Colorado Bound

Well I awoke yesterday feeling much better than expected and to make things better, the wind had died down.  Make no mistake it was still windy but, it was a fraction of what it was on previous days ride.  The really surprising thing was how good I felt on the bike, I mean after a 7 hour grind fest the day before I wasn’t really hurrying to jump back in the saddle. 

The ride from Rawlins to Laramie is mostly up hill, small rollers dominate the landscape, and for some strange reason I ride really well on rollers.  I plowed through the miles and rode the 111 miles to Laramie in a hair over six hours. 

An amazing thing happened on the ride, about twenty-five miles outside of town I noticed a truck pulled over on the side of the road, nothing unusual here as it is currently hunting season.  As I approached a man and woman stepped out so I slowed down.  They had seen me earlier in the day and asked where I had started and what we were doing.  Here is the amazing part, they proceeded to offer us a place to stay in Laramie.  Carl just sold his bike shop at the beginning of the summer, so he also offered to take a look at my bikes and fix them up.  As I have previously stated a guy my size is pretty hard on the old hardware. 

Seeing as Azure and I haven’t had a day out of the van since Seattle, we gladly agreed.  What we didn’t expect was for them to have steak and potatoes for dinner along with breakfast the following morning.  Really unbelievable.  A thank you doesn’t really seem sufficient for two strangers, now friends, that stopped to wait for us and then welcomed us into their home.  However, its all I can offer at this point, so Carl and Carrie, thank you, you guys rock.

The following morning after a great breakfast I headed out for what was supposed to be an easy ride into Denver. Once you climb out of Laramie, it is pretty much all down hill from there, literally.  One problem, the wind was back and blowing hard.  I found myself pedaling as hard as I could and topping out at about 15mph on grades that I should have been coasting down at 20+.  After about 4 hours of fighting the wind and the sun beating down on me, I called it.  Day after day fighting the wind and being way too sun burnt for my own good (it’s nearly impossible to keep sunscreen on my face for any extended period of time), the temptation to wrap it up and head to see friends in Denver was too overwhelming.  Brennan and Haley welcomed us into their home even though we were a day early, surprise!  I am going to take today off and Brennan and I are going to head back to Fort Collins where I left off tomorrow and finish off the ride.  I am really looking forward to a few days of rest and someone to ride with.

9-25

111.01 miles

18.2 mph average

35.9 mph max

6:04:42 ride time

9-26

64.5 miles

16.1 mph average

45.2 mph max

3:58.54 ride time



Comments

[Jill Garman]

will brennan be sporting a moustache for this ride?