Days 31 and 32 - Angry Weather and Chain Restaurants

On the eve of Day 30 after a long day of viewing storms at an uncomfortable distance, I arrived in Ordway, a neat little town in Eastern Colorado with no discernible place to camp. With thunder brewing, i yet again bagged the notion of foul-weather camping and opted for a gem: Hotel Ordway. I had heard about this place from Don and Marilyn from Denver (riding on a recumbent tandem from West to East) whom i had met on one of the windiest Kansas days. They promised it was sweet, and the Hotel Ordway delivered. Despite this being the first place that denied me bringing Whitey Jackson inside, they did give me a room with a back door where i could park Whitey and have access to my stuff without dismantling everything.

I headed for a restaurant down the street where Carol, the owner of the hotel, had promised homemade cooking. This little cafe, like so many of the small businesses i've patronized during the journey (campgrounds, restaurants, motels, etc) are family-run. The waitress, a young woman studying something related to sports in community college (the major had a nifty name which had future gym teacher written all over it, but i can't remember now), was clearly (culled from conversational context - that is, conversations she was having with other people) the daughter of the owner. She recommended the special, which i can't remember now but is something on the no-no list for sure. However, i bravely opted for a steak so i could have the veggie of the day (peas) and my new BFF, the baked potato. The steak, which i ordered medium rare as i normally do, was akin to beef jerky - tough as new leather, with a peppery-vinegar aftertaste. I added some A-1, at my brother-in-law's recommendation, which increased the peppery-vinegar aftertaste, but softened it somewhat making it more edible. Actually, the whole cutting, chewing and swallowing of the steak was quite a challenge, one that, in this era of eating like a regular American, i was up for. I cleaned my plate, except for the fat and a couple orts which i could not, for the life of me, chew into a swallowable condition; those landed in my napkin.

I obsessed over the Weather Channel, and the continuing threat of severe thunderstorms - and slept in a rather comfortable bed without the usual malodorous spread ubiquitous at chain hotels.

In the morning i managed to create a cup of tea from the coffee maker, my PG Tip and a little sachet of - gag! i can barely recognize myself - powdered creamer. I used the rest of the coffee-tinted hot water to make some oatmeal from my dwindling collection. And i was off to Pueblo, the end of the Transamerica Route and the beginning of Western Express and mountains and more mountains.

I had foolishly been planning to take two short days instead of a full rest day, having made it through Kansas quickly and feeling reasonably good for averaging over a hundred miles in the last week. However, leaving the Hotel Ordway, i was sluggish and arrived a mere 50-ish miles into Pueblo still not quite awake. I made a beeline to Bob's Bikes, where the awesomely helpful and gifted Scott helped me out with a new chain and wax-based lube.

From there, i headed to the Chain Store-Hotel-Restaurant Capitol of the West (leaving out anywhere in California) - the intersection of Route 50 and Interstate 25. Motel 6 had the cheapest rate, and the odor of my room (and the bedspread) and its proximity to roaring traffic are some of the myriad reasons why. I had errands: laundry (at the hotel - Brandie, the girl who checked me in, let me know it was ok to use, even though there was water all over the floor in the laundry facilities), K-mart (to purchase a body-grooming device as it was time to get rid of the extra manliness here and there for maxi-comfort), and the post office (goodbye extra pair of underwear i never wore, tri shorts i wore like 4 weeks ago, the maps i'd already completed, and the shaver i'd bought and used and wasn't about to carry around for a month). I also took a brief nap while watching "Sense and Sensibility" on TV!

As i was contemplating an early dinner, there was a knock at the door. I froze. Who could that be? I was practically on the freeway, so anything sleazy was possible. I was not receiving visitors, as Emma Thompson's "S & S" character might utter. But the knocks increased until i realized that these were no knocks, THIS WAS THE SEVERE HAILSTORM THAT HAD BEEN LOOMING AS A POSSIBILITY FOR DAYS! i'm not going to capitalize this next sentence, but let it suffice to say, that my jaw remained on the floor as i watched this storm. It was like the sky was Las Vegas and somebody who one a billion on the penny slots dumped that vat of pennies on Pueblo, Colorado (later, this storm was even mentioned on the Weather Channel!) The individual hail were marble- and mothball-sized and smaller than that, and the beads of frozen whatever-the-hell-hail-is filled the parking lot. Instead of videoing it and sending it to the Weather Channel, i just stood there for 20 minutes and snapped a few lame pictures on my iphone. I thank my lucky stars that i was not out cycling in that. That would have been fucked.

Eventually it stopped, and i chose from all the hundreds of chain restaurants, one that i've never eaten at but have fantasized about from the time i was a child from all the tasty-looking commercials: Red Lobster. It did not disappoint. The waitress was extremely nice and didn't bat an eyelash at the huge amount of food i demolished - and the food was soooooo good. I. Had. Broccoli. And salmon. And a dessert meant for two. I almost cried.

In the morning i did my whole getting-out-the-door routine but stopped at the moment of donning my freshly washed costume. My back felt a little twingey. And i started to stress out: i hadn't taken a full day off. What was i thinking? Whenever i get injured from something sports-related, it's always after training too many days in a row. Yes, i had done two shorter days but it had been 9 days since the last full-stop. I texted Kristin, and bascially told her to tell me i was an idiot if i went out today. And whaddaya know, even though it was only 5:30am PST, she responded in full meany-trainer form, practically shaming me out of getting on the bike. And telling me to soak in epsom salts which i didn't end up doing.

So it was a rest day. I was immediately excited, unlike the other rest days. This one seemed almost like a bonus. And there was a movie theatre across the street. I saw the "Star Trek" movie a few hours later, feeling especially at home when i saw the bit where the baby-Kirk is racing along a farm road in "Iowa" which looked an awful lot like Kansas to me!

I had pretty much caught up on the blog at that point and it was so nice not to have to do anything. I opted for Ruby Tuesday's for my main meal - clearly a chain restaurant but one i'd never heard of (and i had salmon and broccoli AGAIN!). Sorry Applebee's and Chili's and all the rest i've never sampled you will have to wait for my patronage. After Pueblo, the next city i hit, i believe, will be Sacramento, so we'll see.

That night I went to bed feeling rested for a change and tried not to freak out about the major climbs of the Rockies which would begin the next morning.

Comments

Popular Posts