Miles today: 215
Miles so far: 2775
Having experienced the heat of yesterday we decided to rise and shine early and get on the road by 7.30am. Given we had only the day before gone back an hour, this was an act of insanity. But riding in 38º heat as opposed to 20º heat does make you rather nuts, so we decided it was worth the sacrifice, particularly after another mediocre meal in a fairly crap bar in Guymon that shut at 10pm, where the servers were not sure about the difference between wine and vodka. And a dry white? She hadn't a clue. To add insult to injury she brought us a surplus drink in error, drank it herself, and then charged us for it! Anyway, the quality of American bar food is perhaps not expected to be that high, and we were therefore not too disappointed!
But never mind, it was yet another entertaining evening, although the boys are slowly reeling me in at Shithead. I am thinking of refusing to play any more, to preserve my rapidly thinning lead, and therefore remaining the champion!
Back to the journey. We re-entered Colorado after an excellent breakfast at 8.30am at the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Boise City after driving 60 miles across the straightest road in Oklahoma and therefore very probably the world. If I could get my cruise control to work I could probably have managed without touching the handlebars! Only joking that would be mad! Sorry we forgot to het a picture of the Blue Bonnet as it was an excellent diner, and fuelled us for the day.
From there via various coffee stops, that the boys have now insisted on, to keep me from biting their ears off, we duly arrived at what turned out to be the absolutely fabulous Bent's Old Fort, once a trading fort on the old Santa Fe Trail, and at that time the largest American building west of Missouri. It has a great history, most of which I have forgotten and it was eventually burnt down. But the amazing National Parks Service has entirely rebuilt it from the measurements taken by an engineer of the time in the Adobe style of the time.
We absolutely loved the relaxed attitude of the wardens who allowed you to touch, sit, pick up, talk about just about everything there. Including the replica billiards table that was apparently there when the place was at its heyday in the 19th century. And they even allowed us to take the covers off and play. So we invented our own version of 3-handed billiards. Modesty of course does not permit me to say who is now the USA billiards champion (I am pretty sure we will not get a chance to play again!).
So thats it for another brilliant day. We are in La Junta in a motel that is everything a motel should be - cheap, clean and within walking distance of a few bars and restaurants. We are now going west, and tomorrow should be in New Mexico. Bit of a thin blog today. I'll finish with a few silly pictures. First the obligatory three idiots. (I think Eric is bored!)
Classic shot making. He's perked up!
And again
The champions cup
And finally a toilet stop, somewhere in Colorado. Not for the toilet (they were disgusting), but for the only bit of shade we could find for miles. There was actually a point on the road across the panhandle of Oklahoma when there was nothing on the horizon - nothing, no trees, buildings, just nothing!
Comments