Little Heist on the Prairie

Day 36

Cañon City, CO to Pueblo, CO

Distance: 51 miles

Award-winning movie plots dreamed up: One brilliant one

Just a short hop today to the biggest city for some time on the trip, Pueblo, CO, with over 100,000 residents, hundreds of restaurants, a river walk and a state fair…

When I was a little girl, I loved fairs. My sister was charged with making sure that, if we ever passed one when we were in the car, she would find a spurious sight out of the other window and keep my attention on that side of the road until we were safely past the bright lights, fast rides and the candy floss. I only found this out years later, of course. The same principle could probably still be used on me now in relation to other attractions, like shoe shops etc.

But today, my head was turned by something else. Riding along the country roads to get to the big city, I passed through a town called Florence, home to one of the prisons in the area. Surrounded by open fields, my eyes couldn’t help but rest on the hundreds of prairie dogs scuttling back and forth, ducking into their burrows and then popping up again to have a furtive look around, while they made their little warning squeaks to all their furry friends across the grass.

And before I knew it, I was hatching a movie in my head where the network of tunnels dug by the prairie dogs run under the prison itself. Pablo, the chief of the PD kingdom (Dustin Hoffman), persuades the PD troops to pretend to have explosives strapped to their furry tummies as they position themselves under the prison in order to create a hostage situation to have one of the inmates released.

While we think that Pablo is in league with the bad guys, we find that actually the inmate is wrongly imprisoned and is an environmental campaigner fighting to save the PD kingdom from development and destruction. But we only find this out through the relationship between Pablo and a young, naive PD called Buck (Justin Bieber) and only as Pablo dies tragically while passing on the wisdom to the younger PD. Yes, I think it’s a winner – detour to Hollywood, watch this space...

And all of this was enough to carry me through to Pueblo and to a great little coffee shop in town, where I stopped for a piece of quiche and an iced mocha for a late lunch, while chatting and sharing stories with Chelsea and Jerry who are independently doing the TransAm East to West. We’re planning on meeting up tomorrow and we might even go to the fair!

Tonight, I went for a walk downtown. Strolling along Grand Ave, I was struck by the back-to-back churches of all different religions flanking the street, and wondered if perhaps those coming out of the prison come here to seek salvation. Or not…  

Anyhow, I eventually reached the RiverWalk and, after a quick lap round, I hot-footed it to a great sushi restaurant called Tsunami, where I got chatting to Nate and PJ, who were skillfully making the rolls and other goodies at the sushi bar.  Finishing off my evening with a quick shot of sake at their invitation, and a nice chat with the owner, Richard, I then got a cab (yes… a real cab!!) back to my B&B, where I am now happily chilling and watching a DVD.

Rest day here tomorrow, when Steed will spend some time in the bike shop getting a check over and I’ll see what the fair has to offer! 

Let’s hope there aren’t any errant prairie dogs burrowed under the Waltzers, or popping out of their burrows for a smoke of legal Colorado Cannabis round the back of the ghost train... oh, I can feel a whole new plot taking shape.

Good night.

Me x