Atlantic to Pacific Cycling Journey 2011: Day 34 Pueblo to Royal Gorge

Monday. June , 2011

Miles 59.6 Total miles 2276.64 Miles Daily Avg. 66.96

Awoke this morning to rain, cold and wind so we stay in the hotel a few hours before heading back to Pueblo. We arrived back in Pueblo at 9:00 and found a small diner for breakfast. By 10:30 we were ready to ride, rain, cold, wind included. We headed out and with an hour the rain stopped, the air warmed, and the wind increased as we headed toward the Rocky Mountains. It is rather intimidating seeing these huge mountain looming in the distance. Knowing over the next three day we are going up and over Hoosier Pass, 11,541 vertical feet the highest point on our trip. Tonight we are at 5,341 vertical feet. We have some climbing to do.

My nephew Michael and his friend Jeremy have joined us at Royal Gorge for a few days of camping and cycling. We are staying at The Starlite campground. The Starlite is a vintage campground with vintage cars and travel trailers from the 50's. The old trailers can be rented by the night if you are into nostalgia. Reminds me of the trailers used in "I Love Lucy" as Lucy and Ricky traveled across America. It is a beautiful setting with the mountains in front of us.

To avoid paying the $25.00 per person charged to walk across and view the Royal Gorge, the campground manager told us of a terrific viewpoint of the Royal Gorge and bridge. The views were spectacular of the bridge and the gorge with the Arkansas River raging 100's of feet below.

We had planned on preparing dinner at the campsite until we discovered there is a “no burn law” in effect with includes any outside flames such as our Coleman stove. Instead we went to a local restaurant frequented by the white water river guides. The five of us had our first experience with fried rocky mountain oysters. Andrew Zimmerman watch out, we enjoyed them and are looking forward to trying them prepared in some manner other than fried.