We were a bit sluggish getting started in the morning at the Cobblestone Inn because we were trying another night ride (avoiding 98 degree heat and any biting flies) but we hadn’t slept quite enough the previous afternoon and evening so getting up was hard. We got up at about 130 and didn’t have much to pack so should’ve been out of there by 215 or so, but we didn’t leave until 300 Part of that was our slow moving, but part of that also was the kind front desk dude Bob made us an unsolicited hot breakfast. We didn’t want it, actually, as we wanted to just ride, but we wanted to accept his generous gesture so we sat and ate and chatted with him for a bit. He was interesting - super kind, a total bullshitter/braggart, and a terrible listener. I was tired of him after 2 minutes, literally. But his kind side shone through and we really appreciated his thoughtfulness and the energy boost. I had already eaten when we went downstairs to leave and we’re surprised by his already-prepared food gift, but I ate all the scrambled eggs and took I took the (terrible) Canadian bacon to go in a ziploc bag (and later tossed it to the squirrels and birds). He even thoughtfully made Vanesa’s breakfast vegetarian, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and a side of cottage cheese, which she also dutifully ate despite having already eaten oatmeal earlier. It turns out that the extra calories were VERY helpful as we ended up riding a lot more today than anticipated. Our plan was to ride about 60 miles to Ordway, where we’d made a hotel reservation with a gruff dude over the phone the day before. He said if we rode overnight and arrived early the room wouldn’t be ready until 11-12 anyway but we could wait around if we wanted and get in when the room was cleaned. He DID ensure to ask that m, if we did get checked in early, would we also be leaving early, because if we didn’t leave early “it’d be like you’re staying a day and a half”. His strong implication was that that would be trying to take advantage of him and give us more time for no more money. I assured him we’d be leaving before sunrise and that seemed to appease him. The ride to Ordway was AMAZING!!! We saw the bright, full moon all night long in a clear sky, the rising of the molten sun in its full grandiosity from the second before it peeked over the horizon, and then BOTH the sun and moon in the sky simultaneously for quite a while after sunrise (the sun in our helmet mirrors, the moon in the sky ahead of us)! There was either no wind or a nice cross/tailwind, and the road incline was gentle and rolling with lots of downhills, long and gradual. Just a lovely bike ride. We made good time and felt strong, and when we got to Sugar City, 55 miles in and only 5 miles from our destination, by 8:00, we stopped for breakfast at the Sugar City Cafe. It was a local dive, the only restaurant in town. The food was alright but the owner was the only person in this tiny, local place and she had to cook, take orders, serve the food, and take payments. So service was slow. But she was also kind of a grouch. But when we were preparing to pay and leave, another patron stood up and said to the owner “I’ll be taking care of their breakfast”. What?! What a kind gesture. He had only chatted with for half a second in the restaurant while we ate so it was a total surprise! We thanked him and headed out but he came outside a few minutes later with his friend as we were preparing to leave so we were able to talk with him a bit more; his name is Eddie and he lives in Rocky Ford, CO, which he says is the watermelon capital of the world. His buddy Jamie was also super kind and kept saying “Godspeed to you guys, but you won’t need it, you’re gonna be fine”. We got a picture and the pedaled the easy 5 miles to Ordway. When we arrived, we located the Hotel Ordway where we’d made the reservation and I walked inside. The lobby was deserted and the lights were off but there was a button to press for desk service. I pressed the button and about a minute later the gruff dude from the phone walked out and I told him that we were Dennis and Vanesa here to check in, with our service dog Maui, and happy to wait to check in until our room was ready. Out of nowhere he blew up on me when I mentioned the dog and told me, we’ll basically yelled at me, that they were no pets allowed. I calmly told him that she isn’t a pet, she’s a qualified service dog. He raised his voice further and yelled that we couldn’t stay there, that he doesn’t care if she’s a service dog and that I should’ve told him that when I made the reservation. “How could you expect other people to sleep in a room where your dirty dog has been?!?!”, he continued. told him that allowing a service dog into your place of business is actually a law and he wasn’t having it. He walked away saying that he was canceling my reservation and he slammed the door and was gone. I walked outside and told Vanesa what he had happened and she decided that she wanted to go back in and try to calmly talk to him herself and see if she could educate him about service dog laws both federal and in the state of Colorado. As it turned out, Vanesa came out less than a minute later having had the exact same experience with him yelling at her and telling her to leave and that he was canceling the reservation. He repeated the line about how could you expect someone to sleep in a room after your dirty dog did too. Passionately, she said. She told him that she wanted to have a conversation with him and show him the written service dog laws she carries with her, and that she did not want to call the police to do it. He told her to go ahead and call the police. Vanesa did make a call to the local sheriff’s department (neither of us wanted to stay there any longer but V really wanted to help this guy get educated) and after she got in touch with an officer she was informed that since the service dog law is not a criminal law, rather it’s a civil law, and that the local sheriff’s department only enforces criminal laws, there was nothing they could do to help her and that all she could do was take him to court and sue him. Vanesa was flabbergasted by that response but was calm and cordial with the police the entire time, only telling them truthfully at the end of the call that she was disappointed that the first time she chose to make a call to the police for assistance with a business not adhering to service dog law she wasn’t able to get help from the police. Anyway, we decided to leave that town and that energy behind and take advantage of the tail winds and still relatively early time of the day (10:00 AM) and head to Pueblo before it got really hot. We rode those 50 miles in a pretty spirited fashion because we were really motivated. Fortunately the roads were pretty easy in terms of incline and traffic, and we stopped at a couple of convenience stores along the way to cool ourselves and the dog down by getting some clothing/fur wet. It was tolerable until we got within about 9 miles of Pueblo and then we ended up riding on terrible US Hwy 50 with tons of traffic, tons of road debris in the shoulder that we had to avoid, and lots of drivers on the two-lane highway that didn’t want to slow down to merge into the left lane til they were nearly right on top of us. We were constantly waving our left arm to get drivers’ attention so they would see us and avoid us. It was very stressful, and doing that after you’ve already ridden 100 miles and it’s 94 degrees out just makes it even more difficult. After about 6 miles on that road we got to turn to a still-not-great-but-better road for the final 3 miles to town. We stopped at a conveniently located bike shop and I bought more chamois butter and asked them if I could borrow their tool to check our chains to see if they’ve stretched enough to need to be replaced. They said no but that they’d come out and check them for me. (I’ve never had a bike shop tell me I couldn’t borrow a tool before!) Well they did and it turns out that, pretty much as I expected, both V and I need to replace our chains. We’ll do that tomorrow on a rest day here in Pueblo, along with installing new handlebar tape on V’s bike, taking an Uber to Petco to pick up dog food they’re holding for us (it’s 5.5 miles away and we don’t want to ride 11 miles on our rest day), and doing laundry. Tonight we got some Chinese food for dinner…it was pretty unsatisfying and I always forget I don’t really like Chinese food that much, I prefer Thai and Japanese. Now we’re in our air conditioned room and it’s sweltering. We even got a fan from the front desk and it’s not helping. Ugh. And we paid for two days here and it’ll be 96 again tomorrow. But we’re alive, we’re strong, we’re having a good time despite the annoyances, and all of the good and the bad adds up to one grand adventure we’ll never forget.