130 miles!?

Yesterday was a record-breaking day; almost 130 miles!!!!!!!!!! I had to tell you about it. We had the most awesome 16 mile an hour tailwind- we woke up and all the flags were ready to rip off their poles and fly straight to Oregon! And since Kansas is flat flat flat, we raced through 60 miles in about 3 hours! At one point we hit 28 or 29 miles an hour- thats HUGE. I swear, if I had stopped biking, the wind would have pushed my body like a sail forwards anyway. When we got to our final destination, we HAD to keep going forward to take advantage of the awesome wind, so we busted through another entire day's worth of miles! Everyone was pumped. It was an eventful day too; we passed into Mountain Time (gained an hour), crossed the border into Colorado, and moved into a totally different geographic region. Not to mention going over 200 miles in 2 days. Kansas has been great for eating miles; we did the entire state in about 5 or 6 days, which is 3 days faster than scheduled! 

Colorado looks so different from Kansas. Kansas is like riding through a snow globe. The sky curves around the pancake land in every direction, and all you can see is the soft tipped wheat and mesmerizing rows of corn for miles on either side, and straight road lined by electric poles shooting forward until it drops off into nothingness. In Colorado, however, there are very few wheat farms. Rather, it seems as soon as we passed the state border we entered into desertland. Luscious prairies and seas of grain were replaced by clumps of bushes and prickly pear cacti. The road started bunching together, winding up and down and around as if it were impatient of being stretched straight by commercial farming. It got so that instead of the constant straight lines, you would be able to climb to the top of hills and see the road snake in front of you for miles. You could point to a grainery or water tower in the next town up, and not get to it for 10 miles! To put it into perspective, on a bike that's watching the town you haven't reached yet for the better part of an hour! It's pretty cool.

Today was pretty leisurely; we rolled out of bed and onto the road for an easy 60 miles to Ordway, CO. The weather was nice; dry, not to breezy or hot, with a fantastic sky. Often looking up in the mornings I feel like I am at the four corners of emotions. Its amazing how many different feelings the clouds can express. The sky may hold angry purple clouds, pensive grey expanse, dreamy feathery whisps, and brilliant oasises of bright blue, all in the same morning. I just regret my camera cannot capture them all at once. The road quality wasn't great, but it was quiet and we took our time, which I appreciated. Blazing through the day at lightning speed is exciting because you feel accomplished, but for the most part I would much prefer to be present for the miles I bike through, so it was nice to lay back and notice the scenery again. The road followed the train tracks pretty much the whole way. We passed an abandoned train sitting on the tracks, and it was at least 10 miles long! Leanna and I stopped and crawled into it and explored. We climbed to the top of the ladder on the side and waved at traffic. We felt like we were on top of the world! It was fun. Tomorrow we head into Pueblo, the biggest town on the route so far! We're gonna celebrate the 4th with the town's festivities, and everyone is pretty excited about it.

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Becca

Where are all the mountains?

Seriously, Colorado, is this all you've got? Rocky Mountain State my arse! I've seen nothing but barren plains, sagebrush, and lone antelope for 2 days since posing for photographs under the "Colorful Colorado" state sign. At this rate I won't even have to change gears before we get to the Pacific. Those pioneers must have been pathetic pansies if they complained about this place. The next time somebody from out west scoffs at the use of the word "mountain" for the Appalachians, they will be met with a spirited challenge. Some of the Appalachians were so steep I felt like I'd adapted the moonwalk to the bicycle- seemingly pedaling forward while actually going backwards. We climbed practically 4,000 ft in Kansas and hardly noticed, but that's probably because we were too busy being showered with lavish hospitality by the good folks of Kansas. Even in the midst of the madness caused by the wheat harvest, they found the time to come talk to strangers and offer well wishes and anonymous donations. By the way, the next time you buy 'golden grains' bread and the bag has scenes of a golden windswept ocean of wheat, believe it. It is very golden and very awe inspiring, and these people work hard to get that wheat in your belly. *Stash Update: Dustin's moustache is approaching Civil War General status and Don's is solid but will take some getting used to, and Kevin's gets the most improved award. Others are considering facial hair novelties and by the time we get to Oregon we will all look ridiculous.* I have also matched the 2007 record for most consecutive days without a proper shower at 7, and to be honest I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. Its not like we get sweaty when we ride 130 MILES in ONE DAY. Congrats to the group for that feather in the cap- 2nd longest day in Bike the US for MS history. Tomorrow we have a Lions Club pancake breakfast in Pueblo then set up our info booth on the Riverwalk for holiday festivities. I'm off to make a big carb feed for those huge "climbs" tomorrow- happy 4th of July to all.