Alamosa, Colorado

We had a nice relaxing ride today.   We woke up to snow covering the nearby hills, so we were not in a big hurry to get started.   Once on the road, it was a nice, relatively downhill ride, through the high plains of Colorado.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a park in Monte Vista, a nice town of 4000.  Derald found the time for a self portrait. 

The park had a touching memorial for two soldiers from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

While at the park, a landscaping crew arrived for a little regular maintenance. While the men were working,  a man in a pickup rode buy and good naturedly hollered at his friends.  We were surprised when one of the men stopped working and came over and told us that he was the father of one of the soldiers on the memorial, Sargent Martinez, on the right panel. It was a sober reminder of the cost of the war and impact upon the population of small towns like this.

We caught a late lunch/early dinner at a brew pub in Anamosa.   While making plans for tomorrow, we called our planned campsite.   The owner was very nice and recommended not staying with him because they got 10" of snow last night.  Time for a new plan for tomorrow night.