Good morning! I am curious what to write about the visuals I have already seen this morning or the trip to Salida yesterday? Or both...

As the dogs and I headed out on our walk the sun was squeezing itself between the marshmellow shaped clouds and attempting to spotlight one particular tree in the park. This tree appeared to glow with light. The rest of the trees appeared ordinary trees but this one had been set apart by the sun at this particular moment!

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The trip to Salida began around 9:30 a.m. as we headed west on highway 50. This highway parallels the Arkansas River and a set of train tracks. It takes about 1 hour and 15 min. to get to Salida from home and the sights along the way can be appreciated by the passenger. The driver has to keep his eyes on the road as this road twists and turns through several canyons.

The Arkansas River is very low this time of year. The river was so shallow that we were surprised to see just how many rocks there are sitting in the riverbed. Those same rocks during higher water years create rapids that the summer rafting guides navigate with ease. I would never attempt to raft that river while the water is high but observed yesterday that I could possibly handle it now.

We made it into Salida for breakfast at the Patio Palace. This appears to be a family owned restaurant. We ordered and barely had time to notice the books placed on each table to occupy the customer before our food came. Terrific as always and reasonably priced. We then headed to the Walmart at the end of town to park our truck and pull the bikes out from the back for a ride about town.

My husband of 29 years, had perused maps of Salida and had a vague idea of where it was he wanted to go. Salida has a concrete trail that as far as we could tell begins by where we parked and meanders towards the center of town. When you start out it is framed by Russian Olive trees and is very picturesque. There are cattle and horses along the way to notice  your progress and before you know it you are in downtown Salida.

In the center of town along the Arkansa River we found ourselved watching some young kayakers learning how to navigate rapids. Some were able to cross and head down the river within the rapid, others were quickly toppled upside down. The kiyaks and students were in bright colors which attracked us to their lessons in the first place. It also made it easy for the guides downriver to retrieve students, paddles and kiyaks. We decided it might be fun to learn to kiyak but were not up for that adventure this day.

Our bike ride to this point had not been much of a challege. We had been sight seeing. Heading over to the golf course to talk to the pro was going to be the turning point. My huband asked the golf pro, whom he knew but I didn't, about biking trails. This gentleman told us about a route. He mentioned a hill. This hill was a 'booger of a hill. He stated that he had only been  able to get about halfway up it before stopping. Upon hearing this my husband knew what was in store for him. It seems that lately when someone mentions something they can't do my brain converts it to, 'We can do that! I think my husband even saw it coming as he tried to get the guy to quit talking about the hill . But I heard it! Now in all fairness this gentleman might have played down his abilities. For all I know he may have been talking abou the first time he tried to ride to the top of the hill and has since navigated this it several times. Not knowing our abilities and being somewhat of an aquaintence he may have hated to make off like this hill is a piece of cake. Then you have these people who you don't know real well attempting it and they end up injuring themselves. So I get why he might have made off like it was a hard hill, I get it, we did it, piece of cake!

After that ride which I think we could have rode about 3 times over we headed over to Amica's Pizza and Microbrewery for lunch as they offer a gluten-free crust in addition to the regular crust pizzas. Oh my gosh, we both tried the Biella or #13. It was made with spicy oil, mozzarella, carmelized onions, rosemary, capocollo, portobellow mushrooms, fresh tomato, goat cheese, and gorgonzola! I have never tasted anything so delicious. I do think my friend's cooking could rivel theirs but she doesn't run a pizza joint. I'll just have to settle for driving to Salida when I want a delicious pizza. My husband and I ate our entire lunch size portion pizzas!

We returned home along that turn ridden highway 50 both wondering aloud if we'd be able to ever ride our bikes from home to Salida. We'd have to go early to avoid the traffic as later in the day there were a lot of cars heading in the opposite direction and not much of a bike lane. It'd probably take us 2 or 3 days to actually get there. The hills might be quite a bit more challenging that the one we'd rode earlier. However if there was Amica's Pizza waiting at the end of that road, I'd be up for it!