Slow moving for us ...

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Day 27 Pueblo, CO to Ordway, Co
Total Miles: 54

Laziness/ desire to watch movies in bed and really milk the last hours of our hotel room got us off to a late start. At about 11:30 we hit the road. Motivation was at an all time low - Arthur literally kept falling asleep on his bike, the headwind was terrible, scenery left much to be desired. As we were passing the second high security prison on our route, a security guard drove up to the gate and got out of her car. ‘Great,’ we think to ourselves, ‘this is where she tells us that we can’t even camp along this stupid road because there are too many criminals around.’ She says hi and asks us if we have a place planned to stay tonight. We look at each other, unsure whether or not to reply with the honest answer of ‘No, we sort of just figured we’d crash somewhere along the way.’ Before we can answer, she says that she has a place in Ordway and would love to have us stay there if we’re interested. She said she didn’t get off of work until 10 but that we could let ourselves in and shower if we wanted - she explained that we could use the entire left side of her house. Being that we had only traveled 45 miles or so and her house was no more than 10 miles away and that we had just taken a bunch of rest days for Arthur to recover, we weren’t sure if we could justify ending our day early to stay at her house - I mean, we had just left our hotel room in Pueblo a few hours ago. Then it occurred to us (or rather I reminded Arthur forcefully)… isn’t this one of the bigger reasons we’re on this trip - to meet strangers along the way and enjoy the random acts of kindness they provide? So we stopped at 54 miles for the day and made ourselves comfortable at some stranger’s house. I have to admit it feels a little odd to walk into as absolute stranger’s house and make yourself comfortable.

Knowing nothing about our host (not even her name) we began creating a life for her from the pictures on the wall. Is she British or from New Zealand? We couldn’t quite place the accent. Does she have kids, is the cat allowed inside? We know she has good taste in furniture and seems be an adventurer … Exhausted, we went to bed before she got home thinking that these fabricated stories might be all we ever know about this fantastic person who entrusted her home to us for the evening (we leave early in the AM and she can’t wake up that early, she doesn’t get home from work until 10pm). That night it stormed like crazy … as we woke up to the sound of pouring rain and rumbling thunder we sure were glad we didn’t end up camping at the side of the road (storms can really rage out here in the plains). Instead we were safe and sound in a comfy bed of our own.

PS Arthur forgot a period before the 'com' in the picture link he posted so if you cut and paste it won't work properly - hopefully we can make this site a bit more asthetically pleasing and insert pics into our blogs eventually, but until it's figured out, thanks Dave!

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Comments

[Lynne]

I can't stand not knowing....
What was the woman's name? did you meet her? She jsut flagged you down and said you could stay at her house?!! give me some more inforation please....