Blinded By the Light!

We traveled west into Colorado until about 7 PM but the sun was in my eyes and the limited visibility wasn't worth the risk so we stopped at a Super 8 Motel in La Junta for the night. Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and maybe more tomorrow.

If Vernon and Shawn are reading the blog, "thanks for the brakes!". The bike is running well and I'm stopping with much less drama. Theresa and I no longer have to slide our feet to gain additional friction when going downhill. Nice job guys. If anyone reading this blog ever needs mechanical work, I give Clark Motorsports, http://www.clarkmotorsports.com/ two thumbs and two cool feet up!

Kansas and Eastern Colorado are pretty plain as driving sights go. we have seen enough of oil pump jacks, grain elevators, silos and such but we were amazed by a sight in Lamar, Colorado. The Colorado Beef Feed Lot was something to behold. From a distance it appeared to be a huge black patch on the land but when you get close you recognize the darkness as tens of thousands of cows. Probably enough beef to supply McDonalds worldwide for months. The feed lots were packed and extended down Route 50 for well over a mile. The depth from the highway is probably more than half a mile. An up close photograph would not tell the story of the size of this place so I snipped from a satellite image to illustrate the incredible size of the project. I recon the dark half circle at the left of the photo is under a mile in diameter and all of the black property to the right of that circle is high density cows.

To service an operation that big takes railroad trains, and lots of them. I'm sure the track in front of our hotel service many other facilities, but the stream of 90+ car trains has been nearly non-stop all evening. I'd say 4 and hour and it's 12:53 PM as I write this!

The Colorado Tourist Information Center was great! First, there were three lovely ladies who lavished their well informed attention on us. Theresa got to grind corn into cornmeal, the hard way... stone tools.

I got to see a wind turbine propeller up close. This GE Blade was about 50 yards long and it is only half as large as some!

They also had a very well preserved steam locomotive. I may never pass a Tourist information Center again.