Day 38: Ordway, CO to Pueblo, CO

Total Distance: 50.4 mi
Moving Avg: 11.2 mph
Moving Time: 4:30

Route Summary:
CO 96 W

FUCK!! My computer is severely acting up. After not too long the display
will get wacky and the machine will basically stop. It also seems the
PROM has been reset as the date is now in 1904. I'm not sure what is
going on, but it is very similar to a problem I had before. In that
case, I brought it to the Apple store and they replaced the
motherboard. There is no Apple store in Pueblo. This is not good at all!
I called one computer place, and they reffered me to another, but it is
closed. I'll call them first thing in the morning, but I really doubt
they can doing anything in the time frame I need. I really don't know
what I'm going to do. If they can't fix it in 24 hours (which I really
doubt they will be able to), I guess either I learn to deal with getting
very very short chunks of computer time (save frequently,
basically. It's what I'm doing now. I get between 1 and 20 mintues
before it goes belly up.) or maybe I could fedex it home, have my
parents bring the machine to an Apple store and then fedex it to some
place ahead of me on the route. Unfortunatly, I don't think I'll be able
to get that to happen before Montrose, where I plan to split off from
the ACA route. Of course, if I do follow the ACA route, I don't need a
laptop anywhere near as much but I'd still really like to have it. I
rather like being able to type my journal entries, and I'm sure I'll
want to take lots of pictures in the Rockies. Fuck fuck fuck. Not cool,
even one little bit.

Other than that, the day was fine. It was a very short day, and there
were gentle tail winds. I can see the Rockies looming on the horizon,
very distinctly. After a day of rest here in Pueblo, I start
climbing. The next three days are going to bascially be all climbing. I
hit a couple small (very small) hills today, and realized how little
climbing I've been doing in the last week or so. The mountains are
really going to be a challenge.  

I left Brandon and Kevo at the hostel this morning, but ran into them
again in the bike shop that is one the route. I replaced my mirror, and
got new brake pads. Of course, I got the wrong brake pads, but I'll go
and exchange them tomorrow (the bike shop is very near the motel). I
took off the old pads, and they are completely shot. Worn all the way
down. I think they must have been dragging on the rim for a quite a
while to have had that effect. I'm surprised I didn't notice, I mean all
the energy to wear them down came from me. Oops.

I really can't concentrate on writing a full journal entry for the day,
because the computer issue is just weighing so heavily on my mind. It is
really severely bringing me down. Actually, right now the machine is
usable even though it has hit a glitch. The screen is shifted about .5in
to the right, and the cursor has turned into a giant distorted block
about 1in^2, but the machine is still running and accepting keyboard
input. Except, it doesn't quite redraw right, so when emacs linewraps it
gets all funky. A C-l fixes that, but still it is annoying. If it
continues like this, I might be able to deal until I arrive. Or maybe I
can stop in Salt Lake City, where I'm pretty sure there is an Apple
store. I suspect if the shop can't fix it tomorrow I'll just try to live
with it for a while and see how that goes.