Day 51- Denver

I wasn’t planning on riding all day today. I was heading north to Denver, but I was not going to attempt riding through downtown Colorado Springs nor downtown Denver either. I would just ride the more rural areas in between to 2 large metro areas today.

So Paul and I ran some errands in the morning and had a last lunch before I got him to drive me up north out of the congestion of the city. I had decided to ride Hwy 83 to the Castle Rock area so I only needed to start in the mid afternoon to get there at a reasonable time.

I was out of the Colorado mountains and on the eastern side of the front range.

The ride was really nice, but a slight headwind might be foreshadowing of hard days to come in the coming weeks in the Great Plains. I hope I get more tailwind than headwind out there, but those are stories for the future.

As for today, I am only going so far and I am having another reunion with another friend! Shirley Berg is meeting me in Castlerock and going to drive me into Denver so I can avoid that urban traffic challenge.

Shirley and I worked together for a few years at the Chelan County Public Works Dept many years ago and we have kept in touch as she has moved around over the years.

After meeting me in Castlerock, we went and had dinner and a couple of beers and had a great time catching each other up on everything.

I am going to take advantage of the city and take a rest day tomorrow. I plan to replace my rear tire even though it still has some life left in it. I need to do it sometime soon and this seems like a good time to do it with the myriad of bicycle shops in the area. And I will get to do some much needed laundry here too. I think the general public will appreciate that as much as I will! Whew!