I woke up early (9:00) and handwashed some clothes before heading out to Wendy's. From there it was a short trip over to the Canon City tourist information office, where I picked up a map. The map sucked. I threw it away as I walked back to my bike. Can't have that dead weight when I'm riding.
I hit the prison museum, which was one of the reasons I stayed in Canon City for the night, but it looked a bit ass-tastic, so I pedaled on. The climb to Royal Gorge was much easier than I had anticipated, making me think that the Rockies would be much easier riding than I had expected. Oh yeah, you like pictures, right?
I got to the gorge area easily enough, but the off-route climb to the gorge itself was tough. I finally sweated my way to the top, then rolled into a tourist trap on par with Cave City, Kentucky. $13 later, I was wheeling my bike into the ticket office, where the cashiers volunteered to watch it. They put it in the corner with about 250 baby strollers. I now recognize this as a bad omen.
I rode the incline railway down to the canyon floor, which is even less exciting than it sounds. I also wheeled out onto the bridge -- the world's highest suspension bridge, if anyone cares -- where I set up my bike for a photo.
Here's the thing: tourisit traps like Royal Gorge attract a lot of octagenarians -- those silver-haired foxes that frequent the RV parks and pharmacies of the West. I stood by my bike and picked out a friendly-looking couple and decided to ask them to take my picture. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Old people -- and in particular, old tourists -- move very, very slowly. They finally reached me, and -- after a skeptical look at my bike shorts -- they agreed to take my picture.
Sadly, you don't get to see that picture, since the lady who photographed me failed to actually take my picture. Actually, she claimed to have taken two pictures, just to be safe. Guess three would've been safer.
So anyway, here's a different pic from the bridge (I picked a younger guy to take this shot. I think he was about 70.)