I tried not to get lost on the bike trails. I was stopping and taking pictures, basically lollygagging. When I had some crazy idea to ride down 85. It wasn't too bad but there was a lack of shoulder.
I made it to Sedalia and was at the gas station. Some old guy in a pirate hat was admiring my pirate flag. He asked where I was headed, "Colorado Springs", "Hell that's still 50 miles away." I told him I was well aware of that and that I had a plan to camp if I didn't make it there tonight.
Well he lives in a teepee and told me it was going to be a hellishly cold night. As per his advice, I decided to hitch hike from Castle Rock. I gave him my pirate flag to put on his teepee.
I found a nice big entrance ramp onto 25 south. Lo and behold it was occupied by Landry and Danny, their backpacks and guitar. They are trying to hitch hike to Texas. We sat there together, I tried to play the guitar which I am sure didn't help us with getting a ride. Landry played and I sang, but they soon tired of trying to get a ride and went to a store to get food. They figured I would have better luck by myself. As a parting gift they gave me the guitar, a slightly beat up Epiphone with a built in tuner and leather strap.
I was over the moon excited and am making terrible music with it now. They were nice very nice young men. I hope their adventure is fun. I will probably see them down the road.
I shortly thereafter got picked up by a caravan of Mexican roofers. They had two trucks and a trailer. We put my bike onto one of them, I grabbed the bag that always goes with me and settled in for a car ride that would have taken me 5 hours to cycle. Alberto and Jesus were nice and dropped me off 6 miles from where I was going.
By this time it was dark, I got smacked by a tree branch pretty good riding too fast. I headed to Nevada St close to the Colorado College campus. Belal is a host with warm showers a free hospitality service for bike tourers. When I got to the house Alejandro and Rafael greeted me at the door and helped bring my bike in out of the cold.
The three of them live in the same complex and either attend or work at the college. We ate some very gourmet burgers with garlic, bleu cheese, and guacamole on them cooked up by Alejandro. Belal has done a bike tour through Europe. They were all very interesting and I wished we had more time to talk. Belal showed me to an upstairs room that I could stay in and all of them scattered for bed or studying, so I shouldn't play this guitar too loudly. I have met such cool people on this journey.
Tomorrow, day two of the solo tour, I ride to Pueblo without cheating and catching a ride. I set up another place to stay there, so I won't be out in the cold.
