Jeremiah Watt

With only 35 miles or so separating me from arriving in Lamar, which as I will explain is my final destination for this leg of the trip, I was looking forward to riding with Kevin for a ways. I was up early, about 5:15 and all packed up when my camp mate final roused. Kevin admits he is not an early riser or starter, most of his days commence by about 8:30 he said.

KEVINS BIKE IS A PANNIER OUTFIT, AND i GUESS THE WEIGHT TO BE 4O--45 POUNDS TOTAL.

He also eats out each day, and had at this point not cooked any meals for himself. This is an interesting point, since food is what ends up costing the most thru the day that and water if you buy bottled water. I myself will fill my bottles in the ditch if I have to, and have only bought water now 3 times if I recall, all the rest of the time I have filled at gas stations etc. When we sat and compared costs of food eating out versus cooking your own, I think that Kevin was in the mood to buy a small stove much like mine. I can tell you honestly, that I would sooner "Boonie Camp", than buy a space in the local RV park etc. I have come to that point where I love my nylon culvert and bed roll set-up.


The night before, we had been told by a kind citizen of Eads that there was going to be a Coboy Pancake Breakfast on main street, and we would be welcome to come if we like. Now, I had not been starting the day off with a meal, so we talked it over and agreed to give it a try. It was fun, we had a great breakfast of bacon/eggs/and pancakes all we could eat that is..........and coffee by the 5 gallon pail full. The folks were indeed friendly and we had a chance to visit with several and find out what was going good and bad in thier community. Ther was the offifcial off-key but well intentioned singer to keep the crowd settled, he mastered the guitar and musical extras like harmonica and keyboard all at the same time. Pure home town fun, and all enjoyed the commaraderie.

It was time to pedal, and off we went. BUt Kevin only went a couple hundred yards and checked out on a different road than I was riding, so our time together was over and we both stroked off in different directions.

There was fog again this morning, but not as heavy and it only lasted for a short ways out of Eads and it was done. The country changes once again down this way, and the closer we get to Lamar the better the soil looked and the better the grass looks. Lamar is in a bowl, and there are plenty of huge old cotton-woods that dot the landscape and make the scenery interesting enough. A point for some of you folks wehom have never been over this way, is the Kiowa Grasslands area. This is a small area of Colorados extreme southeast corner in which the growing zone seems out of whack with the rest of the State. For instance, the bulk of Colorado is rated at a 2-3 climate zone, while the Grasslands region is rated as a 7 zone, which by the way is the same climatic conditions that I live in in California. It doesn't mean that they grow Palms her in this corner, but it does mean that this corner has a higher ground water condition, and less extreme fluctuations of hot and cold, making for a longer and more productive growing season. This is an eco-system within an eco-system.

I arrived in the Lamar area to find a lot of Alfalfa and corn being grown, there are plenty of cattle on feed, and I think I caught the aroma of hogs as well but never spotted the little rascals. Lamar is a Junior College town, and a cattle feeding town and an Ag based economy..............so like many other small towns it has areas that look to be hard hit, such as the downtown corridor.

Move in one "big-box-store", and you can kiss Mom & Dad's little home town hardware store good bye. To my way of thinking it is a shame and it seems to take the town away from the town and move it over to one near edge or another. Okay, I will go out on a limb here and say something that I bet ticks some folks off. This is for those genius's that run the Wally worlds and You-Know-MArts etc.

SInce we are talking small towns, and by comparisons the realestate is cheap by comparison to the larger communities that you also move into. Why doen't you buy right downtown, there are always blocks or portions of blocks that are blighted and for sale, buy them, and build right in the heart of what has been by tradition the business community.

Once there is a box store there are always the fast food franchises that move along with them. I am not a city planner, but it seems to me it would invigorate rather than spread and deaden a community. Just an idea.

I headed strait to the Library, and had to beg to be allowed to download my blog images. They really do not like for folks to be messing with pictures at a Library due to pornography. I assured the gal, that I was going too download all og\f my pornography at a different Library............certainly not here. I don't know is a bare-naked cowboy all covered with water really pornography??????

2 hours later and I am on line doing my blog thing, like I said it is really slow going for me. My chicken pecking typing skills go so very slowly. I closed the Library down, and headed out side to strap my bike shoes on a find a place to pitch my tent for free hopefully. As luck would have it 2 of Lamars finest, Sheriff's walked by while I was changing shoes, so I asked them about a place to camp. They happliy suggested the local City Ball Park right across from the Lamar College. Plenty of green grass and space.........Poochie Maggie, can it really get any better than that.

Off I went to the east end of town, and found they were right, it is all that they said it would be. I found a place with a flat lawn and a covered picnic table and set camp up, ate simple and went to bed early since I could not make my Cingular service find a signal.

Good Night and God Bless