the burrito's we got chatting to Lynn and Eric, who started talking to us because we were both wearing our ride T-shirts - Big thank you to Serena and Johnny for the T-shirts! After some chatting about us and what we were doing, we left Taco Bell with a donation for autism and an invite to dinner!

At 4.30, after a lot more admin - we set off for barbecued burgers in a Chilli Sauce - with Pueblo Green Peppers - apparently a delicacy not to be missed while in Pueblo. It was amazing - great to have lots of well cooked home food, and even better to chat to a very nice family and their friends, about everything from Pueblo and its beautiful environs, to whether or not we have peanut butter and ketchup in England!

Huge Thank you to all of you - it was great to meet you.

Time for bed now - we will go up highway 50 tomorrow, through Canon city, towards Salida, dodging the Adventure Cycling maps in the hope of finding some White water rafting at Canon City (as well as avoiding a 5000ft climb - postponing the inevitable.)

We say good bye to Highway 96 tomorrow, a quiet highway which we have followed for 335 miles and many, many hours! Highway 96 was like an empty dance floor - flat and deserted, but with the potential for fun when you stop. Among those we have met along the way are someone who has lived at the South Pole for a year, an SAS sniper, and a man in a liquor store who said "No Kidding", and then burst out laughing more than 20 times in 10 minutes. We also had a car overtake us using the ditchside, not the road.

I am really looking forward to the scenic mountains of Western Colorado, however much snow we have to go through. I will bear in mind along the way that "Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” as well as the old favourite in endurance sports - "Pain is weakness leaving the body!" - Tough climbs ahead, but the views should be worth it.