Day 12 May 9th Cortez Co. – Durango Co.

  
Ok – Pop quiz. What is Cortez Co.known for? Hint it is called “The Miracle in Cortez” – On Aug 4th 1959 Maj. H.C. Hun was piloting a U-2 spy plane out of a Texas air base on a “weather recon mission “when @ 70,000 ft sufferd an Engine failure @ 10:30 PM – in the dark & descending into a cloud deck , with no idea where he was broke out of the clouds @ 4000 ft & saw lights! The lights were the city of Cortez & among these lights saw airport lighting . He dead stick landed the plane & walked into the office in his space type suit & asked “where am I “? Nice

Hearing the rain on the hotel roof all night I was in no rush to hit the road. I left off in a cold rain with hands & feet wraped in the now standard issue plastic bags wraped with duct tape. The rain continues all the way to Mancos 20 miles down the road. The temp steadily dropped to 39 degrees @ the top of the first climb. Frozen once again I swung into a diner for coffee & to dry out. I waited out the rain & in an hour the sun started to peek out. I left out and headed east to Durango. After stopping @ the base of each climb to take off jackets & then stop & put them back on @ the top I finally made it into the busy town of Durango. Tomorrows weather calls for 30 degrees in the morning with rain & thunder storms. I am tired of fighting these conditions. So with that information I decided to take Tue. off & recharge.Durango is a perfect place to do this. I made a trip to the local bike shop for some bike supplies & some warmer cloths! 

  
Half way through today’s trip I met a guy going west. We both stopped & talked about our travels. He is from Boston & had been on the road for 6 months and is on his way to the northwest . I don’t think he has a regular job!

So far I have 894 miles in with a 75 mile per day average. Given the challenging terrain so far I am pretty happy with this. I know the Rockies will be tough but I hope to get closer to 100 mile days when I hit the plains. This rough math has me finishing in the first week in June, kinda on schedule. 

My home boys / tech aids J Perry & Coach Steve Willams are mapping out a route that will get me from Rt6 in northwest Pa. To the LockHaven area then up through Canton . Many miles to go before then but it will be here sooner than I think!