Twin Lakes-Salida, CO: Kelly averaged 15.1 mph? It must have been downhill all the way!

July 7, 2017

The Roadhouse is very attractive. Steve is an attentive host. Breakfast was a great selection of fresh fruit. Oatmeal. Steve gave me a couple of cinnamon rolls, even though it wasn't cinnamon roll day. Another guest already knew about the cinnamon rolls and was sad those were the only two.

But - if you are light sleeper, this might not be your place. Our side neighbors got up at 5 AM with lots of chatter and a few cuss words when the man did who knows what that brought on the response. Our upstairs neighbor (I think it might be Steve's residence) was also up shortly after 5. Guess what time I was up? I wasn't planning for it to be 5, but I was certainly awake.

The temperature was 42 degrees and last night's rain was all gone. The wind was downslope -a plus for us. I wasn't in much of a hurry to leave. Today would be our pay back day for all of the work the past few days. Jacinto warned me not to be so happy. He didn't think ridewithgps's calculation of 760 feet of climbing was correct. He knew there were a few ups and downs before Salida. End result was 1,700 climbing feet. I'm not sure I believe that. It was a zippy fast day all day. If I had made any effort to go fast, I could have really had a high average. I coasted at every opportunity and pedaled in a normal fashion and still averaged 15.1 mph.

I was finally done getting ready and was on the road by 9 AM. I hoped I didn't pay for that late start with a headwind on 285. Straight from town there was a little uphill. Ugh. Maybe Jacinto was correct. My legs had been a little stiff when I woke up, but they remembered what to do and didn't rebel at the immediate climb.

Bertha and I did not do well today. I must have routed this too quickly and didn't notice where ridewithgps was taking me. Directions were to take all sorts of side dirt roads. The entire day, Bertha was beeping at me to get on track. I don't know how I didn't notice this when doing the mapping. I wish ridewithgps had a rerouting feature, but it just keeps beeping.

Highway 82 down to Highway 285 was nice. A few ups and downs. Highway 285 wasn't too busy to start. The last time we were through here (going up to Twin Lakes) we had lots of rafting company traffic. Buses passing us pulling trailers with rafts. I would like to know the percentage of raft companies in Colorado who are based in this area. I think it's a correct estimate to say I saw at least ten different companies. Today I was going the opposite direction and I was later in the day. The rafters were mostly doing their thing already. I saw full parking lots and a few empty buses returning. It was helpful that we weren't on the road at the same time.

It is a sad fact that my big takeaway from the day is traffic. Serious traffic. It's Friday. We are in the mountains where people like to play. Everyone has Friday off and is on their way to where ever they are going. 285 has an excellent shoulder, but the steady hum of traffic reminded me of the interstate on the first day. It was so loud I couldn't hear my music, even turned up high.

I tried to tell myself to look around at the beautiful 14ers ringing the valley. Mostly I just wanted to get to town and away from the traffic. I did see a man pulled off the side of the road painting an oil painting of a falling down barn. I have seen very few old buildings this trip. I guess I got my summer's quota on the first trip?

Jacinto called me when I was at mile 39 to say he was in Buena Vista. I told him to hurry and catch me so we could eat lunch together at the little Mexican place next to the motel.

I was very happy to make the turn onto Road 291 and get away from the loud traffic. Ten more downhill miles to town. Just another half hour, at this speed.

Bertha and I were still not on the same page. I knew 291 curved around to Highway 50 and the Gateway Motel was conveniently at the intersection. She wanted me to go left. Poor Bertha, I ignored her all day.

I pulled up to the motel. It was only noon. I could see all of the motel room doors were open. It didn't look good for checking in. I combed my hair to look presentable and walked inside, trying to look pitiful and reasonable at the same time. At first the lady said check in was 4 PM, then she said 2. Then she said after she mopped the lobby. Which didn't seem to me to be related to my room. She had already taken my money and assigned my room. Room 102's door was shut. That means it's already clean? I'm sitting in the lobby, quiet like a mouse. The lady is done mopping, but she hasn't told me I can go in my room.

Jacinto has just pulled up. I guess we will go have lunch dirty and stinky.

Edit later- we went next door to the Mexican restaurant where I remember having a great meal with Oren several years ago. Service was glacial slow, but the food was good.

When we got back to the motel, we could check in. I had a shower and a nice nap before our friends Jack and Norma came for dinner. They drove over from Canon City to see us. We ate at the Mexican restaurant again. It was still good and we had much better service.

We went by Walmart to buy Jacinto some compression shorts. He has only one set of shorts and he says they are wearing a groove in his butt. He thought my shorts would be just the thing as a second layer. I didn't have a second pair with me for him to test. We went to WalMart and Jacinto went in by himself shopping but was back out pretty quick. He said he felt funny looking around the ladies section. I went back in and asked for the yoga shorts. $9.95 later and we have a second layer for Jacinto to try. If they don't work, they are my size.

Jack and Norma dropped us off. I'm in the office now using the internet as it doesn't work well in the room. Neither Sprint or T-Mobile work here. We thought for sure Salida would have better service.

Tomorrow's ride is the hard side of Poncha Pass. I'm more concerned about the wind than the climb. The wind can be unkind in the San Luis Valley.

This police car was there last night and still there this morning. I imagine it does the job of getting people to slow down.

Steve took two cinnamon rolls out of his stash for us. They are usually served just every other day.

I'm ready to go. Jacinto is going to have another cup of coffee. Or maybe two.

The scenery was excellent when I could ignore the heavy traffic on 285.

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 340 miles (547 km)

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