TA 2 - September 26

Well, the homeless people of La Junta must have been happy to see us go!  It was a very bizarre hotel experience although I must say that I had a good night’s sleep.  It was interesting to hear all the stories this morning. Several people were moved to an alternate hotel when their rooms were found to be just not fit for us to stay in. Gotta say - you’d never know from the reviews on-line. Either it has suffered a steep and fast decline, or someone has been padding the reviews.

Anyway - on the road again.....   I no longer am concerned about total mileage in a day, or by how much elevation we have to climb, or by what the temperature is going to be. My only question these days seems to be about the wind - how strong and from what direction?  Today the forecast is for SSE winds and we’re going north, notheast and east. So - it will sometimes be our friend and sometimes not. Once the wind starts blowing out here, there’s just nothing to stand in its way.

We passed through the small town of Haswell at about 45 miles. We could see the trees and grain elevator from 10 miles away!

Same thing for coming in to Eads at the end of the day. Trees and grain elevator from 10 miles out.  I think the only change in scenery this afternoon was that the sky turned from overcast to blue at some point.

We haven’t had nearly as many grasshoppers on the road the last couple of days. Still a few giant specimens but few and far between. My wildlife sighting today was this big hairy fella - a tarantula!

Not much more I can say about the day - flat, windy, lots of agriculture, and wide open spaces. We have a rest day in Eads (population 600) tomorrow. So exciting!  I think we’ll need the rest in advance of our 104 mile ride into the wind on Saturday. Let’s hope for a reversal of the predicted wind direction!

Stats for the day:
La Junta CO to Eads CO
109 km. 67 miles.
1226 feet up. 1067 feet down.
Temp:  14C to 29C. Overcast early. Sunny later. Building winds from the SSE.