Day 34

Day 34
Garden City, Kansas

Today we rode from Lamar, Colorado to Garden City, Kansas. I was a sweep, along with Rob; Dave, Matt, Joey, and Brendle rode with us. The landscapes were actually a little boring today. Just lots of fields and corn and smelly cattle or pig or chicken farms and one or two processing plants and a lot of bad smells. We rode pretty much the whole day on highway 50, about 103-105 miles in to Garden City. We rode straight to the public pool which advertises itself as "The Largest Pool In the World" (*in Kansas). It was pretty big. There were three awesome slides. They were by far the best slides we have used yet. There was an open red one which was okay, and two (yellow and blue) covered slides. The yellow one had more turns but the blue one went faster. They were a lot of fun. There were also some diving boards, though they were much safer than yesterday's.

When we left the pool we rode our bikes about two miles to the hotel. We were all wearing our bathing suits, some of us were wearing our sandals, and I was still wearing my towel around my waist. Our pacelines looked pretty ridiculous riding through the town.

I'm rooming with Alex, Nick, and Kent. Here is a picture of the room:


Okay, I'm very thirsty so I'm going to go get a drink or something.

Okay now I'm back. We just had dinner at a Golden Corral buffet, sponsored by a Kansas State Pi Kappa Phi alumni named Grant.

I just watched part of the Home Run Derby. David Ortiz won.

Here's a picture of my badly burnt thigh:


I'm going to bed. It's 940 and we have a 6 am wake up tomorrow.

One of these days I'll get around to actually posting all these blog entries.


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 33

Day 33
Lamar, Colorado

Today was a long day on the bike, despite a lovely 8 am wake-up. We only rode about 60 miles, but my paceline (I rode with the sweeps) had around 7 flat tires. I, luckily, didn't have one, but I was the only one in the group who avoided popping a tube. I rode with Dave, Kenny, Mike, and Kyle, and we were cruising. For the day we averaged over 20 miles per hour, but it took us four or five hours to get from La Junta to Lamar because of all the time waiting for tubes to be replaced. One good side effect of this was that I was able to talk to Mike Skalandunas on the phone for a few minutes during one stop. Also, to Mike: sorry I hung up so suddenly, my paceline was already moving.

We are staying in a big wrestling gym in Lamar High School. As soon as I arrived, however, a bunch of people left for the pool. We were given a few hours of pool time at a really cool public pool. There was a big slide and a few diving boards and a lot of average looking lifeguards in bikinis that looked like supermodels to a group of guys who haven't seen many females in a month. It was funny seeing some of the guys try to impress them. Anywho. The place was fun but it seemed to be generally unsafe. Wes and I walked back to the school and at 445 we went to a woman named Mary Minor's house. She had prepared a delicious meal of burritos and fruit salad for us. I had four big burritos and a bunch of fruit and two gatorades and some ice cream and some cake and a butterscotch brownie-like thing. My stomach hurts.

We have a four-thirty am wake-up time tomorrow. It would have ben five, but we are being punished for not leaving the bathrooms in La Junta as clean as they were when we got there. I am going to bed soon. I didn't take any pictures today.

Today was our last full day in Colorado. Tomorrow we ride about 105 miles to Garden City, Kansas. It should be an interesting state. I've been told that it's mostly downhill, but the headwinds are terrible. Colorado was my favorite state so far, even though for some inexplicable reason I don't want to admit it. I'd like to spend more time in Denver, and Colorado Springs felt really cool. I don't know why, I just felt comfortable there.

Oh, I forgot to mention the grasshoppers. They were everywhere today. They covered the entire shoulder at some points on the road today. Through one section of road there must have been tens of thousands of them every hundred feet. They all started jumping up as we road by and landed on our laps, hit our legs, got stuck in our spokes, etc. It was really gross.

Also, today is Sunday the eleventh. I probably won't post this until later because I haven't yet written my blog entries for the last 10 days or so.

Peace out.


- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Lamar, CO

Day 32

Day 32
La Junta, Colorado

We rode about 133 miles from Colorado Springs to La Junta, Colorado. It was awesome. It was my longest day ever on a bike, and I think it was the longest day in Journey of Hope history, though that is unconfirmed.

Anywho, I was a little sad to leave Colorado Springs and Jackson Hall at Colorado College, but it was exciting to think about just how far we were going to bike in one day. Anywho, once we left the mountains of Colorado Springs behind us, we were essentially in Kansas. Very wide, flat, open cattle ranges and farms. Here is a picture:


We stayed in La Junta High School. I slept with a giant fan right next to my bed. It was amazing. The showers were extremely hot. I could barely stay under the stream long enough to rinse off my body wash. Also I developed painful red rashes where my butt cheeks meet my legs. Craig said they could be pressure ulcers. That scared me a lot. They were better today though (the next day).

We had dinner in a really nice park in La Junta sponsored by the local Lions Club. Their local governor, a man named Henry, told me that their international president had recently started promoting a new interpretation of their name:

Loving
Iindividuals
Offering
Needed
Services

I liked that.

Dinner was great. We got our first mashed potatoes of the trip, which was awesome because I love mashed potatoes.

Later on everyone walked to a local bowling alley. It was only 2 or 3 dollars per game but I didn't bowl because I was sore and I didn't bring socks. A bunch of people ended up not bowling and just hanging out at the alley. It was fun. I walked back with Wes and Brent and when we got back to the school, which was located on a hill, we saw an amazing lightnig storm many miles away. It was awesome. We could see so much of the shape of the clouds and the landscape just from hundreds of brief flashes of orange light. It was awesome. I tried to get a picture or video but my camera couldn't pick up the light. I went to bed somewhat early and got a great night sleep.

I really wish AT&T had better service in the less populated areas of the country. I can make calls fine because they rent time on other providers' towers, but I can't get Internet access in a lot of places.


- Posted from my iPhone