Day 35, Ordney Springs to Pueblo, 40 miles

If weet-bix is the breakfast of champions, what do untoasted English muffins smeared with Vegemite make us? I note this because today I bid a sad goodbye to a salty friend; the travelling jar of vegemite. I scraped its' very last milligrams onto our pale muffins and threw away the empty jar. It was emotional.

Salted up and ready to sweat it out, we were on the road by 7:30; enthused to reach the bright lights and big city of Pueblo after so many one-horse towns. On the US 50 highway, we met an old guy on a recumbant. He had just had shoulder surgery so couldn't ride a normal bike, but wanted to 'get in shape'... So he was pedalling from his Seattle home to visit his son in Washington DC. Way to recover from surgery! He was a heavy-set guy so we marvelled his dedication at half-way across the country.

In terms of scenery, we passed desert-like terrain with low hills, cactus,and some grazing black bulls. On the outskirts of a Boone, a lama ran alongside us beside its' fence when I yelled 'Tina come get some ham!'

Onwards to Pueblo, we passed billboards with increasing frequency. Among them a few pro-life messages such as 'My mommy chose life'. Quite. ­Alongside the road we had our first gopher-sightings. I spotted one as it dashed into its' hole and alerted Matt; 'Hey a sandy stote-like animal just ran into that mound!' I didn't identify the rodent as a gopher, having been mislead by Caddy Shack into thinking gophers were brown, wombat-like critters that dance. Luckily, Matt is more fauna-inclined, and was able to set me straight when we passed several more of them. One more American native to add to our list of roadside sightings.

Back in Ordney I had booked a cheap Pueblo motel, which we now headed for. A classic American U-shaped, two story set-up that time forgot. (I am writing this on a king-sized bed of maroon floral glory, while beer cools in a wooden-veneered fridge.)

The tourist guides in the motel room gushed about Pueblos' Riverside Walk - which we duely investigated. The river walk is more like Disneyland than the Leftbank. Underwhelmed, we went and bought some beer and Colorado redeemed itself spectacularly with its' '90 shilling' IPA.

A sign we have been on the road a while; we were positively giddy with the revelation that the motel features free laundry facilities. We have laundered everything down to our camping pillows; which Matt nursed happily from the dryer, moved by their scent and renewed shape.

After that excitement, we drank more beers then headed to Subway for dinner. We fell asleep watching Southpark reruns in the State it is set in.