Fort Garland, Colorado to Antonito, Colorado
Up at 6 AM - only 5 1/2 hours sleep. Pedaled 4 miles west to breakfast place, called Lu’s Cafe. Ryan recommended it and is supposed to meet me here. Last night he taught me how to say, “Do you want a beer?” in Navaho. Jah-halona-schlaw-ish-insan. He thought it would come in handy traveling through remote parts of Northern Arizona, which is mostly reservations.
I’m staring out the window of this cafe, looking at Blanca Peak, a 14,000 ft. mountain, being bathed in morning sun. Glorious, Colorado Sunday morning!
I have some pretty good calluses on the heels of my hands, just from gripping the handlebars. Holdin’ on tight through those pesky headwinds, I guess. A wide assortment of small cuts and bruises, but otherwise OK!
OK, Ryan’s a no-show. So, I leave an envelope with a note and some money to buy Ryan breakfast. I remember Cliff Riggs, back in Buhler, KS, and I guess this is a form of “Paying It Forward.”
Off I ride, west on 160 through the San Luis Valley. 360 degrees of mountains surround the valley. To the north, the Great Sand Dunes, which we visited in ‘97 on the Griswold’s Go West Summer. 4 miles east of Alamosa, CO, I pass a restaurant call The Outhouse ‘N Restaurant. I can’t believe anyone would give such a name to a restaurant. I have to take a picture of this place. OK, I keep going and 2 blocks later I pass a street called No Name Lane. I think... gee, No Name on that restaurant back there would be better than Outhouse ‘N Restaurant. Then I think... No Name Restaurant and Outhouse Lane might have made more sense. Outhouse ‘N Restaurant... sounds appetizing, don’t it?
So I keep riding and now I’m thinking... why didn’t they just name the place Poops Restaurant. Then I had fun trying to come up with a few more alternatives.
.....Cafe Toilette
.....Poopie’s Fine Dining
.....Flushers Deli
.....Wipers Drive-In Restaurant
.....Yellow Suds Steakhouse
.....McPlungers
.....Crapper Seafood House
Next, I pass a fruit stand and find a dollar on the ground. I gave it to the stand attendant figuring it blew out of her till. She told me about all the potatoes they grow there and how the potato seeds used Idaho come from the San Luis Valley. The potatoes grow well here because of the salinity of the soil. This land once was a sea bed. I bought a peach, an apple, and a pear and ate the peach while I was standing there talking. I asked if there was a trash can to discard the pit and she said to just chuck it over into a pile of weeds. Maybe a tree will grow there.
Onward south on 285 through the beautiful San Luis Valley. Still surrounded by mountains. I wanted to stop and take a picture every 10 minutes but didn’t because I realized I could not capture the panoramic 360° feel of the scenery. Not possible! Any individual slice would just be blah and not do it justice.
The railroad paralleled 285 south and like Ryan said last night, the towns are all 7 miles apart. In the town of La Jara, I saw a strange looking machine outside a supermarket. Curious as to what it was, I pulled over. I asked the woman tending to the machine what she was doing. She was roasting green chiles. It was a big rotating cylinder with 8 propane jets that would roast the chiles in the cage. She gave me 3 in a plastic bag. Had to wait for them to cool. Then tasted them. Two were very spice and one was mild, but they were great. People buy this stuff in large burlap sacks. Very common in Southern Colorado and New Mexico. People put them on everything.
The chile roaster’s name was Robin and she was very friendly. She said I was welcome to stay at her place up the canyon, but I declined because I wanted to get to a motel early in the day and relax. Even though I was going 55 miles today, I considered it to be a day of rest. Rest because of a lack of sleep the night before and needing to rest up before the big climb tomorrow. Two passes - over 10,000 ft. to get into New Mexico.
Robin said the winters are very cold in the valley. Zero degrees many nights. At 8000 ft. that’s to be expected. She also told me her and her partner were going to Hawaii Tuesday. She has an uncle there and got an inexpensive flight out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She said if I ever get to Hawaii, I could stay at her uncle’s place. I say, “How am I supposed to ride my bike across the Pacific?”
Inside the supermarket, called Jack’s, they were butchering elk. Chile and elk on the menu in Southern Colorado! Thanked Robin again and gave her my website to ride the rest of the way to San Diego.
Continued south to Antonito, CO. Crossed the Conejos River. Antonito means “Little Tony” in Spanish and was named for a location in the shadows of San Antonio Peak, a few miles south. Ah.... motel and nap.
Totals for the day: 56.07 miles, 4 hrs. 5 min., 2462 total miles.