We finalized our plans to depart Austin on Friday. One of my wife's sisters agreed to join us on the trip so we had 3 drivers to help with the journey. On Saturday morning, I loaded up the bike, drop bag, and other gear I planned to take. I also loaded up the suitcases for the 3 of us. Our plan on day 1 was to drive to Pueblo CO and spend the night there. We also agreed that we would stop in Buffalo Gap TX for lunch.
I programmed the GPS for the cafe in Buffalo Gap and we started our trip around 7:30 AM. We made good time towards Abilene. Buffalo Gap is just south and west of Abilene. We arrived to the small town just as we started to get hungry for lunch. The cafe there is part of the Perine Ranch which is famous for its beef. Neiman Marcus featured this ranch as a premium Christmas gift recently for those who wanted to spend and arm and a leg to enjoy that experience. Last Christmas, we opted for the less expensive option of just ordering a beef tenderloin from the ranch. It was fantastic and so we were looking forward to visiting the ranch. The ranch also has a fine dining restaurant with a James Beard nominated chef. However, that restaurant is only open for dinner and we opted to try the casual cafe option instead.
The menu at the cafe featured comfort food. My wife said they were supposed to be famous for their burgers. On the menu, we found only a patty melt option for burger. She and I both ordered this. My wife and sister in-law also ordered cups of the cowboy coffee. My sister in-law ordered a chicken fried steak.
All in all, the meal was rather disappointing. The chicken fried steak had an off flavor that we all thought tasted like fish. The coffee tasted like it had been sitting on the burner for too long. I posted a review about our bad experience and because I have a fairly high Google Guide rating and I got a response from the restaurant apologizing for our less than stellar experience. Before leaving town, we visited the little antique shop across the street and found some charming plates to buy and bring home. The shop also featured some nice old things like a truck and old time soda cooler with a bottle rack.
We left town after lunch and continued our drive towards Colorado. The route the GPS picked had us travel up through the pan handled into New Mexico and then take a US highway north and west to Colorado. We stopped near the border in Texas and bought gas while it was still cheap. Gas prices in New Mexico and Colorado are 30 to 50 cents per gallon higher than Texas. We stopped at Wendy's for dinner and had 3 of their delicious summer salads. On the way north and west we got to experience beautiful sunsets. I took a few photos from the car as we rolled along.
I love the twinkly effect of the reflection in the car window in this photo.
All the photos I took during our journey can be found here:
We arrived to Pueblo fairly late. We checked into our hotel room (we all 3 shared a room with 2 beds). We agreed to get up and try the coffee in the hotel and then do a hike through the downtown area by the river. The hotel coffee and breakfast were pretty good. The Hilton we stayed at featured a full self service selection of breakfast items. The coffee was pretty good, but we agreed we would look for better coffee on our walk. We packed up the car and drove a few exits further up the road to downtown and then parked near to the historic Arkansas River Walk.
The river walk area features art and information about the history of the state. There were only a few people out walking and we enjoyed cool morning weather. I enjoyed learning more about Zebulon Pike (the explorer) and the Goodnight Morning cattle trail.
Here is a photo of the river.
Some other things we saw during our walk
The last time I was in Pueblo, I photographed a bunch of murals that were near the hotel I stayed in on the way to the SR600. I found a few more murals near the river walk area on this visit. I recommend a visit to this city if you get the chance. It's not a big tourist area, but it does offer some nice things to do that don't take a lot of time.
After our walk, we were hungry and thirsty. A friend recommended a coffee shop and we found it on the map and moved our van over to that area. The shop was busy, but got delicious coffee and pastry. My sister in-law's sandwich was slow to be ready and overdone, but we decided it was the only bad thing about our experience at Solar Roast. The quiche and the lemon bar were exquisitely delicious. The lemon bar was very tart which I like better than the sweet ones you can make from box mixes at the grocery stores.
After eating and drinking coffee, we headed back to the van to continue our journey north to Denver. The drive to Denver was not the best. There is lots of construction along I-25 and we crawled along in traffic. I had to drop my wife and her sister at their hotel downtown. The downtown area was packed with people who were attending the MLB All-Star game. I had forgotten this game was happening and cursed our bad luck for all the congestion around downtown.
All the photos I took in Pueblo can be found here:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNN3s0hg6xBhiXPl1RlO-RsrQKZfXxOV1bdh92z
I successfully dropped off the family and then headed north and west towards Louisville on US 36. The highway was busy but the traffic moved efficiently. I got a text from Russ (my roommate) saying he had arrived to the hotel and was hanging out in the lobby. I arrived and parked the van. I checked us in and was glad to find out we had a first floor room. Russ and I spent the afternoon getting our bikes and drop bags organized. At 4PM we took our gear over to the Quality Inn for bike check. One of the volunteers (Karen) was kind enough to take our drop bags and hold them for the in the morning at the Quality Inn where the ride starts. I put my bike back in the van and locked it up. A group of us walked to the Italian restaurant (Parma) which was adjacent to the hotel. We had a lovely early dinner and I got to chat with Ian from NC as well as my friends Jeff and Russ from Austin. I also got to say hello to Byron who also sometimes calls Austin home.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and found that the Rock Bros glasses I planned to wear had a broken frame. I then made sure the mirror fit on to my prescription glasses and prepared to use those for the ride. I read for about an hour and then turned off the light and slept moderately well. The ride started at 5am the next day and so I set the alarm and called it a night.