Day 19: Boulder to Ft. Collins
Woke up at 5 AM, packed everything up and grabbed some cereal for breakfast. Nothing too big, but then we had already eaten just about everything else so not too many options. Once again got a late start heading out just before 8 AM. I’m wondering if this will get better or worse as we head away from civilization.
Channing’s cousin led the way for us as we made our way to a bike shop. Turned out that it was Bike to Work Day for the area (participated the last two summers as well) and we figured that we qualified. Most of the local businesses participate by providing free breakfast, bike maintenance, and massages. Ate my fill of all sorts of scrumptious food and had my bike tuned up for me. Hung around as the locals asked us questions about our journey and shared their own stories. One of the great things about Boulder is the high number of cyclists, from young to old.
After a good hour of mingling we headed out for what we were told was about 80 miles or so. We wound around the city at a fairly leisurely pace as made our way out to the highway. We said goodbye to our host at the highway and I immediately looked for the nearest tree. Doing so gave up a good chunk of distance between me and my team, but it was such a glorious day that I was looking to bike by myself anyways. Settled into a good pace and even though I was going at a good pace I had the mental capacity to think about things such as life and love and how mountains are made and all sorts of other stuff. Very nice. In fact, before I knew it the first 20 miles were up. I had passed up quite a few of the riders and now met up with most of the team at this point. Munched on a cookie, took some pictures and watched as Sam serenaded us on the guitar while riders came in.
I headed out again for the next rest stop alone and once again settled into a good, comfortable pace. Was having so much fun cycling along the back roads of Colorado that I couldn’t believe it when I saw Ileana waving me in at the next rest stop 20 miles down the road. Must have been the fastest 20 miles I’ve ever ridden. Filled up the water, talked very briefly and then set out again for the lunch stop, supposedly 15 miles down the road.
But out in the country a ways I noticed a big city on the horizon. I was told that the day would be 80 miles or so, but I was racking my brain trying to think of what city of this size would be along the way and was drawing blanks. I got closer and found that it was indeed Ft. Collins, a very nice surprise. Leah and Mallory caught up to me while I looked at directions and we more or less biked in the last few miles to the meeting point. While the day was much shorter than I had thought, thus making it much easier, it also meant that there was no lunch stop. Kind of hungry, though, so I pulled out a melted Snickers bar and pretty much drank it out of the wrapper.
Waited a good long time for everybody to show up and found that Brian and Brenna had gotten lost again. Seems like a daily occurrence lately. In the meantime, Nick Bangia divied up the hotel rooms we were staying at. Our host in Laramie is a local hotel owner and he made an amazing and generous sacrifice by letting us stay in rooms for the night. We biked over to our hotels and started setting up for the night. I took a shower while Mercedes and company went from restaurant to restaurant looking for free food. Although they were rejected by a good number of them, they were able to land some KFC and such. Ate a good amount and topped it off with a large bowl of cereal then hit the bad for a nap. Woke up a couple of hours later feeling quite refreshed and headed over to the internet for some journal entries and e-mail. Having caught up on all the journal entries while listening to some good ‘ol country music I’m feeling quite relaxed and ready for tomorrow’s trek across the state line into Wyoming.