Day Thirty-five (41 miles, 1584.03 total): Wake-Up Calls and Mountain Walls

BEEEEEEEP!!! BEEEEEEEP!!!!! BEEEEEEEP!!! I jump out of bed and the fire alarm is screaming throughout the halls. Flashing from the alarm is shining through the door. Joel flips on the light and walks out into the hall. People are rushing for the stairs, sleepy and confused. It's 2:00AM and the screeching from the siren is loud enough to wake the dead. Ella is pacing back and forth across the bed, anxious with the alarm going off. I scoop her up in my backpack and we head out into the hall. Quickly walking down the stairs and outside, we join the growing crowd of hotel guests. A fire truck swings into the parking lot along with two police cars. Firefighters drag themselves out of the truck, obviously exhausted and wanting to go home. They walk into the lobby along with the tired police officers to see what is going on.

We stand there, tired and annoyed, waiting to see if there is an emergency. About ten minutes pass before the irritated police officers and firefighters walk back out to their vehicles. A manager walks out of the lobby entrance to let us know we can go back to our rooms and everything is alright. Apparently someone had decided to pull one of the fire alarms. Good going buddy. We sulk back to our rooms and try to catch a few more hours of shut eye. RING! RING! RI-. I shut off my phone and roll over. It's 5:30AM. Joel says 6:00AM and goes back to sleep. The time finally comes to get up and get ready for the ride. Practically awake for the last hour, I have no problem getting up and finishing the last few bits of packing. It doesn't take very long before we are ready to go and headed out the door.

Soon we are rolling along with the early morning traffic through downtown Pueblo. The streets roll up through a few small hills before we arrive at Starbucks. We needed some caffeine after that ridiculous early morning wake up call. After enjoying a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee, we pedal on down the road to Canon City. Pueblo becomes more and more interesting as we cruise through. It has an amazing park that was very well kept and just beautiful all the way around. If I didn't take a rest day in Pueblo, I would have definitely stayed in that park!

At the entrance of the park, we cross the road into a neighborhood filled with stucco villa style homes and well maintained yards. A cool breeze follows us down the street as we leave the city limits of Pueblo and into the rolling foothills of the Rocky's. The hills start fast and they trail on and on. The grade isn't bad at all, its just how long they happen to be. Grinding the gears, working our way up each one. The top of the first major hill is absolutely stunning. The view of the Rocky Mountains stops us in our tracks. Greens, blues, yellows, and white fill the horizon, growing from plains, to low foot hills, to the towering monoliths rising 14,000 feet in to the heavens. I can't help but stay awhile and absorb the enormity of it all.

Still stunned by the sheer beauty of the landscape, I push on, moving ever closer to the giants of rock and ice. Rolling on through the waves of asphalt, grasshoppers completely cover the road. Thousands and thousands of grasshoppers cover the highway. It is impossible to avoid them all, so the unmistakable crunch of the little buggers is unavoidable. On the next big hill, Joel's bike breaks down. He has a roll off hub, which is internal gearing, and it won't shift any lower than 5th. Of course we are in the middle of a hill when this happens and it is too difficult to climb with gearing like that. We stop to try and fix it, but to no avail. Joel powers up the very last portion of the hill and stops at the first flat spot we come across. The flat stop also happens to be right next to a llama farm!

Joel calls his bike mechanic and he walks him through the process to fix it step by step. By the time the phone call is over, Joel has his bike all fixed and shifting gears like new. The next stretch of road is all downhill. Joel and I race back and forth speeding down the hills through the high plains. Passing the occasional immense ranch house, we see herds of cows and horses around every other bend. Along one stretch of road, we see an entire herd of pronghorn antelope. It was pretty cool to see them all running around and grazing throughout the ranch lands.

Barreling through the rolling landscape of Colorado, I realize for the first time on my trip, I don't feel like I'm in need to be anywhere at any given time. No more rushing. No more need to reach a specific town by a specific time. I feel at peace in the open air of the Rocky's. The same feeling I had when I spent days backpacking the Sierra's or swimming in the crystal blue waters off Catalina Island.  Overwhelmed by the feeling of freedom, a true test to Manifest Destiny. People along the route always quoted "Go west my son" to me and I realize now how much meaning that has to my life. The salty breeze of the Pacific Ocean, the mysterious back country of the Sierras; this is where I belong.

By early afternoon we arrive in a small town with a fantastic coffee shop and an excellent breakfast burrito. Ella was happy to get out of the basket for awhile while we enjoyed some lunch. Before long, we were flying toward Canon City once again. It isn't long before we are rolling into town. First stop, we head to the Post Office to pick up my package. After sorting out some trouble picking up my box, we ride on down to the grocery store to pick up some Gatorade. The golden rays of sun are replaced by dark shadows of rain clouds, so I put a rain cover over my guitar just in case. It starts to sprinkle as we leave Canon and I kick it into a new gear.

The rain starts coming down in buckets as we race toward the sun in the distance. I am flying through the wall of water, pedaling as fast as I can to the rain line ahead. When I burst from the shadows into the daylight, its still raining! I look above me but there are no clouds and the rain is still coming down! After another half mile or so, I break through the sheet of rain and onto the dry streets beyond. Soaked, I stop at a road sign and wait for Joel to catch up.

Another big hill lies before us and we start the long haul toward Royal Gorge. It was a little longer than we expected, but we make it up and ride down the hill toward one of the numerous camps along the gorge. Most of them are crowded RV parks, so we end up choosing a quiet KOA campground instead. Despite already riding through a shower, a real shower still feels a whole lot better. It's a nice dry night and the mosquitoes aren't too bad.

I enjoy a few of the goodies my mom sent me and cook myself a good dinner before setting up my tent for the evening. Joel introduced me to an HBO show I forgot about, Deadwood, and we watched that for awhile. As the sun went down, the stars came out and the moon lit up the night sky. In the distance, we could see Jupiter mingling with the stars. It is a beautiful night and I'm going to enjoy it, so good night to all! Thanks for reading and we hope you continue to follow our adventures as we climb higher into the peaks of the Rocky's!