Day 41 Pueblo - Colorado - 64 miles - Total 2365 miles

Black-Eyed Susans
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We were 32 miles away, when we heard about the shooting at a school in Pueblo. It was our destination for today, and the place for a much needed rest day, before tackling the mountains that now fill the horizon, and have been gradually getting more definition over the last couple of days. Pueblo is the third largest City in Colorado, and the news of the shooting, was a reminder to us that we were about to leave the relative 'safety' of 'small town' America, and move into an entirely different environment, for a while at least. On checking the news tonight, it turns out not to be one of those awful random acts of selfish violence, that have happened far to many times in the schools over here, but a 'simple' act of revenge carried out by an ex-boyfriend in a drive-by shooting on a rival outside the school, it resulted in the new boyfriend being wounded in the knee, but thankfully, no one else injured by the other five bullets that were fired into the crowd of innocent youngsters. A very unpleasant, thoughtless, and dangerous act, that brings home the reality of the potential of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

First Stop Wal-Mart
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Other things are certainly changing as well, after an extremely windy night, we awoke to a cloud filled, and heavy sky, and a significantly lower temperature at 20 degrees. The wind seemed to have spent its-self, and was now barley noticeable during the ride, a big change from the last few days! Due to various factors, we had a late start at 11.30, for the 60 miles to Pueblo, by then the sun had burnt through the clouds to reveal another Big Blue Sky, but due to the fact that, as we have been fighting the wind for two days, we have also been climbing 1460 feet to a height of 4692 ft, and although the sun was strong, (as my sore nose and lips can show), the altitude kept the temperature down, to what was an unusually comfortable level, and tonight i donned my long trousers for the first time for the walk to the restaurant.

Clive and Cantaloupe
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We were camped last night at a Kamp of America site, quite a nice one, apart from the numerous and vicious mosquitos, that were gorging themselves on any exposed flesh they could find, as well as some bits that were covered up. The site was free again thanks to Robs charity, and the good work of his 'back office'.  We stopped at a nearby Walmart, to stock up, and saw for the first time the local speciality of chilies being roasted outside in the car park. The setup consists of a large wire drum that i filled with a the entire contents of a box of large sweet chilli peppers, it is then turned by a motor, as a gas flame is played on them, until they are blackened,and juicy, and hen tipped into a bag and handed to the waiting line of customers. As we  watched, it did cross my mind that the process seemed a bit out of place with the image of Walmart, but thought no more about it as we rode off. Later on, when Rob caught up with me at a filling station, he told me that he had stopped at a farm that was also roasting Chilies to sample some, the farmer was complaining about the fact that Walmart wanted its corporate finger in every 'pie' and by providing the chilies to its customers, were denning a market that had traditionally belonged to the growers. An example of a huge multi Million dollar business, putting the squeeze on the local economy, all for a few cents a box.

Some as big as your Head!
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With this in mind we decided to do some direct shopping ourselves to redress the balance, and stopped a roadside farm store for some Cantaloupe 'the best there is' said the sign, and it certainly was delicious. The outside stalls were being watched over by a cheeky old Chinaman, with a lose command of English, who having seen that we enjoyed the first one, kept on trying to sell us a couple more football sized fruits, as we tried to explain to him that we couldn't carry them on the bikes. Payment was made to the owner inside, his hight made greater by his stetson, as, with a squeaky Slim Pickins like voice, though tobacco stained teeth, he told us about the 'old days', when they would load  ''200 hogs in a trailer, and guarantee delivery over the mountains 22 hours later', the driver would just have to drive right around the clock, to make it', i thought about those pigs standing in the trailer for all those hours,  ''a'corse, you cant  do it now a days'', he said, ah, i thought, so the animal welfare lobby has swung into action, ''no, not with these new laws'', he continued, '' they wont let a driver go 22 hours nonstop no more''.