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Friday, August 1, 2008, Ordway City Park, Colorado
Well, we’ve heard after the fact that Ordway is home to many drug affected weirdos. I wish we had known that before we stayed there. We all got up quickly once the first Pueblo Park maintenance worker arrived at 5:30. Since the tent wasn’t set up, we packed up everything and left just after 6:00. The riding was pretty nice – flat and not too windy and the traffic moderate. Johnny rode part of the way; Vicky the whole way. There was a crosswind which probably didn’t affect us much, but the heat really oppressed us, over 100, and by 11:00 am, we were hot and tired, so we stopped in the first café we saw in the town of Ordway. The waitress gave us a cyclists’ welcome brochure with a map and pertinent information for the journey. Apparently they try to cater to the many summer cyclists who pass through. After eating and relaxing there for about an hour, we drove to Lake Henry to swim. The water was warm but refreshing. Later we went to the town store and bought pork chops but came to find out that there were no grills in the park, so we had to use the propane stove. We decided not to set up the tent because it was warm and it didn’t look like it was going to rain, so we just laid down the tarp and sleeping bags. The plan was to ride 100+ miles tomorrow, so we went to bed fairly early, but we didn’t realize the weirdos congregate at the park after dark. First, the athletic weirdos at the basketball court who can’t communicate without screaming at the top of their lungs and find only unsavory subjects to scream about. Then the motorized lowlifes who screeched around the park for 1 ½ hours burning rubber and shouting obscenities out the window at who knows who, maybe us. The police station was at the corner of the park but seemed oblivious. At one point Gloria got in the car and followed the car to get the license plate but no luck. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well that night. 52 miles.