September 30, 2016 – Sun, 80 degrees

Miles Today: 48

Miles to Date: 17,192

States to Date: 45

A beautiful day of rolling south with the mountains on my left and high desert on my right. My Colorado Springs host Kyle rode me to the end of the pavement, then I had fourteen miles of gravel before returning to blacktop outside of Pueblo. The Colorado plains are short of paved roads beyond the Interstate!

Las Carnales serves up the best carne asada burrito on earth. After lunch I spent the afternoon at a busy, friendly library, then I explored Pueblo: a county courthouse worthy of a European nation, a $7 dollar buzz cut at a ‘cosmetology school and salon’, a drive-in convenience store where cars line up for ten minutes or more rather than park and walk into the store. Is there any limit to how lazy we can be?

I stayed with a very agreeable host who lives opposite the coolest skate park I’ve seen on my journey. Allen is a retiree who moved to Colorado from Delaware in large part to indulge in the liberal marijuana laws. 420 sure does make a man mellow.