Sunday, July 17, 2011

Colorado Springs, CO to Hill City, KS

As we travel further into the middle of America, it becomes increasingly harder to find cell phone service or wifi.  However the people we come across become friendlier and friendlier... an interesting correlation.

I apologize for the recent lack of blog posts.

The three of us had a delightful reunion and day off in Colorado Springs.  We started the day at a bike shop, where we made sure everything was up to date on our mighty steeds and ready to conquer the last half of our journey.  The rest of the day we spent exploring the incredible Garden of the Gods and the Olympic training center.  Both were very impressive and made the whole day extremely intriguing.





Wednesday morning I jumped on my bike for the first time in what felt like forever.  Of the 80 some miles, I only rode 40, but they were the best 40 miles ever.  The terrain is definitely the flattest its ever been on this whole trip.  The temperature has also become much hotter.  That night we arrived in Limon, CO.  There we were greeted by a wonderful church spaghetti dinner.
Thursday was another 80 mile day to Cheyenne Wells, CO, our last stop in Colorado.  The heat was treacherous.  I increased my milage to 60 miles, and felt wonderful about it.  Dehydration was a concern for some riders.  However, once we arrived at our destination, we had a pool option to help us cool down.
Friday, I finally felt strong enough to do the whole ride.  We rode 86 miles to Oakley, KS.  And what an amazing ride it was.  The average for most everyone that day was 20 mph.  We left at 5:30 am to avoid most of blazing heat.  Even with the early rising, we still encountered some pretty brutal heat waves.  With much excitement, we not only crossed another state line, but a time zone change line too.  We are officially on central time.



Oakley, was a wonderful small Kansas town, which I'm assuming was named after Annie Oakley, since they had an Annie Oakley motel.  There we also got the opportunity to swim in a pool.   For dinner the church served us at least 4 different types of food which contained corn... I got the impression corn was a popular food there.
Saturday, our last day of riding for the week, we rode 75 miles to a town called Hill City.  The town was appropriately named, even though I figured out later, it was actually named after a person.  Whoever said that Kansas was flat lied.  The heat only made the rolling hills more difficult.  However, it was a short ride compared to what we are accustomed too, so everyone completed the day just fine.
Today, we got the day off to spend in Hill City.  Its a small town, but the most friendliest place we've stayed yet.  We've had families take us into their homes and out to dinner.  One couple even fixed all three meals at the church we are staying at.  There was a pool, a car museum, I got a massage, some people got to watch the Tour de France, and some people caught up on sleep.  Over all a very successful day off.  Tomorrow we pedal on to Osborne.
Thanks for all your patience and prayers for us.  Four more weeks until we reach D.C. so we will be with you all shortly.  Love to you all!

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