The 5miles out of town are on a lovely bike path that just happens to drop us off beside the Galloping Goose trail. It’s hard to tell by the map but it looks like it might be a decent option to get around a busy section of road so we hop on it. So happy we did because it’s a fun fast single track decent for a few miles and only adds a a mile or so to our overall mileage. Back on the road the fun just continues as we effortlessly keep a 30kms/hr pace for an hour or so, following the river downwards towards Norwood. As we near town the road take a sudden and sever turn upwards out of the canyon. A few hot kilometres later we are in town and enjoying some delicious palisade peaches from a roadside vendor. Before we leave town we stick our head in the bike shop, the owner comes out and instantly recognizes Steve’s bike because he was the one who built it up 4 years ago in Moab.
The 20miles from Norwood to Naturita seems to just get progressively hotter and hotter, so that the air no longer has any coolness to it. The sign in town tells me it’s 93 fahrenheit, I don’t know the conversion off hand but it sure is hot !
As it turns out our RV park is no longer in business, the lady manning the info center gleefully includes us in the gossip about him being in forclousure and directs us to theRimtock hotel, when the price per night ends up being more than we want to spend she sends us up the hill to the motel with a warning that’s it’s not fancy. When she said that I assumed it was an ordinary mom and pop type please, what she ment was that it was mostly occupied by long term residents. The room looked cleanish but very very well loved with sagging beds and peeling wallpaper.. we decide $90Us for the other hotel is more than fair and go their instead. The eve is mellow, it’s just too hot to do much more than shuffle between air conditioned buildings.
One thing I do have plenty of time to do is research the history of the area, and wow do I find an Americana gem. The nearby town of Nucla was started as a socialist utopia, a meeting point for the farmers and miners of the area to share the wealth and work... in 2012 is was the first town in Colorado for gun ownership to be mandatory... how do you get so far off course ?
The standard position for peters bike these days
In case you forgot what meat is there are stuffed heads to remind you
A sudden change in scenery
Beautiful country
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