Was uo before dawn but took a while to get out of town. I had a choice of routes to Cheyenne. The more adventurous involved following a gravel track across the Pawnee National grasslands into Wyoming along the route of an old disused railway line between Sterling and Cheyenne. This was a remote trek through rough terrain so I was in two minds about it. I could also follow the highway 80 miles west to Auton then head 40 miles North to Cheyenne. As it turned out fate would decide which route I would follow.
Two miles outside Sterling the sun began to rise and I rushed to get to the top of a ridge to get a good shot of the sun as it came up. In my haste to get to the top of the ridge I clattered into something sharp which punctured the rear tyre. After getting a shot of the sunrise I set about fixing the flat tyre. While I was patching the tube a local farmer came over to see if I needed help and said I could use a pump of his to inflate the tyre. Minutes later I set off again but a couple of mles down the road the tyre was flat again. The patch hadn't stuck. I patched it a second time but again the tyre went flat. I was using to much solution on the tube which meant the patch wouldn't stick. While I was patching it for a third time an old guy in a pick up truck stopped and offered me a lift to the next town. I accepted as I was getting frustrated and eaten by flies.
Bob Holsten was the driver's name. He was a pastor from Georgia who was visiting family in Colorado. This morning he was heading over to Fort Collins in the foothills of the Rockies to attend the baptism of a grandchild. We ended up chatting the whole way to Auton. He was curious to find out about me and where I was from and he told me about his background. About 20 miles from Auton I got my first glimpse of the Rockies. I could just about see a hazy outline in the distance, snowcapped under banks of clouds that followed the line of mountains to the north and South.
We stopped at a petrol station in Auton. We swapped contact details and then, before departing, Pastor Bob said a prayer of blessing over me. At first I feared I might get a fit of the giggles like when we were young when the angelus was being said. One sideways glance from Padraig, Gabe or Marie was sure to send us all of into a fit. Even Dad, at times got caught by those giggles!! Thankfully I remained pristine and holy on this occasion. To be honest, I didn't mind at all. Bob had just brought me 80 miles down the road and if his blessing kept me safe on the road and eased my journey then I was thankful to recieve it.
I set off North from Auton immaculate with a sparkling new halo and an angelic smile. It was close to 10am by now and the heat was beginning to rise. I wanted to push hard over the 40 miles through high plains to get to Cheyenne by early afternoon. Two miles down the road the wheel went flat again. With the amount of curses I heaped upon that wheel my new halo changed, in double quick time, from a pristine sparkle to a distinct shade of grey. The smile was nowhere to be seen. This time I took out a spare tube and soon enough I was rolling once more towards Cheyenne.
The road I was on formed the western boundary of the Pawnee National Grasslands which, I think, was reservation lands. This was all High Plains territory. With hardly a tree to be seen the landscape felt dry and empty, just parched grasslands all around. At an elevation of over 6,000ft and rising to 7,000ft the air here was fresher than in Kansas and the central plains.
About halfway from Sterling to Auton we had crossed an old cattle trail which pushed north into Wyoming and Montana from Texas. After the Civil war in the mid-1860s demand for beef from the eastern states had risen sharply. Increasing slaughter of the great buffalo herds had depleted their numbers. Texas ranchers, seeing great profits to be made in the east moved herds of cattle to fatten on the rich grasslands to the north. In the process replacing the buffalo.
The cattle trail cut across the tribal lands of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Crow, Shoshone and Dakota nations and did little to assuage the fears of the Indians upon whose lands more and more settlers were encroaching. Diminishing herds of buffalo only heightened the difficulties of the tribes. Amidst misleading and empty treaties with the military and Government the Indians were forced to rise. It was against this background that the Indian Wars erupted in the 1860's and 70's.
I got to Cheyenne around 2pm. By the time I got showered, got to a supermarket and had some food the afternoon was pushing on. I decided to stay on for a day, rest up for the evening and get out early tomorrow to see the famous rodeo.
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