I had a fantastic sleep and woke up at 9 a.m. refreshed, but not invigorated. These very long days take a lot out of me and it takes a bit of time to get over it but fortunately today was to be a short day of only 75 km or so to Steamboat Springs.

I felt disinclined to starting quickly so I worked on the web and lazed about for a bit, finally hitting the road just after 11. I went down to the post office where I mailed to NZ my old bicycle seat and some maps before going to Pizza Hut for brunch. I was famished and made many trips to their salad bar as well as polishing off a personal pan pizza. I’m quite sated with Pizza Hut but at least that is one place where I can get some food.

I went by the supermarket to get some bagels and there were three young girls trying to give away six kittens. They were from a litter of ten, the others had gone. They were only six weeks old and were still tiny – I told them that they should really wait until ten weeks but they just shrugged. Almost every person going into the store ooohed and ahhhed over them but there were no takers. They were also manhandled quite a bit but appeared to take it in stride.

I organised a replacement for my digital camera to be sent by HP. Although it is working right now who knows how long this will last for. That took a bit of time but hopefully it will be waiting for me when I get to Lincoln Nebraska.

Then it was along 40 towards Steamboat Springs. This part of Colorado is much more scenic than further east. There is a lot more water and rivers so there are also more farms. The road was fairly up and down through rolling farmland. You can see this from the following two photos which contrast with the desert of yesterday.

I must comment on a unique (?) form of American advertising: the repeating billboard. For approximately 100 miles, every 2-3 miles, I had seen billboards such as that below. Each, or at least many, were slightly different. I knew that they sold boots for cowboys (and cowgirls), Levis (shirts, overalls and pants), stetsons (from $4.99) etc. The advertising is quite effective since with not a lot else around one reflects upon what they are like and the range of their products. It reminded me of the trips I made as a child to Florida with my parents and we would see all these signs for places like the Lost Sea in Tennessee. The signs would be on billboards, roofs, walls, anywhere. We kids would then bug the parents so that they took us there. Highly effective.

I reached a milestone in the town of Hayden: 2000 km from the start. That is my record for cycle touring – my previous was just over 1500 km. I took the following photo and you can see that in spite of the distance I’m still smiling. Let’s see how I am after the next few days when I’ve crossed the Continental Divide.

Between Hayden and Milner I stopped at one of the roadside historical markers. It marked the location of what was once two thriving coal mining communities. Today it is just a quiet river bend. It is hard to imagine how they were once the centre of people’s lives. Now there is nothing to mark the spot except a small plaque. Shows how transitory things can be.

The road followed along the Yampa River and so the grades were not too bad. In one section it was quite narrow with cliffs on one side and only a narrow shoulder (but there was a guardrail) so I peddled like mad to make it through there.

As I approached Milner it started to rain heavily. I donned my rain gear and kept on peddling but became concerned when I saw lightening in the distance. I had planned that under such circumstances I would take shelter and it was a good plan, except there was nowhere to shelter! I hit the peddles and prayed that God would give me a suitable spot and shortly after I found a defile by the road. I parked my bike and sat against the bank and watched the show. There was lots of lightening and it seemed to be quite close, but that was probably a figment of my imagination. It went on for a very long time but eventually the sky lightened. I decided to try and make a run to Milner which wasn’t too far away. I was getting too cold to stay outside for much longer.

It was only a few kilometres and I took shelter by the post boxes. A woman was there who offered me an empty house in town but I declined as I wanted to try and make Steamboat Springs. She told me that the storms usually blows over. She also gave me the good news that it was largely downhill to Steamboat Springs – that was a nice change!