America's heart is about real people making a hands on living. We will be patronizing mom and pop lodging and cafes. Small towns businesses are generally less expensive and have more personality. We couldn't have picked smaller towns than these! We enjoy eclectic establishments that are functional rather than full of latest in amenities.

The very small town overnight locations on this trip were summed up perfectly by Isaac in his Salt Lake to Denver Highway 40 journal

"This trip has been a study in low cost interior trim techniques. Today we have the glued on acoustic ceiling tiles, the two piece plastic shower surround,varnished fake beveled 1x4 siding in place of sheet rock and my favorite, the textured plastic panels over whatever nastiness was the bathroom walls. The joints in the plastic sheet are covered with rounded plastic strips. They did, however, opt for wood baseboard where all of the other places had edged carpet strips for base kicks."

Isaac also notes - "I brought spares and tools for the known unknowns. For the unknown unknowns there is VISA."

Those familiar with Colorado will observe that we are not staying in the tourist towns of Steamboat Springs, Vail, Aspen, or Glenwood Springs. We are deliberately eschewing glitz and glamor. For logistic reasons we are staying in Eagle, the biggest locale on our tour. My first choice would have been a yurt at State Bridge but the daily mileages didn't fall into place.

Truth is, I have trouble getting motivated to put in sufficient miles when riding around home. I ride regularly, but I consider a nice ride to be 30 miles with 1,500 feet of climbing. A normal touring day for us is 50-60 miles with 3,000 feet of climbing. Hmmm. What to do? The warm up tour idea came about last year to get me riding big miles to be in touring condition. We had a memorable ride in New Mexico . I recommend warm up tours!

This year we will head north from home to break in our legs. The days will mostly be 50 miles and at lower elevations. This is Colorado, so there will be climbing, but least also oxygen! Even though we are riding from home, we are trying some new roads and have dirt roads planned on three days. All the better to get that remote mountain feeling.