Day 36 La Junta to Colorado Springs CO

Overnight total via train: 450
Day total 92
Trip total 2,092 (not counting train mileage, we are not that bad of cheaters)

There is something luxurious about waking up in a train car, even if slightly cramped, and even if the sleep part did not really happen. I did find the rocking of the train over rails relaxing, but my mo is pretty much to not sleep before something exciting is about to happen (so you can guess how much sleep I have been getting this trip). And today, we are arriving in the west and that is exciting.

The large train windows offer views of a vastness I have never seen before. This morning Nik and I watched the fog roll off a hazy horizon under huge expansive skies as we slowly woke up, unable to follow our typically morning routine of waking quickly and hopping on our bikes to beat the heat. This morning our bikes were still stowed and while we soakes up some dratically different senery, at a accelerated pace of 77 miles a hour.

We had complimentary breakfast (in the dinning car) with a couple who were taking the train from New York (where they were visiting her brother in a nursing home upstate) back to their home in Arizona.  They were excited for us to be exploring the west and had lots of suggestions for further adventures. I particularly liked the idea of rafting the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon.

Our first day in Colorado has treated as well. The weather is cooler and drier and although we were constantly biking up hill today it is a gradual climb which is way less grueling than the constant up and downs of the east coast hills. As a result our morning of riding went smoothly and we were made good time. It is moments like these where the world breaks down into two types of people;
1. Those that would at this point say "Hey we are making good time we can check into our hotel room in Pueblo (where we already have a reservation) and have a relaxing evening."
2. Those that would say "Hey we are making good time let's cancel our reservation and see if we can make it all the way to Colorado Springs today."

Because everyone reading this blog is close friends and family I don't need to tell you which group Nik and I fall into. But I will say this, in Colorado Springs and the mountains are gorgeous.