Friday April 23^rd Guesthouse Inn, Pueblo Colorado.

16.00

Yesterday

A good days cycling yesterday. 51 miles during which we finally saw the last of Highway 96. We’ve been on it for four or five days and it really does get to you after a while. Out of Kansas and away from Hwy 96, there is a sense of waking up again after a long sleep. Much more traffic and lots more to look at.

There is a railway line that runs through Ordway and on it there is parked a line of empty Union Pacific cattle trucks. I started counting them when we first saw them but gave up once I got to a hundred. A good thing too because this line of cattle trucks is 25 miles long! 11 before Ordway and 14 after. Several thousands of them. An incredible sight.

Now, there are 25 miles of cattle trucks. Each truck is about 20 metres long. The trucks are triple deckers. So how many beefburgers is that?

I‘ve been thinking of tipping of Damien Hirst about these trucks. There are a few gaps here and there in the line. If he bought a section of it, slapped his name on one end, and called it “the relentless retrenchment of the id”, or something like that, he could probably sell it and make a couple of million on the deal.

Despite the alleged flatness of Kansas we were steadily rising as went through it and had reached 3900 feet as we left. This is continuing in Colorado and we are now at 4500 in Pueblo. The gradient is very slight and we are making good progress but this will of course change in the next few days as we enter the Rockies. We caught our first glimpse of them yesterday morning at Olney Springs, 11 miles from Ordway. Suddenly to our left we saw the Paramount Pictures logo or that’s what I thought before I realised it was for real. Then, quite suddenly, they were right across our line of vision. A magnificent line of snow-capped peaks. It was possible for a while just to admire the view and to forget that, all too soon, we were going to have to cycle through them.

Pueblo is a large town, pop 106,000 and the home of Damon Runyon, of Guys and Dolls fame. We found downtown fairly easily and were looking round for somewhere to eat when we spotted a postman and stopped to ask him if he could recommend somewhere. He was giving us directions to a diner several blocks away when I saw a sign over his shoulder. At first I thought it was a mirage (it was quite hot by now) but I looked again and it was definitely there . “The Shamrock Brewing Corporation” . "What about there?" I asked the postman, pointing to it.

“ Oh that's good too. In fact that's even better and they have a bar too. Yeah I forgot about the Shamrock". I could have kissed him. Within five minutes we were sitting in front of two pints of the pubs home- brewed pale ale. Within ten minutes, we were sitting in front of two more. Excellent fruity beer.

I suddenly realise that it was eight pm in Europe and the Hamburg v Fulham game was kicking off. I asked the barman if he could tune one of the myriad TV screen to ESPN. In fairness, he did try hard but when he found an Italian Seria A game between Lazio and Roma, he felt that his job was done. “There you go. Soccer. That do ya?”. I nodded meekly. You can’t have everything. Besides I was gettng regular text updates from brother Frank, happily ensconced in theAlexandra in Wimbledon.

After a good lunch in the Shamrock we headed to the Great Divide bike shop around the corner, recommended by one of the barmen, himself a keen cyclist Another excellent bike shop with really helpful staff. I got my pedals and gloves and also some magic energy beans which look like fun. Mike bought his socks and yet another shirt ,despite whingeing endlessly about having too much to carry (he’s such a poser).

The Shamrock was also a hotel but I figured that might be the death of us so we checked in to the Guesthouse (Another postman recommendation) just up the road. It’s pretty good, reasonably priced and has a free launderette- a real treat. This dhobi wallah work in the shower gets really boring.

Back to the Shamrock in the evening for a more leisurely sampling of their many excellent ales and open sandwiches. Mike retired early but I stayed on to watch the game of Texas Hold’em being played, via computer link, by a number of customers dotted around the pub. The bloke sitting next to me was pretty useless and I was impressed by the way he seemed quite relaxed at losing $2000 in one game. It took a while to realise that it was all make-believe. Anyone could join in. They give you one of the little computers, $1000 dollars in “funds” and away you go. It looks good fun and if I was surer of the rules about calling and checking I would have joined in. I would certainly have beaten the drongo next to me.

Today

Any doubts about the wisdom of having a rest day were dispelled when we got up. It was chucking it down outside and there are reports of heavy snow to the west. Hopefully this will have gone by the time we get there but tomorrow looks as if it might be a bit dodgy.

We got the laundry done while we were having breakfast,. This was a strange meal with the food provided in stages by a rather spaced-out male receptionist, wearing a pork pie hat. He seemed to remember each item individually. “I think we’ve got some butter somewhere”. “Hey you’ll probably want some cutlery” "Now where are the serviettes?" “ Let me get you some bread”. The smoke alarm went off intermittently. “That just means the toaster needs cleaning”. He told me later he was fasting as part of a detox programme, “I got myself into a bit of a mess recently”. He has a little way to go yet.

We ventured out in the rain at10.30 and headed to the old historic part of town. A small but interesting museum that reminded you again of the less than honorable way the settlers dealt with the native Americans. A visit to an excellent second-hand bookshop where I managed to get London Fields and Travels with my Aunt which should last me out for the rest of the trip. Then it was lunch time . We saw a French place but it looked a bit up itself so we gave it a miss. Not much else around so we found ourselves back at the Shamrock. Mike had fish and chips andI had the Meatloaf with Jameson’s sauce. Both pretty good. Back to the motel in pouring rain to write postcards and, in Mike’s case, to start thinking about tomorrow. In mine, trying to think of anything but.

Happily the sense of waking up after Kansas seems to have affected Mike too. This morning on my computer, I showed him the Guardian obituaries of Christopher Cazenove and John Forsythe which made clear their roles in Dynasty series. At first he claimed this was typical “Guardian commie pinko lies” but he has been very silent and rather shame-faced all day. So fingers crossed.