Day 24 - Pueblo to Eads - Flat, flat, flat

Last night I went to the Japanese place, Momo, across the parking lot.  Considering it was sushi in a small town it was good.  The tonkatsu was really good as were the salads.  The miso soup was not horrible but the the rice was not quite right.  I have a rice cooker that if you put Japanese style rice in it will keep it perfect for hours ... if they had that the meal would have been quite good.  The fish was ok ... kind of what I expected.

I was on the road at 6am and knew there was a long stretches of no services.  I stopped at the last Jug and Loaf leaving town and got a sandwich.  That was breakfast.  I had a bit of a tailwind and was making great time to Ordway the midpoint.  Then I saw a cyclist coming toward me.  Greg and I had a nice chat by the side of the road.  He just retired as well.

Ordway was a pleasant little town.  It still had operting business: a bank, pharamacy and grocery store ... with real fruit.  Fruit has been far rarer than you would expect.  I restocked toothpaste and sunscreen at the pharmacy and got some fruit at the grocery.  I sat in the park and ate my fruit.

Back on the road I was maintaining a really good pace.  I started gaining on a cyclist and pulled up beside him.  The traffic was light enough we could ride side by side.  Albert is lives in San Francisco - from San Jose and not a hockey fan but I will try not to hold that against him.  He also just finished the Western Express.  I pulled away after a while as my pace was a little faster.

I started running out of gas as I got near Haswell.  Haswell is yet another one of those tiny American towns that looks like it was in a war.  Bombed out builds and a few houses.  There was a Post Office which looked like the only non-house building in the town tht was still functional.  At the far end of town there was a garage that had snacks and large selection of cold drinks.  I chatted with the guy working there.  He said the small meat processing plant shut down with cows lined up for the next year.  I don't understand what seems to be a vary viable business shuts down.  He said the local cows now have to go hours away.

Albert rolled up and we chatted a bit before I took off.  I started getting the feeling we may be leap frogging for a while.

With about 45km to go I cranked out the first 30 quickly.  Then the two Dr. Peppers I had in Haswell ran out.  It started getting hard but I was too close to take a break.

Eads is at a cross roads and has a few business, a restaurant and two motels.  It also has its share of bombed out buildings.  I was guzzling iced tea in JJ's when Albert walked in.  We refueled.  He was going to continue on to Sheridan Lake where there is a church that lets cyclists stay.

I checked into the lesser of the motels in town and because my expections were so low I found it ok.  Now I'm off to JJ's to eat my second meal in 3 hours.