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

Day 27

Day 27
Boulder, Colorado

We rode about 50 miles from Fort Collins to Boulder Colorado. I was a sweep, along with Kenny. In the paceline in front of us there were two ride-alongs: Joey Stassi's dad and a Pi Alpha from CSU. That paceline was going so slow that eventually the rest of our paceline broke away and passed them, leaving Kenny and I alone behind the slow group as the sweeps. It didn't matter much anyways, because since the first group was also being held back by the slow group the whole team was racked at around mile 38-42. We were supposed to do an arrival at the Colorado University chapter house, but because the last groups were so far back we didn't have time. I felt real bad for Brendle and Rob who are from CU and didn't get to ride in to their home on a bike, let alone in an arrival.

The ride itself was really cool. When we were about 30-40 miles away, we were told that Boulder was easily visible from where we stood; it was just below the cliffs with the vertical strips that we could see. Actually, we were told about the cliffs at the same place where I took this picture:

We could see where we were going for most if the day, which was cool. When we made a turn onto a road near Boulder we all of a sudden ran into more bikers than we had seen on any day this trip so far. There were tons of bikers going both ways on the road. We were passed first by an older woman on a road bike with aero bars, then by a man on a mountain bike, then by a very old man on a mountain bike. It was kind of funny. Boulder is apparently the most biker friendly town in the country, and t was apparent. There were bike racks and bikers everywhere.

We were racked to a rec center type place where we had lunch and a friendship visit with an organization called EXPAND, which does work with people with physical disabilities. We met with a few of their coaches and racers in their wheelchair racig program. We got to talk to a man who at one time was both the fastest alpine monoskier and the fastest wheelchair racer in the world. It was really inspiring to hear about his story. He lost both of his legs in battle in Korea (I think), in an incident that cost the lives of several of his friends. He doesn't see his lack if legs as a disability but as a blessing. Not only does it mean that he is alive, when his friends are not, but it gave him the opportunity to be the best in the world at two sports that he never would have done otherwise. He said he used to be a good downhill skier, but nowhere near good enough to be an Olympic champion.

We got to try out one of two racing wheelchairs that they had set up on trainers for us. They had bike computers on them reading out speed and distance. We had a little team competition to see who could gi the farthest and who could hit the highest top speed. It was really hard. You had to wear these gloves that force your hand into a fist, and you hit the wheels, rather than grabbing them with your fingers and turning them. I think my top speed was around 8-9 mph. Kent hit 12.5 mph.

When we ate lunch at the place I talked to this guy who goes to Springfield College. He was pretty cool, and it was good to talk to someone from Massachusetts.

After the friendship visit I went to a bike shop to get a new battery for my sensor on my front wheel for my computer and new grip tape. It was a huge bike shop, and there were tons of people there; more people than I would ever expect to see in a bike shop in other parts of the country.

While we were at the bike shop the rest of the team was at the Eta Gamma chapter house at CU. That day 3 bike wheels got run over my vans. People kept on leaving them under or against the vans as people were loading into the vans and forgetting to put them in before the vans started moving.

We had dinner and a friendship visit at a park with an organization called Sky's the Limit whose goal is to integrate people with and without disabilities through sporting events. We played baseball and bocce and ladderball and basketball. We had a really good meal with plenty of subway subs and pizza, all donated by local establishments. I did a video interview for the organization's documentary.

Our lodging fell through so we stayed at a Pi Alpha's apartment about 10 miles outside Boulder, making our ride into Denver the next day 10 miles shorter. That night I walked to a gas station with some of the guys to get some drinks. I have yet to see any Honest Ade anywhere except the gift shop in Yellowstone.


- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Boulder, CO

Day 26

Day 26
Fort Collins, Colorado

Today we rode over the state line, riding about 60 miles from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Fort Collins, Colorado. Wyoming was tough: 550 miles in 6 days.

Fireworks are illegal in Colorado, so we had to use them before we crossed the border. Our first crew stop was at the border so that everyone who had bought some in Wyoming could use them all before crossing into Colorado. Here is a picture of a windfarm right on the border:


Here is a picture of Wes setting off a smoke bomb in the road and causing a hazardous situation for drivers passing by:


Here is a cop who stopped because of what Wes was doing and almost gave Drew a ticket (the cop is behind the van):


Here is a picture if the welcome to Colorado sign:


Here is a picture of Brendle's bike computer just as the odometer read 5555.5 miles:


We staged up for an arrival around the corner from the Zeta Phi chapter (Colorado State University) of Pi Kappa Phi chapter house, where a bunch of Brothers and friends were waiting to feed us delicious Subway sandwhiches. It was really exciting for Joey and Nick because they are from CSU. Their house was pretty sweet. They had a room full of couches stacked into stadium seating four levels high in a TV room with a nice projector.

For dinner we went to Austin's American Grill, where I had a steak dinner. It was a really nice restaurant. I tried a bite of someone else's buffalo. I think it was buffalo meatloaf. I don't remember. It tasted vey distinctly different from beef. I would like to try some again sometime.

That night we hung out at the fraternity house with some of the Brothers who were living in the area of in the house over the summer. We saw some fireworks from outside the house, because it was the fourth of July. I met an alumni named Brian Day who was pretty funny.

We stayed at the local senior center for the night because Push America doesn't let us stay over at any fraternity houses that have summer residents.


- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Fort Collins, CO

Day 25

Day 25
Cheyenne, Wyoming

This day we rode about 100 miles from Wheatland to Cheyenne, and was our last night in Wyoming.

We stayed at Laramie County Community College in a huge gym with volleyball nets set up:


We played volleyball in there a bit at night. Also, they couldn't figure out how to shut the lights off so we slept wig all the lights on. There was a vending machine that was jammed so that you had to quickly grab one of the backed up drinks when you selected one. This worked once before we backed it up so much that you couldn't get anything out of it. It was somewhat entertaining. That day I bought a big jug of simply lemonade and a loaf of asiago cheese bread and ate it all.

Okay, so for lunch we went to the Wyoming Hereford Ranch where we had a sponsored lunch with the Lady Cowbells. They started out as the same organization as the cattlewomen, but when the cattlewomen changed to their new name the lady cowbells kept their original name. The food was pretty amazing, as expected, and the ranch was really cool. The WHR is the oldest continuously registered livestock operation. We ate in the sale barn (I think) where they would have auctions for livestock and livestock semen. The WHR once covered over 65000 acres and is world renowned for their white faced Hereford cattle. They mostly specialized in selling seed cattle that had very good traits and would be sold for lots of money to populate other ranches. I forget the correct term so I'm calling them seed cattle. The ranch had tons of history and some of the buildings had museum type displays set up for visitors. One of the barns the initials or name of every cowboy that ever came through the ranch carved into it's rafters. We didn't see that but we were told. The whole place was really cool because it gave me the feeling of what the old west was REALLY like, not just some tourist attraction.

Here are two old horses:


They used to work on the farm years ago. Their current owners asked the ranch to take them back for retirement, so WRH is keeping them until they die, letting them have an easy retirement at the place where they grew up. I thought that was cool.

Here is a stump that was carved into the distinctive Hereford head:


For dinner we had a friendship visit with the Arc of Laramie County. We had a picnic at a park under an awning. We played bocce and soccer. I met a man who had just recently gone to Washington D.C. and we talked for much of the visit.

I was talking to another man at the visit who must have been at least 35 or 40, and he told me about how in high school he had accidently been cut badly by a locker in a confrontation with a bully and had to be sent to the hospital. The next time he saw the bully he asked him why they couldn't just be friends instead of fighting, and I guess that got the bully to back off. It really struck me not only how nice this man was for wanting to forgive the bully and show him that it's easier to be friends than fight but how important it is to treat all people with respect, regardless of what disability they man have. It's been probably 20 years and this story is still fresh in this man's memory. I bet that bully has no idea how much this man thinks about being bullied in high school, probably the most memorable time of his life.

Anywho. I didn't really get those sentences out as clearly as I would have liked, but I'm trying to do this quickly.


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 24

Day 24
Wheatland, Wyoming

I don't remember everything because it's now the 22nd of July as I am writing this. The same goes for every post following this up until day 31.

The day was super windy. We had to tilt at ridiculous sideways angles as we battled a sidewind from Casper to Wheatland, Wyoming, about 125 miles. It was supposed to be our longest day, but the wind prevented us from making rack point. The whole team was racked. We rode farther than 125 a week and a half later.

We stayed at wheatland middle school. For dinner we met with the cattlewomen again. They cooked us BBQ beef sandwhiches and fried chicken (Alex doesn't eat beef...) and fruit and caramel bars and other good stuff. We had to drive miles down a windy (wine dee not win dee) country dirt road to get to the house where we ate. I was nestled amonst a group of tall trees that stood out clearly from the vast expanse of grazing lands that surrounded it. The owners told me that the trees were planted over a hundred years ago by their ancestors.

I don't remember a ton about this day in particular. I should have been more diligent about keeping up with my posts.

I don't know if these two pictures are from this day or the next, but here they are:


This is James, Kyle, Mike, and Kenny at a crew stop:


- Posted from my iPhone