I can now see the Rocky Mountains looming on the horizon! Today it is Independence Day and we have made it to Pueblo, Colorado, which is a decent sized town, so we are going to have a rest day tomorrow. There are firework bans in the state due to the fires, but we have heard that there will be a display in the town, so looking forward to that.
Pueblo seems quite an interesting place, and has a large Hispanic community. I spent a day in LA with my last job, and it reminds me of being there. All of us are staying in a motel, with TV and AC, so it is great for chilling out (literally).
The last couple of days have been very interesting. Eastern Colorado has been very remote and almost looks like the desert, with a scorched landscape. The towns we have been going through have obviously seen better days, and I am guessing many have lost population due to lots of empty houses.
The weather has generally been very hot and it is very dry, so you are advised to breathe through your nose, otherwise your mouth gets very dry. A couple of days ago, I was cycling on my own, and was not carrying enough water, so I learnt the hard way that even hot water is better than nothing at all!
Yesterday, a group of us decided to push on from the main camp as it meant that there would be less mileage for today, and the town the camp was in had no facilities. The ride was fine, but we could see storm clouds building on the horizon. An hour in, we were hit by 45 mph crosswinds and lightening! It was quite an experience. A siren also went off briefly, which we thought meant a tornado, but it turned out to be just a daily memorial of the light curfew during WWII at 8pm (they were afraid of Japanese bombers). In that kind of wind, we were leaning right over to the side and it was a bit gnarly! Add in a puncture as well.
On that note, punctures seem to be a recurrence at this stage of the trip. I had my first one before leaving Kansas. When entering Colorado, I got another puncture and so did Laura and James! It seems that the grass here is full of thorns, so one must never leave the tarmac. We are getting through tubes like there is no tomorrow! And it is not only us - we helped a cyclist going the other way today - upholding the cycle touring community team spirit.
Yesterday I met two Dutch tourers who live in Amsterdam and had bought their bikes from the famous cycle touring shop in town which specialises only in touring. It is funny because I used to regularly visit that shop, drawling over the equipment they had, and actually purchased by front rack and panniers there - it is a small world!
By the way, it is worth a note that today we saw (and crazily captured in a jar) a tarantula hawk wasp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk). It was massive and if you read the wiki page, it apparently hunts the spiders to lay its larvae in! Note that the spider is kept alive while the larvae eat it - mother nature is brutal sometimes!
So, tomorrow is a rest day and the last day with the charity group. They head west, we head north. I cannot wait to get into the Rockies, not just for the scenery, but to get out of the heat. News from other cyclist going the other way is that the fires will not stop us.
Photos will follow soon hopefully! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
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