Today is the big day. We are riding over La Veta Pass. It is a 125 mile day with 5620 feet of climbing up to an altitude over
9,000 feet. We start riding at 4:00 AM because we know it is going to be a long day.
Louie is forced to dodge a pack of wild dogs in order to get Bec some coffee. They were all hanging out at the local speedy-mart
just waiting for a biker to decide to come by. They do not bother folks getting out of cars, but they sure do bother us. Bec is
determined to have her morning brew so she brushes them aside and finds the coffeepot. We sip coffee as we ride.
We stop in a small town, Questra, for breakfast. It was crowded right up next to the hills. After taking off we encounter a
pack of wild Hogs (Harley Dudes, that is). They are all on their way south. It is the first of many that we will be seeing over the next
few days. They must be on their way to some sort of rally. They honk and wave. We wave back. They seem to have a liking for us,
perhaps because we have two wheels instead of four. Louie says it is because they know how hard it is to push a Harley so they
think about how hard it would be to ride a bike. They keep Bec entertained for most of the day with their honking and waving.
We pedal on through the desert climbing up and down the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We stop in San Louis
for lunch. Again the town was stuck between the hills. It even had a junkyard of very old cars that had to climb right up the hill for
lack of anywhere else to be. The snow-capped mountains were so close we could almost touch them.
The scenery kept changing. It went from desert to forest to foothills and then to mountains. We could see black clouds in the
distance. We stopped briefly in Fort Garland and then began the main climb up the La Veta Pass. Louie is fine, just a little sluggish.
Bec, on the other hand, is having all kinds of problems. Her muscles hurt all over. Her lungs feel as if they are filling with fluid.
Her head pounds. Nothing to do but continue. The mountain gods see all this and are angered that we dare cross their pass on a
tandem pulling a trailer. They start hurling lightening bolts at us. Thunder rumbles as soon as the flash hits. Rain splashes down.
Louie stops to put on rain gear. Bec says, "Hurry up! Hurry up! I am afraid! We are going to get hit by lightening!" She hangs onto
the bike, knuckles white. Louie takes his time. Then he says, "Well we stopped at the Indian Casino and did not win any money.
I figure my chance of getting hit by lightening is about the same as my chance of wining any money at the Casino. So I think we
will be fine!"
Bec’s lungs are burning. Rain alternates between sun and brilliant rainbows. At last we reach the summit. After fifteen
miles of climbing we see a sign that says five miles to the summit. It was a very long
5 miles. Though the grade alternated between 6 and 8% it felt much harder due to the altitude. Coasting down the other side, we
get glimpses of jagged mountains barely visible in the clouds. The road is wet so we keep our speed around 50 mph.
We ride into Walsenburg. We wanted to camp in the State Park but since it is Memorial Day weekend, it is full. We thought
they would have a hiker, biker area but they do not. We end up at a curious motel run by a German couple who scurries around
doing everything! The wife waits tables in the restaurant and then cooks and serves the food. She even takes the money after.
Louie has Hunter Schitzel. We are not sure what it is but he likes it. The husband takes care of the front desk. In the morning
we see the Grandma dragging out the vacuum and the wife taking care of the front desk.
In the morning, we decide to hang around Walsenburg for the day. We investigate the State Park but winds and lightening
come up. We investigate an old coal fired electrical plant. Bec is afraid of lightening hitting the bike again, but Louie figures it
would hit some of the old electrical structures before it would hit us. Louie does a little showing off on the dirt path by the plant
and we end up taking a closer look at the ground. Louie gets scratched this time instead of Bec. Bec finally has learned to keep
her knee inside the handlebars when visiting the ground.
Rick, a nice young man from Texas out on a walk-about, meets up with us at the campground. We share dinner and
stories with him. He is backpacking and having adventures before he has to go back to school. We watch nature’s light
show in the distance and huddle all together under a structure at the RV Park where we are spending the night. It looks to us
as if the lightening is closer to the State Park than to us. It is good we did not stay there. Rick is enamoured with the mountains
since he has none in Texas. "Why, it’s so flat you can see your dog run away for five miles," he says. He laughs at us because
we were amazed at the gourds we saw alongside the road. "What, you all don’t have gourds where you come from?" he says.