I woke up and popped about a hundred mini muffins, since that was all that supplied for the continental breakfast at the ever luxurious Knights Inn. I wasn’t quite satisfied, but by the time Paul got up, there was nothing left for him. We would get some food on the way to Water World.

Halfway through our short trip to Water World there was a train obstructing the road. We waited along with a few cars for a few minutes before we decided to lift the bikes and walk around the train, an option the cars did not have.

We stopped at a Mexican bakery across the street from the park and got some delicious, inexpensive pastries. While we were enjoying our food, a received a phone call from an unknown number. Who else could it be but Lauren, the Denver couchsurfer. She was very apologetic, and sounded very sweet over the phone. She was running around crazy trying to prepare for a trip to Bolivia and had accidentally given me her old area code for her current cell phone number. Lauren also gave me her roommate Caroline’s number who called us separately as well. After hearing how nice both sounded, and figuring that there was more we wanted to see from Denver, we decided that we would head back there way after the water park. But for now, it was time for some fun. Bellies full we entered the park.

As we went to purchase our tickets, someone was selling a ticket they couldn’t use. The regular ticket price was $35 and I only had $22 in my wallet. The person gladly accepted and I had just gotten a nice discount. This was the first time I was happy to have less money rather than more in my wallet.

Upon entry we stopped in at guest services to see what we could do about our fully loaded bikes. They showed us where to lock up the bikes up front, and suggested the large lockers for our bags. When we tried to get big lockers, they had already run out. We then had to return to guest services, whose line developed nicely during this period, and plead that they help out some poor travelers. We were able to coax the employees into allowing us to stow our stuff in the back room, since we were pretty much out of options. Phew. We locked up everything except for a small waterproof bag with my wallet and some sunscreen in it.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, we were ready to get wet on the beautiful 90+ degree day. For the couple hours before we ate, we hit pretty much every ride in the park. Turns out it was the largest water park in Denver. There were definitely a lot of cool ones, including a continuous wave creator that people would “surf” with buggy boards. It was a fun park, but not quite the fu experience we thought would be required, which worked out anyway since we would be heading back into Denver.

After we ate we hit a few more rides. As we were leaving I realized that I had carried the lotion/wallet bag around all day, but had never applied any. I was a bit burnt, but nothing to worry about.

We collected our bags and bikes and made our way back into downtown Denver. We made it in almost no time and met Caroline, Bryn, Sophie (Brynn’s dog) and Seth at the house. Seth and Bryn were both friends of Lauren’s and Caroline’s.

After shooting it for a while, we decided to head out to get some food. They had suggested a Mexican place which sounded lovely. We met Lauren there after she had gotten off from work. We filled up with massive smothered burritos at the restaurant, and walked back to their house.

Bryn went back to her own house, and Caroline and Seth had gone to a coffee shop to hang out, so we hung out and had a few beers with Lauren before going out. She is a very interesting girl, who is well traveled, energetic, and genuinely fun to be around.

After a while, we headed to the local bar area that was walking distance from her house. We scooped up Caroline and Seth on the way, and went out for a few drinks. We talked about a some important stuff about what we were all trying to do with ourselves, and some not important stuff too. We had a great time, and before we knew it, we were closing down the bar.

We walked home, feeling that we made the right choice to turn around. The girls were very sweet, and easy to get along with. When we got back to the house, Paul and I, interested in the guitar, suggested maybe Lauren play some for us. Perhaps aided by the alcohol, she gladly picked it up and began strumming. Shortly after that, Caroline who had retired for the night, came down and joined in. They played for us for a while, singing too. We loved it. They are both musically talented and have great singing voices. Some of the songs were interrupted by their laughter as they insisted that the alcohol wasn’t helping, but we agreed we could have listened to them all night.

After the playing had finally ceased, we were all quite tired as it was getting quite late, and we all went to bed. We had a short ride to Boulder the next day, which would allow us to do something in Denver before leaving. Paul and I were interested in the art museum as it was supposed to be quite good, which we expressed to the girls. Caroline, who is an art teacher and hadn’t been to the museum in a while, was home to come along. With our plans set for the day and one more easy day of riding before the end of our long stretch since Oklahoma City, we rested easy.

Life was good.

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We wouldn’t be getting much sleep, but we stuck to our plan of rising with the sun, and packing up before we were seen. Unfortunately, some people like to rise before the sun to walk their dogs or go jogging. Those people (and I know a few) were in full force this morning. Before the alarm had even gone off, we could here a lot of commotion outside.

We packed up our stuff saying hello in embarrassment to the exercisers passing by and headed into town to go to a coffee shop. Landing at Brueger’s Bagels, we found ourselves a nice comfortable spot. The shop had wifi, so I was able to track the shipment, while uploading some pictures. We got a completely unsatisfying, yet expensive breakfast, and also rested a bit since the shop wouldn’t open until 9:00.

After growing impatient waiting for the shipment status update to read “Delivered”, we headed down to the shop. Fortunately, the tires had made it a few minutes before we had arrived, and I immediately went to work. We also bought some tubes since we were fresh out, and headed towards Denver.

We stopped before we left “the Springs” at a Great Harvest to get some food. We tried some delicious free bread samples, and got to talking to the owner as he noticed our bikes out front. They ended up AGAIN, giving us some free food, along with packing our sandwiches extra big for the trip into Denver. Thanks guys.

Denver was under 70 miles to the center and we head planned on taking the light rail earlier than that to get to downtown, so it would not be a long riding day. Shortly after I had gotten rolling on my nice new tire, the tire itself actually popped out of the rim a bit. It did not pop the tube, however I would have to deflate the tube completely and use the hand pump to pump the tire back up, which cannot provide nearly as much pressure as a larger foot pump.

After fixing the tire, we approached the first interstate that we planned on riding. Some of the interstates in Colorado are actually ridable, as opposed to most states where riders are strictly prohibited from riding on them.

Climbing for much of the way out of Denver, we were able to tell a decent difference in the thinness of the air. Each breath was becoming less and less efficient. We peaked out somewhere in the mid 7000 feet above sea level. It was a bit scary as we plan on ascending another 5,000 feet when we head into the Rockies.

After a while of riding, we stopped in a city called Castle Rock. I figured I would call Lauren, the couchsurfer we would be staying with, to let her know our approximate arrival time. Lauren had left two numbers in the email she sent me. First I tried the cell phone. There was some fairly hardcore hip hop playing as a ring-back tone (what you hear on the calling end instead of the traditional ring) and the voicemail said to leave a message for Justin. I figured it probably wasn’t her, but left a message in case that was the cell she was using. You never know. The next number I tried was a big brother big sister number and they said no Lauren worked there. Huh. What was going on? Two wrong numbers, had I been scammed on couchsurfing?

We kept faith, and headed for downtown Denver. After about 5 miles, we were pulled over (for the second time of the trip) on I-25. Many resources I had read, and the bike map we were using given to us by the state of Colorado, showed the areas of I-25 that were legal to ride, but the local officer insisted that riding on any interstate in Colorado was against the law. The officer called in one of his younger, lower ranking partners to help us out with a safe route to the light rail transportation to downtown, which was only 4 miles ahead by way of the interstate.

We spent a long time chatting with them, and as we were waiting for the younger officer’s GPS to start working, the older officer went to check on a path for us with his car. The path would add about 10-15 miles to our trip. Not fun. While we awaited word from the older officer, the younger one, who was still with us said, paraphrasing a bit “Now I didn’t tell you this, but if I were you guys I would wait till the cops cleared out (referring to himself) and jump back on the interstate, (which was plenty safe enough as it had immense shoulders and was the suggested path by the biking maps) head up one more exit to Castle Pines Parkway”, which was a scenic route that would get us to the light rail with minimal added distance. As the older officer radioed in, suggesting the path that he had just driven, the younger officer said, “Now I’m telling you to go back east. You guys can do what you want”. Appreciating his understanding, we made a break for the interstate as soon as we lost sight of his car. We pedaled as quickly as we could as we didn’t want to see the older officer since we meant no disrespect as he was trying to help us out, but we also didn’t want to add an unnecessary hour to our ride after we had already lost so much time stopped on the highway.

Checking the map afterwards, it was a much better path than what the senior officer had suggested, but still added some time, distance, and challenge to the trip as we rolled through some hilly developments. When we arrived at the light rail hub, we got some tickets and were relieved to see other bikers getting on and off the train. The ride was quick and painless into downtown, much less crowded than we had both thought.

Once there, we quickly made it to the 16^th street mall. It is the the cool downtown section of Denver blocked off from traffic, and has free shuttles running up and down it. We had to walk our bikes. It is a cool spot.

We still were without a place to stay for the evening, so we began trying to figure out where we would stay, before we got any food. When speaking to information, they had suggested a hostel down the road a few blocks. We were a bit uneasy about sharing the room with others, since we had a lot of stuff on us, but headed there to check it out.

I asked to check my email before we signed in, which seemed to be a big production. Eventually, they let me use an old computer they had there to do it. I left a message with Lauren on couchsurfing to call me immediately, as that was my only way to contact here, still harboring hope that she existed. After some pretty inhospitable service, we decided against the hostel right before we were about to check in as we were getting a bad vibe from the workers.

Leaving there, we were running out of options. Paul called a few motels, but even on a Thursday, they were mostly over $100. We had also considered biking over to the address Lauren had left us, but it was already dark, and we weren’t sure if it was even real… we didn’t know what to think.

Giving her a little more time to respond, we headed back to 16^th for a bit to get some food and hopefully jump online to find some cheaper motel options. We stopped at Jamba Juice, and each got massively filling smoothies.

Paul received a call from some family friends from back home who would actually be flying into Denver the next morning, and we were willing to take us to a timeshare they had in the Vail area for a few days to relax. We were in need of a break as we hadn’t rested a full day since Oklahoma City, and Vail was close to Breckenridge, a few areas we wanted to see (namely because Aspen scenes in Dumb and Dumber were really shot in Breckenridge). Although we were badly in need of a rest day, after a lot of deliberating, we decided against it, and continued on our path towards Boulder.

I was able to find some cheaper motels a bit outside of the downtown area online, so we headed towards them. Unable to match the prices I had seen online, we shopped around a bit once we arrived at the first motel, as there were 4 others within a 2 block radius. We eventually settled on the cheapest available, and finally unloaded our stuff in the room.

We were definitely a bit frustrated and disappointed as things hadn’t turned out smoothly in terms of lodging lately, but we were still of course in high spirits. The following day we had plans to go the country’s biggest waterpark, “Water World”! We were excited about that, as it was supposed to be a beautiful day (go figure), but at the same time we felt like we were short changing Denver, a seemingly great place, as we intended on continuing on to Boulder the following night since weekend lodging in Denver would be way out of our price range.

Rolling with the punches, we would do what we had done all trip, and take it a day at a time. Who knows maybe Lauren existed and would call; maybe other couchsurfers would contact me. Either way we were going to an awesome water park, and we were excited.

Life was good.

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I woke up much earlier than Paul, and got my first breakfast. Checking the tracking information for my tires online, it appeared that they would not arrive until the following day, negating the chance of us staying with the hosts 25 miles north. We had already changed days on them a few times, and I began to feel guilty. What to do?

I contacted UPS and they told me that it could be rerouted if the bike sender agreed to it. I called the bike shop in New Orleans who sent them, and they told me that it could result in a delay and it would be a $10 charge. I figured if it would delay it made no sense to reroute it, so they checked for me before going through with it. Turns out it would cause another day delay, so we’d have to figure out where we were going to stay again, as the bike shop was downtown and it would make no sense to go all the way up to sleep and come back. Ugh.

Paul got up after I got off the phone, and got some breakfast. Shortly after he returned, I decided to get my second breakfast. Cost effective eating is what I like to call it. We didn’t have a lot planned for the day other than going to the Garden of the Gods. So we hung out by the pool for a bit before we departed for the garden.

The Garden of the Gods was pretty cool. The nicest part about it was that it was free. It was also a very bike friendly park, as the bike lanes were bigger than the car lanes. Excessive? Either way, we snapped some cool pics, and rolled through it in about an hour.

With most of the rest of the day ahead of us we headed back the way we came, stopping in a little sub town of the Springs called Old Colorado City. It was a very cool place full of little side shops and people walking around. We got some really good ice cream from a local creamery that made their own waffle cones. Yum.

After that, Paul decided he would get his haircut, and I would try to find out a less expensive place for us to stay again that night. I called the city, to see if we could set up the tent in any of the parks. No dice. We tried Jenny’s friend again. No dice. I was pretty resolved that we wouldn’t be spending that night in a motel, yet our options were limited. I spied a nice, empty looking spot on the map that wasn’t a park, that might suit. It was near downtown, where we had planned to meet up with Jenny, John and their friend that evening.

So we headed back after a while to scope out our spot. As we were passing Colorado College, we saw a game of ultimate frisbee going on. We figured maybe we could meet some college kids, they’d know the good spot to go out that night, and maybe we could tag along. Paul exclusively, even thought some of the girls were cute. Being the painfully shy person I am, I eventually mustered up enough courage to ask to join in.
Turns out they had just finished their JUNIOR years in high school. Paul mentioned later that when he heard that he felt like he got shot in the chest. It was really funny. But actually, it was pretty cool. They were from all over the country, and were spending two weeks as some art school the college was holding. They must have been pretty talented.

We played for maybe an hour, to an hour and a half. It was a lot of fun, and we both expressed how we felt like we could run forever. It was a good feeling.

After that, we just went downtown, stinky and sweaty we’d be going out to a bar soon. Oh well. Jenny and her friend Alicia called and said to meet us at Phantom, a place we had stopped at the night before. Unfortunately, John wasn’t able to get off of work earlier enough, so he couldn’t make it.

We got some food there, but it was a little rich for the biking tourist’s blood, so we went to the bar of a very fancy Antlers Hilton down the street, which for some odd reason happened to be much cheaper. We had a great time there just enjoying each other’s company as we were one of the only groups there.

As we departed and said our goodbyes, Paul and I hung out outside the Phantom for a bit, where our bikes were locked up with everything on them. We would have to set up the tent in near complete darkness in the sketchy plot of land we had picked out.

Nearly pros, we had no problem setting up the tent after we found a spot that was hidden well enough. It was already late, and we would have to be up early so as not to be seen. We would not be getting much sleep. But hey, it was free.

The tire had survived, and the next shipment would be coming in the following day. We would be heading into Denver the following evening.

Life was good……….

…. Until

…… CHHHH CHHH CHH CHHHC HHHH

Blasted in the face by a stream of water, I awoke immediately to the pleasure of a long distance sprinkler stream. 2:00 on the dot, Paul and I quickly sprung into action and put on our rain cover. The soothing sounds of water pressure smacking against the thick canvas of the rain cover would ease us into a relaxing sleep for the remainder of the evening. Living and breathing…

Life was good.

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After waking up and packing, we stopped by the buffet again. We’d get in as many as these things as possible while the opportunity was there. After that, we stopped at Coldstone again to get online. We were there before they opened, and Stacey, the same girl we had seen at the gorge was working. She opened the doors and offered us some ice cream before we left. We didn’t have any, as we were full, but it was a nice gesture. We talked to her again for a bit, and left.

Our first stop would be Penrose, just outside of Canon City. We filled up our water bottles there. You really need water at that altitude. We’d have to climb back out of the foothills to get to Colorado Springs.

The first half had us working up a nice sweat. There were some pretty intense hills, but we conquered. The second half of the ride would be a nice downhill cruise into “the Springs” as the locals say. There are 5 military bases in the Springs, the coolest being Norad. Norad, the worst acronym ever, stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command. There base is a hollowed out mountain front. You can tell from all of the antennas on top. Pretty cool.

Once we got all the way in, we stopped at a Panera where I would be able to get online, and we could also get some good food. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, a van stopped and asked us, “Do you guys need a place to stay?”. We said no, (bad move), as we had already had couchsurfing people that we had arranged to stay with. We spoke to him for a few minutes, and then went on into Panera. As soon as he had pulled away we thought, shoot, we should have at least gotten his number in case things had fallen through with our present hosts.

While getting some food inside, I hopped online. We found out that the hosts we were staying with were actually 25 miles north of downtown. Yikes. We wanted to see some of the Springs, and riding all the way up that day would have made it a chore to come back. We contacted one person on the warmshowers website (hosts for bikers) who seemed eager to host cyclists. He shot us down. We called Jenny, our new friend from Pueblo, who mentioned that her friend might be able to host us, shot down. Hmmmm, we decided that we would just camp. We looked up a few sites that were looking to charge close to $40 for a tent site. Get out of here. Instead we found a cheap motel right in the downtown area, and figured we’d head over there from Panera.

As we rolled over to the motel, and pulled out all of our negotiating stops again, we settled up in a decent place and showered. We headed out to the downtown bar scene and got some food. We went to an Irish place (go figure), where they were playing live music. A young couple burst onto the scene dancing up a storm right next to our table. It was pretty entertaining and quite odd, but they were pretty good, and quite intense.

We did a bit of bar hopping, as we were a little disappointed with the crowd, but it was a Tuesday night. After a while of that, we decided to head back to the motel. I would be getting in a badly needed tire shipment the following day, and we were going to go to the Garden of the Gods, a natural garden of rock formations on the west side of the city. It would be fun, but we were still awaiting a badly needed day of rest where we didn’t look at the bikes at all. Either way, we had a nice bed to sleep on and breakfast in the morning, and we were in Colorado the Beautiful.

Life was good.

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We did get up right at 6:00 and were quick to knock the tent down, and get our personals together. As I had just put a new tire on the day prior, I was doing some checking up and pumping to make sure my pressure was good… it would help up the hill. Paul decided to do the same, since his rear tire was perfect and he enjoys making things more interesting sometimes. Sure enough, he deflated and couldn’t get it back. No big deal, we only had expensive non refundable tickets awaiting us atop an 8 mile hill.

Eventually Maverick was able to remedy the situation, and we headed over to the buffet with a tighter schedule. We absolutely stuffed ourselves again figuring we wouldn’t be eating for a while, again right before a massive climb. Oh well, we’d need it.

As we were on the roads trying to make good time, apparently an officer mistakenly thought we weren’t completely abiding the traffic laws (imagine that), so we got pulled over. He pointed to the sidewalk, and although I have never had a problem with authority in the past (Halo), I gestured that we were not going to do that. He quickly sprang out of the car, and explained how he had seen us run a few lights (completely safely mom and dad, and Nina). As we stated we were in a bit of a rush, he was understanding, but demanded we follow the same rules as the cars. There were only a few more lights before the hill anyway, so we respectfully obliged.

Quite the challenge, was the 8 mile hill, and appropriately named. We started getting a taste of what we’d be in for for a while. We arrived at the place with plenty of time, so we did all right despite Paul’s attempts. Being on a budget, we decided against the wetsuits, even though the water was 45 degrees. We were the only ones, it was hilarious. It was a bright, sunny day (of course) and we figured we’d be fine. I had already been acclimated as I had swam in the Long Island Sound every month throughout the winter. Paul did however get booties to protect his feet in the case of getting ejected from the raft.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring the camera, as it would for sure get ruined, so we don’t have any pictures of the rafting. It was a great time, however. Paul and I were in front paddling with 4 other riders and an instructor. No one ever got thrown out unfortunately, but I did take a swim in one section that was particularly calm. The water felt nice, and Paul had to yank me back in when I was done.

Rafting was a blast, and afterwards, the bus brought us back to the top. We got a late lunch, and then headed for the Royal Gorge. This was another 4 mile ride up an ever more challenging ascent.

Once we finally arrived, we were amazed at some of the spectacles. The bridge crossing the gorge was surprisingly rickety in appearance. There were often large gaps between the wooden planks, and cars that passed shook it quite a bit. There was a helicopter there doing amazing tricks like driving directly at the wall, and also a gondola type thing going straight across the gorge. Scary. Along the bridge, there were flags from each state. As we contemplated a picture next to the Connecticut flag, we noticed a familiar face walking by. One of the Cold Stone employees was there with her boyfriend, and passed us at just the right time to take our picture on the bridge.

After that, we hung out for a while, watching a movie about the gorge and emaging in the great passtime of people watching. It was fun. We then headed back into Canon City. We figured we’d camp again that night, and make the trip to Colorado Springs the following morning.

As buffet style was our favorite meal option, we had one again for dinner. Afterwards, we stopped in Walmart to check for tubes since we were fresh out, and would be in bad shape if we popped a flat before Colorado Springs. Paul and I both hadn’t played Guitar Hero in a while, and when I spied it in the electronics section, we would wait our turn along the other 10 year olds for a chance to rock. I gained another fan who asked if I would be in the tournament the coming weekend. After the no that left him in disappointment, and no dice on the right tubes, we left.

While setting up the tent at the same site, I realized I needed to get online for the following day’s post. We again went back to Cold Stone to see if I could get some wifi. Able to attain a signal, I uploaded some stuff, and finished the blog entry. It was hopping again there, but this time I didn’t get anything.

Returning to the site, tired from a long day, we fell asleep quickly. The following day we would head into Colorado Springs, the second biggest city in Colorado, to stay with couchsurfers again. What a great state.

Life was good.

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When the morning came, we arose slowly. We met John, Jenny’s boyfriend who had to work late the night prior. We all went out to breakfast at a place called Patti’s. Paul got a smothered burrito, which is a burrito with chili (often green) on the outside that is quite popular in the area. After breakfast they gave us a quick tour of Pueblo, explaining how it was a large steel mill town and important hub for transportation back in the day. They took us past a canal along a bridge that is fed by the Arkansas river I believe. Along the bridge, there is the Guinness world record largest mural in the world. Some of the art was really cool.

We got back to their place and decided that we would go cliff jumping at “the res” what us Pueblo insiders call the reservoir, which happens to be where John works. Since John was the inside guy, he called ahead to make sure that boat patrol wouldn’t be in the area. We were clear. Deciding against starting with a smaller drop, we went for the biggest cliff off the bat. At first John and Paul went. Yikes. We were up there. Without thinking, the best way to do it, I leaped off as well. Man, how exhilarating! We estimated that we were over 50 feet, but as our stories will grow greater with time, you can expect that height to grow as well.

As soon as I swam to shore, the boat patrol had showed up. They didn’t punish us, but mentioned there would be no swimming. I was practically relieved that I wouldn’t be allowed to face the drop again.

We headed back to their house shortly after, and collected our stuff. They had convinced us to head towards Canon City to do some rafting and see the Royal Gorge, the tallest suspension bridge in the world, before Colorado Springs.  Initially planning on a day of rest in Pueblo, we would have to wait (much to the chagrin of a certain riding partner whose name will go unmentioned) We collected our stuff, and took a picture We had a really great time with Jenny and John, and were very appreciative. We hoped we would see them again in our travels or perhaps after.

Once on the road we would have to stop in Pueblo West for some food as it would be the only place to do that prior to arriving in Canon City, about 35 miles away. We would be climbing a bit as well, as we were heading into the mountains.

We stopped at a Little Ceaser’s who had a nice deal on a large pizza pizza. We met a manager type figure, who was interested in our trip. He told the workers to “hook these guys up”. Sweet, what did that mean? Once we had ordered, he came over and swiped his card. He bought our meal for us. We couldn’t believe it. Another generous person to add to the list.

Filled to the brim, we headed into the mountains… not an ideal combination. As we pedaled to the very beginning of the range, we began seeing the tip of the iceberg of the beauty of Colorado. The scenery does come at a cost however. It was a tough 35 mile stretch.

We booked a ticket to go the gorge as well as a rafting on the Arkansas below it. The rapids under the Gorge were nearly double the water volume they allow because of the record snowfall from the winter (the Arkansas is fed from snow melt), and were consequently shut down, but wasn’t where we were heading anyway, just a tidbit. The bus for the tour was on top of what the locals called 8 mile hill. Not feeling up to it at the time, we found a campsite nearby, and would take the trip early in the morning as the tickets were non-refundable and we had to be there by 8:45.

We visited a local Best Western which happened to have a breakfast buffet, that I found out was available to anyone for $7. What a deal, especially for two beasts like us. And really I mean, Paul… he’s huge.

Noticing a cold stone on the way in, we figured we’d replace a potentially nutritious dinner with a heaping mound of ice cream plus mix ins. It’s such a jolly atmosphere, I always end up talking to the employees there for a while. We stuck around outside for a while, since of course it was absolutely beautiful, and a happening spot. We also met a guy there doing a tour of Colorado, north to south, to help raise money for a homeless shelter in Glenwood Springs.

We retired at a decent time as we would be getting up at 6:00 sharp to pack quickly and get a quick buffet (or so I thought) before we took on the 8 mile hill. The air was so dry and comfortable, it was a pleasure camping. The following day would bring both of our first, real rafting experience, and the Royal Gorge would be a cool sight as well.

Life was good.

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There will be another post in a few hours today to try to help catch the blog up to where we actually are in the trip.  Enjoy!

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The storms had stopped at some point early in the morning, and amazingly nearly all of our stuff had dried due to the low humidity. No dew, no nothing. We couldn’t wait to get off of the high plains and into the foothills of the mountains, which we could not see yet. To cap off our long week we would need to do a 100 mile day to get into Pueblo.

Our first target of the day was Las Animas, which is Spanish for “the animas”. When we were a few miles out Paul informed me that my tire looked low. It wasn’t completely full, but it had gotten a puncture and was leaking air slowly. To save time, I pumped it enough to get us into town so that I could repair it while we ate.

We stopped at a small pizza shop and ordered a large pizza that we split. Feeling extra glutinous, we also got carrot cake as a top off. As my tire was in a state of disrepair, I was forced to use the notorious spare that Paul managed to get 6 flats on in 5 days (or whatever it was). A year from now, it’ll probably be 12 flats in an hour… the beauty of embellishment. We were in need of a bike shop, and Pueblo was the closest one.

With the repair, and the long day, we would have to make a few long stretches to arrive safely in Pueblo and meet our couchsurfer Jenny by dark. We departed for La Junta, with plans of doing a long stretch after that stop. By the time we got to La Junta, we felt so good, we decided not to stop until Swink. When we got to Swink, we decided not to stop until Rocky Ford, known for their melons.

Unfortunately Rocky Ford’s farmers market was not open when we arrived, so we went to Sonic of course. Too much Sonic discussion, I’m through with it. When we left Rocky Ford we intended on doing roughly 30 miles to a town outside of Pueblo.

To stay with the overachieving theme of the day, and with the mountains appearing on the skyline, we kept on riding until a gas station 5 miles outside of the city.

We were pretty exhausted from the week, but happy to be back where people were.

When we spoke to Jenny, she was heading to a barbecue, which she invited us to. We decided why the heck not, and headed to the party, which was close to Jenny’s house anyhow.

Arriving in our gear out front, we were a bit of a spectacle. Everyone was very welcoming at the party, and we were offered tons of food and beer upon entry. The gathering was to celebrate a birthday for one of the girls that was traveling as well. They had gotten a pinata for the party, which turned out to be quite entertaining. After a few people got some aggression out, this was all that was remaining.

Later on, when the party was brought back inside, they put some Michael Jackson on Mike’s (home owner) vinyl record player. It sounded great, and influenced Paul enough to want to buy one once he returns home. We hit the dance floor for a bit, and just had a good time. It was a fun time for everyone, and just what Paul and I were looking for.

Once people started heading home, we followed suit and went to Jenny’s place. Ahhhh, after a massive week, and a good time, we were able to relax with no schedule for the following day. We patted ourselves on the back for the long week and rested easy.

Life was good.

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We got our good breafest at the typical small diner down the street. There an old woman came up to us while we were eating and grabbed me by the shoulder to ask me where we were from. It was funny, and she also mentioned that she had traveled every state west of the Mississippi, and Kansas was her favorite. A bit surprised by that, we thought to each his own, and went back to the motel.

Trying to locate more couchsurfers and plan our path through Colorado, I spent some time on the laptop before we departed. Once we finally got out the door, I had a brake situation that took another 20 minutes or so to resolve. Once that was rectified, we hopped on the seats for a farewell to Kansas ride, as our first stop would be in Holly, Colorado.

Shortly into the ride, we entered “Colorful Colorado”. Maybe it was reality, or maybe perception, but we immediately noticed the low humidity and how nice it felt even with the sun shining strongly around noon. There were also tons of prairie dogs that seemed to start right over the border as well. After fueling up in Holly we headed to Lamar. There was an information center there, oddly about 40 miles into the state.

We stopped at a Walmart because I will accept only the finest in clothing, and was in need of a decent looking shirt to wear out. Mind you this is over a month into the trip. Paul and I each grabbed a shirt, and some delicious fruit. As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed intense winds. What, we’re in Colorado, I thought we were supposed to be out of this stuff. Sure enough there were tornado warnings in the area. We surveyed the area a bit, and found a nice break to head down the road about a mile to the visitor’s center.

Upon arriving there, we were informed that tornadoes had touched down north of where we were, and Holly, where we had come from earlier that day! Craziness, but it was just a bit windy in Lamar at the time. We picked up tons of materials at the center, most of which would have to be shed before we tackled the Rockies head on, but would suit well for the time being.

Taking one of the worker’s advice from the visitor’s center, we went to a trucker’s diner a bit ouf town. It was a cool place, with tons of souvenirs and a large dining area. The food was really good, and we both got milkshakes to top it off. There were two large flags outside, a U.S. And Colorado’s awesome flag, and both were blowing furiously toward the direction we were heading. Sweet.

As we approached the campgrounds that we would be staying at that night, we were a bit disappointed to see a crappy gravel road we’d have to ride into the campground for 3 miles. We were really disappointed with the park on arrival. The young woman working at the front desk stuck us away from everyone else when we asked to be near the bathrooms. It was somewhat funny, but a little annoying too. They charged for showers as well. This was the first time we had seen this, and Paul was pretty angry, me not so much.

As we prepared for bed, the winds began to pickup. I’m no meteorologist, but I would say the winds were gusting to somewhere in the 40 mph range, throughout the night.  We would not have much sleep throughout the night, as we were fairly certain the tent would come down. It was pretty miserable sleep, but we didn’t get swept up by a tornado, and we would be in Pueblo the following night with a couchsurfer, and some rest after a long week.

Life was good.

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Our morning ride was probably the coldest yet. We were shivering for our entire first leg, but it was short enough not to stop and change. We went to a grocer, and they had the air conditioning on so I turned around as soon as we I got in. Paul got some stuff, and we wised up and put on more clothes before we left for our next haul.

Garden City, where we were heading, seemed to have a lot going on. And this is Kansas, so there would be nothing before it. The first time the trip felt like work was on this ride. There was a constant cold rain, continual climbing, and strong headwinds that had us going under 10 miles an hour for much of the leg. We agreed it was one of the most mentally challenging parts of the trip, because without any services at all, we had no choice but to work through it. Paranoid of Kansas storms, we had another slight scare as there seemed to be very low hanging clouds, and winds began to strengthen. Pedaling through again, it did not materialize into anything significant, other than a rapid increase in heart rate.

After that we saw the sun pop for about 5 seconds right before we got into Garden City, which would be the last time we would see it all day. We stopped at a lunch buffet place, which was perfect. We feasted on some hot food, and waited out the storm. We were so cold that we got a hot pot of water from the kind waitress to warm ourselves up. We ended up staying for two and a half hours while the Poseidon did his work.

When we hit the streets, the road we were on was nearly flooded. It was sort of cool but we got a bit wet. As the weather cleared, our attitudes improved again. We made a nice stretch to stop at Lakin, another hopping spot, our last stop before Syracuse, Kansas. The time lost with the storm would not allow us get into Colorado that day. Disappointing.

In Lakin we got some snacks, and hung out for a bit before heading out. When I rolled my bike off the pavement in front of the store I noticed it felt soft. I had finally gotten my first flat! It was the first time in my life that I had a flat rear. Now I knew what 1/6 of Paul’s frustration felt like.

After a quick fix, with some help from the pro (Paul), we were back on the road. We were running low on tubes and would have to make it back to civilization (just joking Kansas, nothing but love) to get to a bike shop.

While riding to Syracuse, we crossed  into mountain time! How exciting. Little mental accomplishments like that can be so empowering. We practically flew the rest of the way to Syracuse. As we got our motel, we noticed a good looking Mexican place. The motel manager recommended the place as well. But remember, we’re in Kansas, so it’s not as if we were choosing from hundreds of options.

We also asked her about breakfast and the like, the typical motel questions. The manager said breakfast without the k. Breafest, quite funny, and we still laugh about it today.

We rolled over to the Mexican place, and filled up. Damn, I write about food a lot. But it’s so good, and we eat a lot.

We returned to the motel, and I did some writing and the like. Both of us could hardly contain our excitement to enter Colorado the following morning. We were actually going to make it for sure the next day. Although I have already said it, we had a lot of expectations for the state. We could hardly fall alseep, but eventually were able to.

Life was good.

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