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The TransAmerica Trail – Colorado
Hot Sulphur Springs, CO – Granby, CO
20 miles
July 17, 2006
The campground last night was near train tracks along the Colorado River. A few trains rumbled by as I drifted to sleep. Feeling the ground vibrate, with my hitchhiker-friend one campsite over, made me truly feel “on the road.”
A chain of small decisions ended up making me call it yet another short day today. For breakfast I went to this small place in Hot Sulpher Springs, called The Sportsman’s Cafe, and had biscuits and gravy instead of the usual pancakes. The woman that worked there was talking to a regular customer – I wasn’t paying attention, because I think I was writing up the prior day’s journal entry. The woman suddenly asked me, “What do you do?” like for work.
“Nothing for now.”
“Do you want to learn to cook?”
It turned out that the girl who works weekends at the restaurant just quit, and here I was considering stopping to work here for a week. It would have been ideal – free camping in town, an easy opportunity for money that came to me by chance, doing the only vocation I’ve done all my life, and being able to live in a small town in my favorite state thus far… not to mention, a full week off at over 7,000 feet may render me into Superman Cyclist when I get back into the saddle, but I learned that the restaurant doesn’t need any help until Friday. Today was Monday.
It wouldn’t have been viable if I had to wait around until then, but since I was stuck on the idea, I looked around town for other work I could do during the week. I couldn’t find anything, and gave up on it.
Back at camp, I learned that my hitchhiker friend had a job lined up bar tending at the only bar in town. This sealed the deal for me – I think two vagrant squatters at the same time may have been a bit much for this small community, so I told my friend about the cooking opportunity and hit the road.
In the short distance of about ten miles, I came to the next town, Granby, slightly off route. I technically didn’t need anything in town, and could have just blown right by, but I thought they should have a library there – with a population of 1,500 – three times that of Hot Sulpher Springs. So I went and they had a nice new library with an unlimited internet time limit as long as nobody was waiting, and I uploaded the latest pictures and entries. When I left the library, I found that the weather had taken a turn toward the more ominous, with rain clouds and visible and lightning strikes headed my way.
I rode out of town, thinking that my northbound route may beat the storm, and got two miles to the junction with route 125 when I observed the sky, making me think again. There was a “wildlife viewing area” here by a small lake, set up like a highway rest stop, so I took shelter there and decided to wait it out. I tuned in to the radio and relaxed, hearing neil young comes a time, gordon lightfoot sundown (I love that song), the guess who no time, some beach boys, and joe cocker. I also figured out why the radio was giving me trouble before – I had it clipped on to the front of my shorts, and it appears that dried salt from my sweat was getting into the electrical parts, causing it to malfunction. Nice.
I ended up waiting around under this shelter for over an hour and a half only to see the skies grow darker, and rain continued to fall. It was a cold front moving through at a slow crawl. Great. The TransAm Trail goes ten miles from here on route 125 up to Willow Creek Pass, crossing the Continental Divide again, with a total of 50 miles to the next substantial town, Walden. I can ride in chilly, windy conditions, but especially over the pass, I figured why should I if I don’t have to? By this time it was 4:30pm, and I went back to Granby for the night. Slacker.
Tonight for dinner I went to a restaurant with an assortment of international food (Italian, German, etc.), and had a large pizza. It came with a squeeze bottle of honey. I was like “What’s this all about?” The waitress told me the honey is supposed to be for the crust. I tried it and it actually tasted great. You ought to try it next time you have pizza with a doughy, soft crust. I sit and eat the whole large pizza, astonishing the waitress. “I’m traveling on my bike – I burn a lot of calories,” I explained, and pointed out the tan lines from my gloves. Life is good.
waiting out the storm
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