Continuing on to New Mexico

Tuesday, 9/22/2015 -- a full day!

 

Our bike ride in Wyoming would have to wait until we were on the road for a few miles, and we found somewhat of a gem of a place to stop -- the town of Douglas. As we pulled in to the parking lot of the Chamber of Commerce, that we had found by chance, a welcoming woman met us outside the door with brochures and information about the train cars we must visit. (my friend JPD should be here!!).

 

 

The locomotive is a beauty

 

The Dining Car

 

The Sleeping Car held lots of interesting sights

 

The bed rolls out from the wall

 

Your roommette has it's own toilet...

 

...the lid of the toilet (in front of the bed here) closed to become a seat -- wise use of space.

 

1800s wardrobe

 

The Day Car

 

Seats could face each other or...

 

...be easily switched to individual seating.

Each of us spent a good amount of time strolling through and taking pictures of the three cars that are open on display. Except for the sleeping car, there has been a lot of renovation done on these cars. More is in the plans and seems to be an ongoing endeavor.

We finished up with the train cars and returned to the visitor center. We wanted to know of a good place to ride our bikes for a few miles and we learned of the Heritage Trail that runs alongside of the North Platte River.

 

Becky told us all about the trail and gave us a map to follow to get there

 

End of the trail

 

The North Platte River in Douglas Wyoming

 

A "struck" tree

 

Bette-Ann found a different tree to photograph

 

My bike is in Wyoming -- amidst some goathead thorns I had forgotten to protect her from

The first little glitch in the day -- a punctutre in my rear tire. When I pulled out the thorn I could hear the hiss (slightly). It was a small puncture and I was able to ride back to the visitor center. I did not want to spend the long time it takes me to change my tire, so we stopped in Fort Collins (hi Lucie) and found a bike shop. I was so happy to now have my tire fixed so we could ride tomorrow morning.

We found our way out of Fort Collins and continued on our way into the heavy commuting traffic of Denver. The second glitch of the day as we spent at least an hour making our way through Denver. It was so frustrating and boring that the two of us ate a whole box of cookies. And I had not even known we had cookies until B-A said "I think I need a cookie". COOKIE? I somewhat yelled. We have cookies? And so we ate them.

A little south of Colorado Springs we found a motel in the town of Fountain where I also found -- the third glitch of the day --- my professionally repaired bike tire was pancake flat!!!!

What I can say is -- we had mainly a good day with a few challenges thrown in. We remain in good spirits through it all and continue to have a great time. (I will be taking my bike to a bike shop in Sante Fe tomorrow, and have called the shop in Fort Collins for a refund. They will be getting back to me, and they assure me that they will get a refund to me but the bookkeeper is not here right now and they themselves do not know how to do this.)

That's all.

 

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