Safe Travels, Fellow Rider

More from Jody on the trip from Walsenburg to La Junta on Saturday, September 29:

Terrific ride from Walsenburg to La Junta - great to be back on the bike after a few days off. Enjoyable ride, favorable weather, nice road, beautiful scenery and creepy-crawlies skittering around. I've never seen tarantulas in their natural setting. Made my day.

Also met a fellow bike rider. Monsieur Gates of Montreal rode across the highway to flag me down. He's been on the road since August 5, toured the Canadian side of the Great Lakes, then down through Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and now Colorado, on his way to San Diego and eventually to Mexico. His sturdy old bike is loaded down with panniers for camping and a heavy chain. He said the rig weighs one hundred pounds, and I think his estimate may be light.

He asked about the route west of Walsenburg and I told him about the passes, especially Wolf Creek Pass. M. Gates said he would walk the bike up the pass. I wished him good luck. As we parted, I told him to watch for tarantulas. He'd seen four already and wondered how those sightings would affect him in arranging his sleeping bag that night. Safe travels, fellow rider.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
     ~Samuel Johnson