Day 282 Fri 12th Aug Leadville to Moab 654km

It was a Long day, almost 11 Hours on the road, but it was a very good day.

Last night we went back to town and looked for a place to eat, but the places were packed as the town was fully booked,  this weekend there is a very famous Mountain Bike Race of over 160km, done in one go, some take 24 hours to finish as you climb 14 000 Feet, 4 600m up a mountain and then down again. We experience a town of two types of people last night, firs it was the super fit cyclist walking around the town and through all the stands and displays at the Starting\Finish Line, and the other people of the town we experienced were mostly locals and their visitor who come to Leadville to smoke some Devils Lettuce (Dagga, weed, is legal in Colorado.)

This Bicycle costs R300 000-00:

See the extra Climbing Gear attached:

The town has many walls painted, murals. And there is a vibe on the main street of Down Town .

But we could find nowhere to eat and followed the music of a band, playing very poorly, in a distance. We discovered a local little Pizza Take Away that has converted their back-yard into an outdoor area where there is a little stage and extra benches and table and chairs. The pizza was good, so was the fine wine in a can, but the band was not very good, but their audience had obviously got stuck into some weed and they danced and cheered like they were listening to a Queen Concert.

We had an early start and it was “Stands Up” at 7h30, our GPS’s was telling us it was going to be a good day’s riding:

Most of the morning was spent on mountain passes in the forest and my road looked like this in the morning:

We went over Independence Pass, and this time Milsy took the photo and I am in it, does not happen often :

This Cop, Chief Inspector Mannequin,  refused to arrest Pie, no matter how badly he broke the law:

Pie had a little “incident” that made our day, he had to glue his Heated Handle bar Grips and bit open the Super Glue, the tube exploded in his mount, obviously, and he glued his lip to his teeth, but only on the one side, so when he smiled it looked like he had a Hair-Lip, he tried to clean his hand and successfully glued his hand to his riding pants. After an embarrassing few minutes he had his hand free and then after another few minutes he could smile strait again.

Some photos of the road this morning:

Andy Boy rode with his dad today, but Andy boy fell out of favour with me last night when he had one job to do, to order our pizzas, and out of 60 options he went for the ones with interesting names, like Crocodile, (which had shrimps on) and then Mountain Goat, which was Kale !!!!!!!! and something else not meat based.)

In the afternoon, when Rocky saw the Big Rain ahead he offered his motorbike to Uncle Bob to ride, which he did.

But in the afternoon we were out of the mountains and dropped down from 3500m altitude to 1600m, and the trees disappeared and the landscape changed and looked something like this:

We decided to take a very small road instead of the Interstate, it was 150km further but followed a river in a Canyon which later opened to a green valley, we did pass through some real “Maplotter” areas and also some people who nailed their colours to the mast:

Jesus is my savior, Trump is my President.

But the heavens opened up in the afternoon and we rode into town on the back of a major cloudburst, mud washing over the road at several places due to flash-floods:

When we arrived in Moab Peens was waiting for us with a cold beer, his bike has made it this far, things are looking up for him. Pitty he chose the $60-00 Motel, and that is for 2 people sharing, Tex was not impressed: