Day 15: Pueblo to Colorado Springs

June 19, 2005

Leah woke me up at 5 AM this morning and let me know that I was going to drive today. I was kind of surprised since I had driven two days earlier (although it was a half day for Nick) and then two days before that. But that's the way it worked out and such so had to just accept it. Kind of bummed since I had been looking forward to the ride after the good ride the day before.

Breakfast was at the cafeteria again. Usually I eat a bowl of cereal in the morning back at home. Now I ate three slices of French toast, two eggs, a potato, two glasses of orange and cranberry juice and two bowls of cereal. And a banana. Somehow Sam didn't get woken up so he got an extra hour or two of sleep. When we realized he was missing breakfast, I made it over to his room and woke him up. I'm not really sure, but I don't think he was too happy.

Seems the team starts later and later; we didn't get around to dedications until after 7:30. Having received the news about my mom the night before I dedicated the ride to her, even though I wasn't riding. Mercedes said we would ride to Anchorage for her. Don't really know if my mom has cancer at this point, but it's good to know that I have such a great support group here.

We got on the road and headed out, with me hoping for a relatively easy driving day. But of course I got lost right away. Made my way around finally and headed out in Brian's car (with a brand new radio installed.) The road we were taking that day paralleled the highway and the Rocky mountains, but often ducked behind hills and into the rolling fields. I turned up the radio and cruised through the gorgeous landscape with the windows rolled down. Very nice.

The road turned into dirt for a good number of miles and I felt a little glad about not having to bike through it. Caught up to the team, passed them up and continued cruising the back roads with the music rocking and the wind blowing. Pulled over at my stop and typed up some journal entries, taking it easy. Noticed quite a few bike riders out and about on the road. I probably saw above fifty of them while I typed, all of them just out enjoying a good Saturday bike ride.

The team came by, we talked about nothing and they headed out again. I pulled out and headed up the road thinking the day was going to go pretty easy. There was some trouble in the city, though, since the road didn't have a shoulder. Also, the university was on the north side of town so the riders had to bike through quite a bit of traffic. But after some confusion, we all made it into where we thought we were staying.

Colorado Springs had originally been my responsibility, but after a lot of trying had come up with nothing whatsoever. However, the American Cancer Society contact in Blanchard was nice enough to set things up with the university and we thought we were sitting pretty. Turns out there was some confusion and the university wanted to charge $20 a person to stay the night. That was way too expensive for the team. We tried everything. Jessica, the front desk clerk, was so very helpful and patient that she really deserves some credit. After getting the price down to $15 a person we didn't make any further progress and figured we would have to figure something out.

We started calling churches and other places looking for last minute help, but then Brett's parent came in. They had flown in to see him and other family and upon hearing our plight they offered to assist us by paying for a third of the cost. With the day waning and no real hope for other options the team gratefully accepted their generous offer. We packed everything in and Mario and Stephen went about looking for free food.

While the two were out hunting, we talked about what was going to go on that night. A good number of people wanted a good meal and planned on going to Olive Garden, a tempting option. However, a few of us wanted to see the sights, specifically the Garden of Gods and Pike's Peak. I managed to get in with the small group of tourists. Mario and Stephen came back with a bounty of food which I promptly gorged on since most people abstained in favor of restaurant food.

Headed over to Garden of the Gods with Brian, Brenna, Chris, and Leah. Turned out that the Garden was free and so we gladly pulled in. It was very beautiful and the geologic forces required to create the formations were awe inspiring. Took the pictures, walked the trails and then toured the outside of the park in the car. Having been impressed with the Garden we headed over to Pike's Peak.

I had read that it was one of the scariest roads in America and I figured with a road going all the way to the top of a high peak that it would by necessity involve some scary roads. We pulled up to the gate entrance for the highway and found that it was $35 to enter. But it was one of those things that you should do so we put up the money and headed on. Chris kept talking about how afraid of heights he had been and with the talk about the scary road he seemed a little nervous.

A little disappointingly, the road was fairly safe.

I need hardly mention that the views were fantastic. You could see for a vast distance and it wasn't hard to see why the poem "America, the Beautiful" was inspired at its peak. I walked around enjoying the view and eventually meandered over to the required giftshop. Found that there was a little coffee shop and looked for some hot chocolate. Found to my pleasant surprise that because they were closing, all of the hot foods were half price. Picked up some hot chocolate and one of their world famous donuts. I suspect they were world famous since they were at the top of Pike's Peak and not because of their secret recipe. Nonetheless, walking around the top of the mountain (and hence the top of the local world) with hot chocolate in one hand and a donut in the other was quite enjoyable.

Headed down the mountain and into Albertsons for some food. We grabbed our grub and sat directly in front of the store munching down. Didn't realize how foolish we looked. One of us was wearing a bike jersey, I was wearing a sweater and shorts and so on. Brian was passing around a big bottle of apple sauce. We started laughing about it when some guy in a hat with vulgar writing on it sauntered over and started acting cool and was wondering if we had some alcohol or something to share. Guess we did look pretty bad.

Made our way back to the dorms when we got an invitation from some of the team for karaoke. Being after ten at night I decided to pass, but dropped Leah off at the "Squatting Chicken". Went to sleep at 11 with a great view of Pike's Peak from my bed.