Day 49: New Horizons
Posted by the girls on Sunday, May 22, 2011
We recently changed from Central Time to Mountain Time and are still getting used to it. Michelle woke up and looked at her clock (that had not been changed) thinking it was time to get ready. It really was only 6:30am, but that was okay. Rebekah and Emily followed suit and started packing up their things as well.
It was a good thing that we got on the road early because a headwind slowed us down. The terrain was very similar to what we've had the past few days (mainly flat with a slow, steady incline). But today, there was something new on the horizon: mountains! There are quite a sight to behold, especially thinking about having to bike over/through them.
Also, for the past couple of days, Emily has been experiencing a leaky tire. It was such a slow leak that she pumped it up in the morning and it would hold throughout the day. Today, however, it decided to die. We didn't have any new tubes left, so we had to patch up our old ones. We patched the original tire, but it still was leaking, so we patched up another one. That did the trick.
We also saw a lot of wildlife today. We saw 2 deer in the distance and later on 6 deer very near to us. We also happened upon a prairie dog colony. In addition, we saw/heard lots of birds, cats, dogs, donkeys, llamas, and cattle.
When we were only 6 miles from our destination, we needed to stop to refill our water bottles. It was getting hot and we were drinking at a faster rate than usual. The only place open in Sugar City, CO was a bar. We went inside and were immediately greeted by an extremely outgoing (and most likely drunk) woman. She called herself "Smooches" and loved chatting to us. We were in a hurry to get to Ordway though, so we left pretty quickly.
A few miles down the road, a car drove by us and we heard people screaming at us (not too unusual). When we looked, it was a convertible and there was Smooches completely nude from the waist up. I guess she really liked us...
When we reached Ordway, CO (62 miles total), we went to Hotel Ordway. This is a neat place that has private rooms and rooms with shared bathrooms. We opted for the shared bathrooms (which were private since no one else was staying there). The only restaurant we found was connected to the truck stop. Their pizza was better than we had imagined it would be. And yes, we did get showers; what a wonderful treat after missing them yesterday!
It was a good thing that we got on the road early because a headwind slowed us down. The terrain was very similar to what we've had the past few days (mainly flat with a slow, steady incline). But today, there was something new on the horizon: mountains! There are quite a sight to behold, especially thinking about having to bike over/through them.
Also, for the past couple of days, Emily has been experiencing a leaky tire. It was such a slow leak that she pumped it up in the morning and it would hold throughout the day. Today, however, it decided to die. We didn't have any new tubes left, so we had to patch up our old ones. We patched the original tire, but it still was leaking, so we patched up another one. That did the trick.
We also saw a lot of wildlife today. We saw 2 deer in the distance and later on 6 deer very near to us. We also happened upon a prairie dog colony. In addition, we saw/heard lots of birds, cats, dogs, donkeys, llamas, and cattle.
When we were only 6 miles from our destination, we needed to stop to refill our water bottles. It was getting hot and we were drinking at a faster rate than usual. The only place open in Sugar City, CO was a bar. We went inside and were immediately greeted by an extremely outgoing (and most likely drunk) woman. She called herself "Smooches" and loved chatting to us. We were in a hurry to get to Ordway though, so we left pretty quickly.
A few miles down the road, a car drove by us and we heard people screaming at us (not too unusual). When we looked, it was a convertible and there was Smooches completely nude from the waist up. I guess she really liked us...
When we reached Ordway, CO (62 miles total), we went to Hotel Ordway. This is a neat place that has private rooms and rooms with shared bathrooms. We opted for the shared bathrooms (which were private since no one else was staying there). The only restaurant we found was connected to the truck stop. Their pizza was better than we had imagined it would be. And yes, we did get showers; what a wonderful treat after missing them yesterday!
