Highest pass, haunted buildings, and into the flatlands

Leaving Breckenridge a handful of days ago we climbed up and over Hoosier Pass, stopping just briefly for a couple "highest pass of the trip photos" as a hail storm was just starting with the light show of a thunderstorm on the horizon. Just before descending we checked the phone and learned that baby Barton arrived and we were so excited!  Welcome baby Avery and congrats to Karrie and Steven Barton :)

After all that hard uphill pedaling we were rewarded with a nice long downhill cruise, soon passing out of the bad weather of the higher elevation, with great views aplenty. 

Along the way we passed through the very small town of South Park, CO, where the creators of the show South Park grew up. 

After calling one hostel/camping option on our map and being yelled at "We don't do that anymore! Leave us alone! We're retired and out of the game!" we gave Bill a call, who offers camping and bunkhouses, in the  small town of Guffey. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but very adamant about "you better not be stoppin' at any bars along the way! You guys are always stoppin' at bars and leavin' me hanging!" As we were still 30 miles away from Bills place he ended the conversation with "hurry up and start peddling!" Pushing off we were faced with a very strong headwind and didn't arrive at Bills until dark. Upon meeting Bill he first shook my hand then proceeded to yell at me "where the hell you guys been!" A couple minutes later Sarah rolled up and Bills demeanor did a 360...."Hey how ya doin' darling".....a total ladies man. Turned out to be a really good guy. He fed us some "world famous log dogs", which are some type of really good hot dog/sausage things with grilled veggies. Guffey was a very interesting and weird town, especially to roll into at night. A majority of the buildings are old and dated all the way back to the goldrush days, along with old  and rusty 1940-50's cars everywhere. So Bill pointed us to our bunkhouse for the night which was a old structure, just past the rotting horse carcass, where they used to divide up the profits back in the goldrush days. Stepping foot in the place was like stepping back in time. Having no lights or electricity and only our headlights added to the effect. Being super exhausted from a 70+ mile day we ate and crashed out.....2am found Sarah totally freaked out as she was awakened to a spirit in a poncho hovering over me and a cowboy sitting at the table. 2:30am found us on the road taking in our first sunrise of the trip. Following some great downhill through beautiful canyons ( no pics as the phone was dead) the end of the day found us very near Pueblo, CO and 6,500' lower than we had been just the previous day. After what was supposed to be one day off in Pueblo turning into two, due to lots of running around in the 100+ heat, we are pedaling through hot and flat Eastern Colorado. We've nicknamed this stretch of the ride the "Tour De Prisons", having passed four huge prisons in the last one hundred miles. Eastern Colorado and Kansas are the hot, flat, and dry portion of the ride, but so far things are going good. There's been a rise in town parks that allow camping and churches that open their doors to cyclists and it seems, after a couple unfriendly weird stores/towns in central Colorado, the people are getting nicer and nicer as we head East.....