Day 37: Eads, CO to Ordway, CO Total Distance: 62.2 mi Moving Avg: 12.0 mph Moving Time: 5:11 Climbing: 950 ft Elev: 100 ft Route Summary: CO 96 W Today was a really interesting day. When I woke up in the morning, there were two notes outside my door. One was from Andrew wishing me a good trip, and the other was from a pair of westbound cyclists (Brandon and Kevo) who were eating lunch in the restaurant next door. I rushed over to meet them, and we agreed to ride together today (they were also heading for Ordway). By the time I got back and was ready to go, two more westbound cyclists had shown up, so we left Eads as posse of 5 (and ran into a group of three eastbounders in the first 2 minutes of riding). It was an interesting experience riding with other people. First off, they all set a much faster pace than I usually would, so I was struggling to keep up. I drafted on them for most of the way. The other two stopped for a nap at Haswell, but the three of us pressed on for Ordway. I drafted on them until the cross winds got so bad that it made drafting impossible. Near the end of the day, we split up, but we met again at the Hotel Ordway, a cool hostel in Ordway. Talking with all the other cyclists I've met and riding with Brandon and Kevo made several things clear to me. First, as I already knew, I'm packed way too heavy. Second, I'm one of the slower riders on the trail. I'm only averaging about 65 or 70 miles a day, and most people I've encountered have been riding 90-100 miles a day on average. Third, I'm one of the least frugal riders on the road (tonight was the first night after almost two months on the road that Brandon and Kevo were paying for lodging). Most poeple camp way way more than me. I think I can live with these things. I will be sending some stuff home in Pueblo, but even so I'll still have way more than most people. As one of them put it, I'm touring easy (pun intended, I'm riding a Tour Easy bike). It has in fact been a pretty relaxed tour. I haven't focused too much on "just getting there," as I am very much want to do. Admittedly, there were several places I probably should have stopped where I pressed on in the name of time saving and I'm leaning towards the northern route through Utah despite loosing out on scenery. Even so, I'm just not pushing myself that hard. At the end of each day, I'm tired, but not exhausted. And it is also all relative; compared to the other riders on the trail I'm traveling in first class comfort on a well padded seat but compared the other 99.999% percent of the world that isn't riding across the country... The hostel is pretty neat. It doesn't have A/C, but I think I'll live. The owner was born and raised here, and was around for the first TransAm ride in 1976. She has a cool little certificate and everything.