Days 37 & 38, Finally, something to look at

Due to lack of cellphone coverage most likely due to a combination of remote location and extreme weather conditions, we did not post yesterday but today write from Pueblo where we'll take a rest day tomorrow! And well-earned after 12 days of riding straight.

The pictures of nothingness best describe yesterday's riding. Nothing to look at allll day long. When all you have to look at is nothing, your eyes constantly scan the horizon in hopes that the nothing might turn in to something. But the most that ever happens is that you get pretty excited about far-off clumps of trees.

We rode the past couple of days with a fellow x-c-er called Aaron, who has dubbed us the 'wind fairies' because as soon as we met up with him, he had his first days of tailwinds. We're pretty psyched ourselves to have such an honorable nickname especially since it works in our favor! We pulled out 80 miles yesterday and 92 today with relative ease and speed.

We stayed last night in Haswell, so named because back in the day it was the town that 'has a well'. Haswell, besides being endowed with the wonder of water, also is home to the nation's smallest jail. As jails go, its pretty cute and comes equipped with such necessities as a wood stove and a copy of the book 'The Oil Lamps of China.' The jail might have been better accomodations than our tent in the town park last night. I doubt the jail toilets had spiders so large they could be used as Broadway props, and at least the jail had walls tough enough to stand up to 50-mile an hour winds unlike our poor tent in the thunderstorms.

But those winds (minus the t-storms) are quite nice when they're at your back on a bike, as they were this morning. The stark nothingness of the prairie this morning was haunting. The only noise for 40 miles was the whistling of the wind. We slowly came back into civilization as the day ended, as well as into sight of the mountains! They appeared faintly on the flat horizon at first, and seem more of a reality now that we've had lots of miles to ponder them and our imminent ascent of them. But for now, a lovely rest day tomorrow as we prep for going up and over these awesome Rockies. We got a 'warm clothing' package from Carrie Mumma today (thanks Mom!) and are ready to face the cold and climbs with our usual two babes gusto.