After a long day the previous day it was back on the road. I needed to go through Pueblo before heading east. Pueblo, like a lot of the towns and cities I have gone though, have failing downtown core areas and revitalization efforts that don’t appear to be working. Or, they are working at a snail’s pace. Pueblo has some beautiful buildings that would be ripe for redevelopment by converting old warehouses and office buildings into condos. But this is the west, the land of wide open spaces, sprawl, and relatively high costs to make the conversion.
While riding through downtown Pueblo at 9 am it was deserted. Even when I arrived the previous day at 5 pm the streets were deserted. It was like Armageddon happened but I didn’t get the message. Heading east I needed to get onto US 50 for a while. There was a fair bit of traffic and some modest shoulders. It was also a time when I encountered a few west bound cyclists but because of traffic it was a quick wave and the legs kept spinning.
What is now noticeable is the flatness of the land, the absence of trees anywhere and in all directions, and poor quality farmland. There was very little elevation gain or loss on this day. No crops grow here and the rangeland does not look the best. Some farmers tried to grow corn but it was no more than 2 feet tall. The land is too dry and the air is dry.
Ordway was an interesting town. There was a city park in which cyclists could stay but it did not have any running water, however, next to the park was the Hotel Ordway which offered $10 showers to cyclists. Then there was an RV campground that supposedly allowed tent campground but no one there knew if they allowed tents. It was back to the Park and once I finished taking a shower at the Hotel Ordway the owner told me they had hostel rooms for cyclists. You could have told me this before I took a shower. I did take a hostel room and it was a good thing for there was a nasty thunderstorm at 6 pm.
Today’ stats: total mileage 57.18 miles; average speed 14 mph; maximum speed 25.7 mph; total elevation gain 230 feet; and elevation descent 377 feet.