Day 48, Canon City to Pueblo, CO

Miles – 51

Miles From Start/To Finish – 2,115/2,113~

Ave Riding Speed – 5-25 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 5.75

Weather – Sunny w/Smokey Haze and 93

Kim and I talked about getting an early start today and we did a pretty good job. We got up at 6:30am. I make a single cup motel room coffee and Kim walk to the lobby for a coffee with powdered crème. They let us know when we checked in the advertised breakfast was a no-go. We showered, packed and wheeled our bikes out the front door of the Econ Lodge at 8:15am. The sun was shining, but it was hiding somewhere behind the smokey haze.

We rode over a street off of the main drag through town, Hwy 50 going east, and rode parallel to the high level of traffic. From looking at our map I figured we come across Hwy 115 going east, our route out of town, but somehow, we missed the turn. As we continued on Hwy 50, now going northeast, I saw that we could make the adjustment. As we neared the end of town, Kim yelled out from behind me, “Deer!” We were riding the shoulder of the 4-lane highway and I was two deer in the ditch on the opposite side of the highway, and they were heading straight for us. The traffic heading both directions had to slow down quickly and we had to break. 2 mule deer, both of them bucks with nice velvet covered racks, ran right in front of us. It was a crazy start to the day.

We rode uphill out of town for 6 miles and caught Hwy 67 heading south and had a nice downhill ride into Florence 3 miles. We stopped at the Loaf N Jug convenience store for a bottle of water and a package of cheese and crackers. We got back on Hwy 67 for 11 miles heading to Wetmore. This section of the ride included a 900 feet climb into Wetmore. It felt good to be able to ride it the entire way up.

Upon arriving in Wetmore we turned left at the “T’, picking up Hwy 96 heading east. There wasn’t much of a shoulder early on, but for most of the morning there was little traffic. During the 30-mile ride to Pueblo we began to notice these large grasshoppers on the road. They seemed like they were dormant or waiting for the sun to warm up, because they barely moved as we rode over them. They also seemed to be feeding on the grasshoppers that had been hit by the highway vehicles. At one point we stopped and Kim took a close-up picture of them so send to our grandkids.

We new we were getting close to Pueblo as we could see the Pueblo Reservoir off in the distance to the north of us. Our route circumvented getting close enough to be able to see the water level. When we road into to Pueblo Kim checked the address of the hotel and I plugged it in to my map app and we rode 1.5 miles to the south end of town and found our home for the next 2 nights, The Hampton Inn. We’re taking a rest day tomorrow.

We checked in at 2pm and they had a room ready for us on the 2^nd floor. Nice that they had an elevator! First thing on the agenda was food. We could either do the grocery store our find a place to eat. We decided the grocery store would be the most economical and there wasn’t any place to eat within walking distance. Kim tried to get an Uber, but there were no takers, so we decided to try the scooters, by Bird, sitting out front of the motel. Kim figured out the app instructions and we were off.

We scootered to Walmart down the road a mile for groceries and figured we’d walk back. When we entered the store, I felt agitated from the site of everything on the shelves. I wanted to grab things off the shelf, open it and eat or drink it right in the isle. We picked up some sandwich meat, cheese, buns, lettuce, dressing, potato salad, chips, salsa, pickles and some White Claw.

With all the groceries I had resigned to the idea that we would be walking back to the hotel. Once we went through the self-serve register and walked outside it was noticeably hot and there to the side sat our scooters. I said, “I think we can do this.” Kim agreed and we scootered back to the hotel at a much slower rate than our initial run.

When we got to the room I headed for the pickles. I love pickle juice! Kim went to put a load of laundry in and stopped at the front desk to see if we could get some paper plates and plastic wear. They were very helpful and grabbed what we needed. Also, yesterday was the first day back of the hotel offering their full breakfast. We’re looking forward to that.

As I mentioned, tomorrow is a rest day. We’ll regroup, rest our bodies and reset our minds. The next few maps don’t have the elevation visuals, so we’re assuming that we’ll be riding downhill from Pueblo, elevation 4,692, to less climbing. At this point it’s hard to imagine being bored riding across the plains. We really looking forward to it.

We are doing a podcast tomorrow morning, Living In Carver County, with our friend and local realtor, Greg Anderson. We raised our family in Carver County and have lived there for 28 years. The podcast is an insiders guide to the people and places that make Carver County Minnesota a fantastic place to live and work and raise a family. I’ll let you know when it airs and post a link on our blog.