City. I was one of two "sweeps" on the next riding day, which means
that I, along with my friend Emily, were in charge of making sure that
everyone made it safely to Lamar, CO. While it meant being on the bike
for a bit longer than normal, the day was a lot of fun. I learned some
new mind games to play on the bike, heard some life stories, and
talked about whatever might pop in my head. We also passed several
exciting milestones on our ride. First, we ate lunch on the mountain
time zone line, which meant that we actually left lunch before we got
there. Next, we passed the Colorado-Kansas state line, which was an
awesome moment for me because I had always envisioned Colorado as
"that far-away state," but now I was there, in the west, thanks only
to my bicycle and a little help from friends. The final milestone was
the return of trees to the landscape, which were a welcome site after
three states of basically nothing bigger than a shrub. I think that
the females on the trip were a bit more excited than me to see
roadside shelter, but I still rejoiced at their presence. It was
strange to see as we rode to our destination how high we were (some
states put population on their city signs. Colorado puts elevation.).
We had been riding on "flat" ground for about 700 miles, yet we were
now at 4000 feet, nearly as high as many of the mountains in the
Appalachians. Once we arrived at the local Methodist church, we spent
the evening eating and having meetings and then headed to bed excited
about not riding 100 miles the next day.
As promised, the ride from Lamar to Rocky Ford was short, which gave
us time to rest for the next day's big ride. The ride was spent mostly
taking turns pulling a line of riders into the headwind, with a stop
at Sonic in the heat of the early afternoon for a powerade slush
pick-me-up. The Presbyterian church in Lamar cooked us an awesome
dinner and then stuck around for a presentation and bike clinic,
accompanied by more food. Everyone went to sleep as early as possible
(after a frantic search for a light switch that ended at the circuit
breaker) because of the early wake-up in the morning.
And today was the day that we had been talking about at every
presentation since the beginning of the trip. "What's your longest
day," someone would always ask. "124 miles into Colorado Springs,"
came the reply from the presentation group. So, it began this morning
when we hopped on our bikes at 6 AM and headed out. The morning was
spent riding interspersed with flat tires, the first few of eight that
would happen in our riding group that day. After first lunch (or
second breakfast), we told life stories and talked and had gone all
the way to mile 60 before we knew it. We then started riding along a
basin in the shadow of the moutains until we climbed up a ridge around
mile 80 and were treated to a great view of the mountains before the
second lunch stop. The last thirty or so miles went pretty quickly as
we sang every song that we could think of and headed down into
Colorado Springs. We hit some rough weather and big hills in the city,
so the last 15 miles took about two hours, but we did get to ride past
5 o'clock traffic sitting at a standstill, and it was just such a
great feeling to make it. I can't really describe why the day was so
much fun, since all we did was ride just like any other day. I think
it really comes down to the fact that everyone on the trip is becoming
great friends, and it's just a ton of fun to be around such amazing
people all day. Plus, it gives an incredible feeling to ride so far in
one day. Next up is a build day and day off here in Colorado Springs
before four long days in the Rockies on our way to Durango.
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