For some reason, my heart wasn’t quite in it today. I only had 49 miles to ride, but I was struggling to keep moving.
Although there were a few small towns on my route before I got to Pueblo, there were no open stores or restaurants.
I finally stopped, unpacked my camp chair, and just sat beside the road, among the cactus, reading, for thirty minutes, while cars whizzed past. After sitting in the sun for a while, I felt better and got back on my bike and trudged to Pueblo.
The tracks that paralleled the highway through almost all of Colorado so far suddenly carried freight trains. Every 30 minutes or so, one would go by. I saw two very long coal trains, reminding me that western Colorado still has active coal mines.
Tomorrow, I will be leaving the TransAm for an out-and-back trip to Taos, New Mexico. I have been depending on ACA maps since I started, so this will be a new experience.
This morning, I caught my first sight of the Rocky Mountains. Despite riding 50 miles toward them, they still appear distant, shrouded by haze. I will be in them in two days, when I cross the continental divide for the first time on La Veta Pass.
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