I’ve been remiss in posting a new entry lately, so I wanted to give a quick update. At the end of last post I was in Pueblo, Colorado heading north to Denver. I stayed in another warm showers house with Ellen, a very nice host who cooked spaghetti for dinner and provided a nice quiet private room. She was recovering from a serious broken ankle she suffered while cycling a few months ago.
The way north wasn’t too bad at first. The weather was nice but windy and the road uphill. Leaving Colorado Springs, though I had a real tough day. It was brutally windy with gusts up to 50 mph and freezing headwinds. I had every stitch of clothing on me…5 layers on top, plus leggings and walking pants, two pairs of socks, a hat and hood, gloves, and a face mask:
The wind was so bad it took me six hours to go 20 miles. As I stopped to fix a flat tire, a guy in a pickup truck offered me a ride several miles to the next town. I gratefully accepted.
It snowed that night in Castle Rock and the next day was cold again but not quite as windy. Eventually I made my way to the town of Morrison, where my sister picked me up and we drove the last 8 miles (but 1800 ft elev gain) to Golden.
I have been resting, planning, shopping and overhauling my bike for the past 10 days. The weather is cold here so I won’t be heading out any time soon. Besides, the views are great and you can see herds of elk feeding around the neighborhood.
It snowed a couple days which made for some beautiful images on the mountainside. But not great for cycling.
So as long as the weather stays cold I will not be going anywhere. The plan was to leave around the first week of May, headed into Wyoming and Idaho. But we’ll see. I don’t relish cycling in the cold windy mountains again so I may have to wait a little longer for the weather to warm up.
Meanwhile I am planning my route in Japan and studying Japanese. Stay tuned!
Time for a thorough comparison of Mexico to the US.
Well here is a quick one, not thorough:
1. Mexico is cheaper. A couple dollars can you several tacos and a beer. Hotels go from $5 to $20 typically. Of course you can get more expensive ones if you want but a decent one is about $20.
2. The food is great. Tacos, shrimp cocktail, tostadas, seafood, beef, it’s all good, and only a couple of stomach issues.
3. People are friendly as I mentioned in previous blog posts.
4. Great scenery. If you like the beach as I do, the costa chica is phenomenal.
5. The history of the ancient cultures is interesting to learn about.
6. The weather was great. Sunny and warm almost the whole time.
7. There are plenty of buses to catch if you get tired of cycling.
8. On the negative side, the roads are bad, with potholes and few shoulders. Dangerous for bicycles. There are few minor paved roads so I was forced to ride on busy highways most of the time. With a mountain bike I could probably have gotten on smaller dirt roads which would have been a better experience.
9. The country where I was is densely populated so there were few places where I could free camp.
10. Just the lack of certainty when going into small shops to get food. You never know what they are going to have.
11. Lots of garbage on the road as I mentioned before. It’s pretty disgusting sometimes.
12. Most people do not speak English so if you don’t know some Spanish you could be quite lost. Luckily my Spanish is pretty good.
13. The bike shops are pretty basic. Not too many spare parts that fit my bike.
That’s about all I can think of right now. If you want more detail jut let me know.