Best Western Cow Palace Inn Lamar

We left Alamosa, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and the sight of several Colorado 14ers. From an elevation of 7544 feet in Alamosa, we drove through La Junta, Colorado, elevation 4052 feet at about 10:00 am. It was just a few more miles to Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. We made it just as a tour bus was unloading, so we tagged along with their tour. This fort was a fur trading ...

... than a few. The first night I was a little lax with my screen because the mosquitos didn't seem to be a problem, and I noticed a few more moths. The next morning I unfolded a chair that sat outside all night to find it covered - I mean COVERED - with moth's huddled inside. I thot, "that's odd". Then I found the same thing with a towel I had left out ...

... along side 4 other RV's . it felt good to be there with other people who also were there for the night. It was getting very windy so we decidedto park in front of an obscenely large RV to get some protection from the wind. As we parked a little VW like Steve's old one re-parked in front of us - thinking we might give him some protection too. It was quite funny seeing us all lined up, end to end, in size order!

A shorter days cycling, though still almost 90 miles passed relatively uneventfully and we arrived in Rush Center in desperate need of a shower. As it turned out we were camping in the 'town' park, with a river and a bench by way of facilities. That night proved to be remarkably hot and humid, and few of got much sleep. As we lay in the tent the ...

We rose early with the prospect of motel waffles, not the 105 miles ahead, at the forefront of our minds. The morning flew past in a sugary blur thanks to the huge breakfast and our first tailwind on the plains; we were flying along. As warned, however, the lower we got in Kansas the more humid it became and we found the last 20 miles into Scott City especially exhausting. Camping ...

We left Pueblo and the Rockies behind us and set our eyes on a flat 115 miles due East. Lunch and a welcome refill of drinks was planned for a modest 55 miles into the day, given that temperatures were in the mid-90s. After, 80 miles with no food and just two small water bottles each, the cyclists began to feel just a little miffed, so decided to take to the shade and seek ...

Hi folks! We're back again having cycled a further 286miles. It's been eventful since leaving Amarillo. First we got flagged doon by a Police car because we'd been cycling on an Interstate for a short distance to get out of Amarillo, AND THAT'S ILLEGAL. OOPS! 25 miles on we took a wrong turn and after 5 miles thought we'd made a mistake. We stopped a pick-up ...

... and businesses. We walked through a mock of what Dodge City looked like in the olden days. There was a demonstration of a shoot out. After that, we headed for Colorado. Outside of Dodge City was an area to stop to look at tracks left over from the Sante Fe Trail. When we stopped, the radiator overflowed. Something malfunctioned, but it still ran so we continued on. Again, I'll have to borrow Uncle Bill's pictures ...