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The TransAmerica Trail – Colorado
Eads, CO – Ordway, CO
62 miles
July 9, 2006
Today I slept in and went to the small diner next door for breakfast, where I had my usual pancakes and coffee. I didn’t leave there and start riding until about 11:30. I tried my radio, and for some reason it worked just fine. Highlights of the songs I heard were Spencer Davis Group Gimme Some Lovin, CSN Carry On, CCR Hey Tonight, and that new Black Horse and Cherry Tree song. Did you know that the lead vocalist on the Spencer Davis hit was Steve Wynnewood, at a mere 15 years old? And believe it or not, I heard John Denver Rocky Mountain High! I can’t see the Rockies yet, but I know they’re close.
Today’s ride was mostly through more empty nothingness. The only difference between here and western Kansas is that I’m now riding through some very gently rolling foothills, and gradually gaining elevation. Like I said – I can’t see the mountains, and the land is mostly flat, so you can see for miles in all directions. It has the effect of being on a plateau, and the vegetation has changed from wheat fields to endless scrub looking grass. When I enter the towns in Colorado, the usual signs that say “City Limit” now also have the elevation, and everything is at 4500 feet or so. To put that into perspective, the highest peaks in the Appalachians, Mt. Mitchell and Mt. Washington for example, are just over 6,000 feet. The Blue Mountain ridge in Pennsylvania sits at about 1,500… and here I am at 4500 in the flat, wide parts of Colorado. The high peaks of the Rockies are mostly around 14,000 feet.
The weather called for scattered storms today, and I observed some of those storms around me as I rode, mostly passing to the north. Somehow I was lucky enough to stay in a dry corridor until around 4pm, when I saw a fat column of rain approaching from the west, and I was headed straight for it. At this point I was five miles east of Ordway, and I rode hard straight toward the cloud, hoping to reach town before it did.
I came to a gas station just as it started to significantly rain, and within five minutes it was heavily pouring and blowing. I made myself comfortable at a little booth inside the station, enjoying some snacks, and the guy behind the counter had the local weather alert playing on two tvs. “There’s a tornado in Pueblo,” he told me. Great – I’m headed that way! I guess not anymore.
So I spent 1-2 hours there in the station, watching the local news channel as people who had seen the tornado called in to the tv station with their reports. Pueblo is 45 miles west of here, and the storm was moving east at 10-15 mph. Tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, whoo-hoo. There’s a mini little flash flood on the road just outside the window for a few minutes.
So there’s an old building in town called The Ordway Hotel, and I head over there when the rain dies. It’s an old rooming house type place, so fortunately the room was cheap. I checked in and watched a PBS program that had a little something about the Appalachian Trail, and headed out to get something to eat. The storm had passed and there was a rainbow in the sky – the nastiest storms must have passed to the north. I almost regretted that I didn’t continue riding.
It’s Sunday evening and the only thing open in town is a bar – the only people there are the bartender, a guy at the bar, and a woman playing the Megatouch machine. The weird thing is, on the tv they’re blasting a DVD of what appears to be ABBA’s greatest hits videos. Could this be a gay bar? It would only be fitting, with the rainbow in the sky. I have two bottles of Bud, a small personal pizza, and get the heck out of there. Nobody really talked to me or tried to start a conversation.
I fell asleep relatively early tonight. Life is good.
an anthill to along the road. I dropped a penny for scale.
storms to the north
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