Ironically enough, when I woke up at about 6:00, I felt horrible. My head hurt, my stomach was queezy, and in general I felt like a truck just ran over me. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because I had just crossed the threshold into my fourth decade or the fact that I went out last night, but rather the fact that the sun and the heat from the two days before had finally taken their toll. I gave up all hope for an early start and rolled over and went back to bed.

When I woke up an hour and a half later, I still had a headache, but was feeling a little bit better. I drank about 4 glasses of water, packed up my things and left the Hotel Ordway and went to the nearest cafe. When I went to get my bike out of the garage, I had a flat tire. Great! Thirty is as bad as they say.

At about 10:00, after fixing my tire, eating my breakfast and drinking about 2 quarts of coffee, I was ready to hit the road. It was much later than I had hoped to leave and I really contemplating just staying put for a day, but I still wanted to get to Carbondale by the 3rd. In order to do that, I had to ride 95 miles today, a task I was really not looking forward to.

Usually, after about an hour of riding, all the cobwebs from the night before disappear and I start to get in a groove and enjoy the cycling. Today, in theme with the rest of the morning, the cobwebs never disappeared, they just got thicker. The heat, as well as the wind, was merciless. I prayed for trees, but there were none to be had. If I were riding my bike across these roads 70 years earlier, I'd be in the middle of the dust bowl. To be honest, I can't imagine those days being any worse than today. Colorado is suffering it's worst drought in over 50 years and there isn't one speck of green to be seen for miles and miles. It is hot, rugged country.

With my water almost gone, I started to get nervous about dehydration. On my map, there was a town about 5 miles away, but it looked just like all of the other dilapadated towns that I had been through over the last few days. There were no services available in town, no gas station, no store, or no cafe. If I had any luck at all, there would be a couple of houses that I could stop at to beg for water. To my amazed delight, as soon as I pulled into town, I was greeted by a worn down city park. There was a rusty swing set, one of those things that you sit on while someone spins you around and around until you puke, a pair of picnic benches under a little gazebo, and low and behold a water pump in the middle of the park. I quickly went up to the pump, filled up my water bottles and drank about a half a gallon of water. Too hot and tired to go on, I parked my bike, took out my thermarest mattress and laid it out on a picnic table to take a nap. I slept for an hour and a half and didn't notice one person walk or drive by.

Feeling rejuvinated from my nap and the water, I decided to go on to the next town on the map. Eads was supposed to have a place to camp, a cafe and a store. It was 20 miles away, but the sun wasn't nearly as bright, so I decided to go for it.

The beginning of town was marked by the intersection of routes 96 and 287. Route 287 came down from the north, turned left onto 96 for about 3 blocks (the length of town) and then continued south. When I got closer to town, I noticed a lot of flashing lights in the distance, right around the intersection. Getting even closer, I saw tractor trailer tipped over on it's side with a lot of people standing around staring at it. I decided to investigate the situation, so I rode my bike next to a few locals that were standing around and asked the guy with the NASCAR hat what was going on.

"Stupid truck driver. Everyone knows you can't go 45 round these turns. Happens all the time, but they never learn."

"We were hanging out at the bar down the street when we heard this big crash," jumped in the bearded guy standing next to the NASCAR cap wearing guy, "then we heard all this metal screechin'. Knew right away someone came round that corner too quick. Joe over there, came out to investigate while we all just stayed where we were. Then he comes back about 15 minutes later with a case and a half of beer. Damn truck was carrying a full load of beer. Bottles were smashed all over the place, but Joe picked some up before the cops got there. When he came back to the bar, we all saw what he was carrying, so we high-tailed it over here to get some for ourselves. We was too late, though. Cops were already here and taped off the accident scene."

As I looked around the accident scene, I saw two tow trucks, three state troopers, an ambulance, and the truck driver with about a 4 square inch piece of gauze taped to his head. The guys who drove the tow trucks were inserting three huge orange balloon type objects under the truck to later inflate and hopefully tip the truck back on its wheels. The whole area smelt like a bar around 3 in the morning and one of the state troopers was sweeping the glass off the street.