We awoke at 5 am at the KOA with the goal of leaving by 7, and we did pretty well getting out by 715, given that we were with friends so there was chatting happening, as well as having to roll up our tent. We were embarking on another day of long riding with no services, but this time in the mountains given that we’d finally reached the Rockies and we embarking on the slow, 2-day climb up and over Hoosier Pass, the highest point on our route at 11,542 feet. We had enough water this time but wished we’d bought some more snacks. Again, we had enough, but we always like to make sure we have ENOUGH. So there’s only one market in Royal Gorge and when we pedaled up toward it at 720, we were bummed to see it didn’t open until 800. But as I was walking away from the big wooden door with deer antler handles, having tried it and finding it locked, I heard the door open behind me and the proprietor invited me in early to shop! What a gift. I thanked him sincerely, bought two Starbucks frappucinos, two pastries, two bottles of water, and a package of peanut butter crackers. It was overpriced and I’ve never been so happy and grateful to overpay for something. We downed the coffees, packed the rest, and hit the road. Immediately we had entered the really pretty part of the Rockies, having left behind the more scrubby and barren landscape between Pueblo and Royal Gorge. It was so beautiful, but a heavily-travelled road, and with a fair amount of climbing. But there’s nothing yet that’s steep like the Appalachians and the Ozarks. The grades are thus far shallower but the climbs much longer. And so far, V and I think that is easier; you just put it in a lower gear and go. Speaking of gears, mine are messed up but I spent time tweaking the shifters and the derailleur cable tension and was able to make them better enough that I stopped cussing loudly but not bike-shop-good. In hindsight I should have had the arrogant Red Canyon Cycles guy adjust my gears but I just didn’t think about it at the time as I was more into getting my chain installed. So while we were climbing a lot, there were a lot of flatter areas and downhills too which were a gift! In the Ozarks and Appalachians we had begun to actually dread downhills because we knew they were going to be very short-lived and followed by another nasty uphill but here we rejoice in them. When we got maybe 23 miles in (our goal was Fairplay at 67 miles, and if we didn’t reach that, Hartsel at 48 miles) we reached the turnoff for Guffey, which has the only services before Hartsel. It turns out there’s a new store right at the turnoff but it was closed because of Father’s Day and sadly they had their water spigot padlocked so we couldn’t fill our water bottles. I’d ridden up the 1-mile hill to Guffey during my 2010 Trans Am and remembered a cool place to have lunch, but today neither of us wanted to ride another mile uphill so I did the natural thing…while V stayed down with the bikes, I hitchhiked up the hill to Guffey. What did I find? A really cool old saloon/restaurant still operating, open for business, and with a kind owner walking outside to greet me as I walked up to the door! She filled my water bottles, she comped me two cans of coke and only charged me for the two sandwiches I ordered to go and the one can of ginger ale I drank while I waited, AND she got her server to drive me back down the hill when my order was ready!!! More kindness encountered. Seriously, people are generally just kind out here. The food was excellent: a mushroom burger for V, a western burger for me, with sweet potato fries and beer-battered fries. And we substituted Beyond Burger patties for the meat, which were excellent. And when Jordan (the server who drove me down the hill) and I arrived to V and the bikes, V was talking to two other people who’d stopped when they saw her with bikes. It turns out they are Trans Am Bike Race dotwatchers (followers, enthusiasts) like we are and they’d come out from Denver with a cooler full of water, Gatorade, and snacks to pass out to the racers they might encounter on the stretch of road where we are traveling. They offered us water, Gatorade, banana, and candy bars! More kindness! Satiated in belly and soul, we took off for the next 25 miles to Hartsel. It was more of the same: climbing and descending through gorgeous Colorado high altitude terrain. It just kept getting prettier! I took a bazillion pics of the beautiful contrast between the land and the cloudy/stormy skies and though it was a lot of work, we just loved the ride. In Hartsel, we went to a restaurant/bar that turned us down when we asked for water, but the place next door gave us filtered bottled water with a smile when I asked. We were tired and considers camping I. Hartsel, but when we saw the camping, which was a nasty weed field across from the bar, right by the highway, we decided to gut it out and go the final 19 miles to Fairplay. It was all uphill, but generally a very shallow incline as we rode up a glacial river valley (Platte River). It was storming all around us and we could see the sheets of rain falling from the gray and black clouds, but we were also in the sunshine. It was spectacular. We stopped to don GoreTex, expecting to get soaked, but we never did. We made it all the way to Fairplay and it didn’t start raining until 1 block before we arrived at our destination, the Hand Hotel. The Hand Hotel is on a delightfully historic street in Fairplay and it feels like we stepped back in time to the early 1900’s West. When I went inside to check in (and V toileted Maui) I was greeted by 2 people running down the stairs and giving me HUGE hugs, Woody and Amy, our cyclist friends we’d met and ridden with for a few days back in Virginia, and we hadn’t seen them since we stayed together in the sketchy church hostel in Hindman, Kentucky. What a random surprise!!! They then ran out and greeted V and everyone had a big, huggy reunion. We checked into our room (super cool, Native American themed!), went next door to order calzones for dinner, and then sat in the “sun room” at the Hand sharing dinner and 5-6 weeks of cycling stories from the time since we’d last seen them. We collapsed into bed, dead tired from the ride and three consecutive crappy nights of sleep. Unfortunately, my knee pain, that I have not had for the entire trip and for which I had three PRP injections in the couple months before the trip, reared it’s ugly head. It’s not awful, but there. It pisses me off because it’s the day before our highest peak and they day we entered the Rockies. We decided to take a rest day at this hotel, both because of my knee and because this hotel is the coolest place we’ve stayed all trip and neither of us wanted to leave in the morning! Rest day: we woke SANS ALARM at 630 am. It felt good to wake without an alarm but I wanted to sleep until 8 or so. Getting up early, however, enabled us to go down and have breakfast at the hotel with Woody and Amy (and another dude Andy we’d met briefly in Virginia on day 2 of our trip and then never saw again until today). The Hand Hotel has a lovely breakfast as it’s a bed and breakfast. It was kind of a combo between a hotel continental breakfast and a bakery and there were all kinds of yummy options for carnivores and vegetarians alike. They had told us we could graze as much as we wanted between 7-10 am, and return as often as we liked, and I certainly took them up on that offer. I had 3-4 cups of coffee, yogurt with granola and fresh fruit, a cheese omelette with two sausage links, a bowl of Fruit Loops, a piece of fresh-baked blueberry bread, a slice of some kind of apple pastry, and a banana. We said goodbye for the last time to Woody and Amy who are going off the Trans Am route, and we spent the morning just hanging around the really cool Hand Hotel lobby and sun room. I redid my torn handlebar tape and put on some drop bar hand grips I’ve been carrying this entire trip in my saddle bag, I raised my saddle (it had slid down 1 cm again and that’s likely why my knee hurts today, the combo of the too-low saddle and the biggest climbing day we’ve had), and we walked through Fairplay for a bit. V got some avocado toast at the Java Moose cafe while we waited on our laundry to finish at the laundromat around the corner, we stopped for a huge fresh-baked cinnamon roll at the bakery (we actually SHARED rather than getting two, can you believe it?), went to the post office to mail home some of my stuff I decided I don’t need (but it’s closed for Juneteenth so we’ll go in the morning before we leave), wandered through a store selling gorgeous rustic Colorado furniture and art, and stopped at a store to buy two canisters of bear spray (for $109!!) as we’re now in bear country and riding/camping without always having the safety of a car/house. Everyone here at the Hand Hotel has been so friendly and welcoming and neither of us want to leave. Fairplay is a really cool and cute little rustic town and the hotel’s sun room setting overlooking the river is special. And they only have 12 rooms so there aren’t a million people wandering around. In fact, on this rest day, a Monday, we feel we basically have the place to ourselves and it’s a real treat. Supposedly it’s haunted and there’s a ton of history here at this hotel, AND in Fairplay. Historically it was a mining town, and now it’s a gateway to mountain recreation as well as a cute, touristic stop on Colorado Highway 9. They pay homage to burros because they were instrumental in the early mining operations and they have been running since 1949 the annual World Championship Pack Burro Race (really, the WORLD??). As I write now, I’m icing my knee in preparation for tomorrow’s Hoosier Pass ascent (although we’re already at 10,000 feet elevation and we’re only going to 11,542, so it’s much less climbing than the 5,600 feet we did yesterday. Went next door to the Park Bar for a grilled fish and chips take out dinner; it was loud as the Colorado Avalanche are playing in the NHL Stanley Cup finals and the game is on in the bar. Vanesa hates loud places and didn’t want to stay so I stayed and ordered for the two of us…and while I was waiting the server came over and gave me a free Jell-O shot! (Sorry, darling, you missed out, haha!) Tonight we’ll sleep like babies in our Native American-themed room, and then we’ll stuff ourselves once more at the legendary Hand Hotel breakfast before we tackle the top of the Trans Am. Neither of us want to leave the Hand, still. This place feels so relaxing, so special. The energy is great here. Maybe we’ll move in.