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