Day 35: Sheridan Lake, CO to Ordway, CO (88 miles) Day 36: Ordway, CO to Pueblo West (65 miles)

The first real day in Colorado wasn't much different than much of Kansas. Flat, towns every 30 miles. A good time to think about things or listen to music from the speaker on my iPhone. As such, it was so nice to stay with Gillian and Mark at their house in Ordway. Gillian's place is known as a safe haven for cyclists across the TransAm trail; she's a lively Kiwi who's done her own share of travelling, biking, hiking and sailing herself. When we arrived, some other folks were over to barbeque. We were able to grab some meat for burger and beer and jump right in. Gillian has a small farm and takes in WWOOF'ers, so we got to see all types of birds and goats and other exciting things. The small converted motor home that they let cyclists stay in also has the most comfortable mattresses ever. The next day we helped them move some telephone poles and chatted about stories for awhile. As we left, Gillian gave me solid hug #2 for the trip, and we moved on to West Pueblo.

In Pueblo, we did the usual things we do when we're in a town with a population over 5000 people and we don't have a place to stay. Hung out at the bike shop to inflate our tires, ate the local diner specialty (the slopper, a cheeseburger "soup" if you will), drank a beer or two, went to Wal-mart, setup camp at the local RV park. The only difference, of course, is that memorial day weekend is one of the few weekends that Americans like to "'Merican", so the RV park was packed with old drunk dudes playing terrible country rap, which luckily didn't keep us up too late. We were settled up at 5066 feet, and called it a night.

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