Day 45 Tailwind Out Of Wyoming And Into Colorado

Krista and Margaret from the Bear Trap Cafe in Riverside, WY

Margaret gave Gregory a BEAR TRAP CAFE cap for his birthday that is coming up on September 8th!

We love the downhills!

Goodbye Wyoming! (I had to cross the street for this one...)

Hello Colorado! (Our 5th state)

Mike takes a rest at the Colorado sign.

Gregory picks up one more Wyoming plate (#7) before we leave the state and just over the border he finds his first Colorado plate!

This is on the back of Mike's jersey that I look at every day.

EAT, BREATHE, DRINK, PEDAL

It is oh so true!

This is our cycling club back home...Chico VELO.

We met Doug, Cole and Sonny pedaling East and shared our Ritz PB&J sandwiches with them. Sonny had a Colorado license plate also!

Dinner in front of the Supers Market 1 mile outside Walden, CO.

We ate a whole chicken, chips and Pico de Gallo salsa, red grapes, a half gallon of skim milk (Dorrie), Vitamin Water and Fresca!

The heavenly Walden, CO indoor heated pool. It was 87 degrees F and sheer bliss.

Date: Sept. 2, 2009

From: Riverside, WY

To: Walden, CO

Route: Hwy 230/Hwy 125

Passes:

Miles: 51 miles

Top Speed on this trip: 49.2 mph (New record today!)

Weather: Nice day until they last 9 miles from Cowdrey to Walden (windy and sprinkles)

License Plates Collected: 5 Montana plates, 7 Wyoming plates (2 motorcycle) and 1 Idaho plate (found in WY), 1 Colorado plate (Found today, first day in state)

Wyoming sent us out with a nice tailwind blowing us across the border into Colorado and we landed in Walden. We felt really good about all of the climbing we did today including a couple of 9% grades and several 7% grades. We were definitely working but we did it. I made every effort to keep my discomforts to myself and I was doing fine until the last 9 miles out of Cowdrey and into Walden. We’d stopped in Cowdrey (not much of a town except for a complex of rustic cabins) in hopes of finding water and as fate would have it we met a lady in her truck waiting for her husband to come out of the wilderness from a bow-hunting trip that day. She had a couple of gallons of water in her truck and filled us up. It started to sprinkle and we took shelter under an overhang of what seemed to be the main building of the cabins and out came a man to use his cell phone. We later introduced ourselves to Phil whose son was in escrow to buy the cabins and talked at length about various areas of Colorado. (He is partial to the Fort Collins and Loveland areas but also likes Denver.)

Anyhow, I didn’t know I was “done” until we were a few miles out of Cowdrey and we got hit by wind and light rain with a continuous string of rollers (hills). Mike started to get cranky as he does when the wind makes you feel like you aren’t going anywhere and you can’t push the pedals hard enough. Greg and I were giving it our all but it wasn’t enough. Suffice it to say that we did make it to Walden but it wasn’t pretty.

I almost started to cry and if it weren’t for the grocery store a mile this side of town I probably wouldn’t have made it. We went in for cold drinks and came out with a whole broasted chicken, tortilla chips, Pico de Gallo salsa, red grapes, and a half-gallon of skim milk, Vitamin Water and Fresca. We sat right outside the store and chowed down. I drank almost the entire carton of milk on my own.

We limped into town and were greeted by the beautiful Vic & Sigrid Hanson Memorial Park just across from the school and football field where the players were practicing. All Greg and I wanted to do was hit the indoor pool and showers but Mike wanted to set up first. We couldn’t agree where to set up camp so I just went off to check on pool hours and came back to find Mike in the same position, planted on a picnic table bench. Gregory was happily playing on their colorful playground equipment. I gave Mike a kiss; we apologized and started fresh agreeing on a site and setting up camp. Sometimes it just takes a moment apart to gain some perspective.

The pool was open until 10 P.M. and we had it all to ourselves. It was 87 degrees and heavenly as were the hot showers afterwards. We probably would have slept soundly except for the fact that the school is getting new light fixtures and from 9 P.M. until about midnight they were hucking these huge metal fixtures into trucks and making quite a ruckus. Finally asleep I awoke to an immobilizing leg cramp and flashbacks of my childhood. I thrashed, massaged and inhaled as much oxygen as I could until I could finally settle back into a fitful sleep until morning.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Gregory received an early birthday present from Margaret at the Bear Trap Café in Riverside. When she heard it was his birthday she went off and came back with a really cool embroidered baseball cap that says “Bear Trap Café Riverside, Wyoming POP 59.” He was thrilled of course and has been wearing it every chance he gets.