the arrival, and beyond... no, wait. before, not beyond.

So, after about 600 miles of biking, I finally reached Denver yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. I'll try to get down some of the "important" happenings since my last post.

Day 4: ...of Wind and Rain

I made it as far as  Tribune, KS (71 miles), only 16 or so miles east of the CO border. At the park there, I met a couple guys from Indianapolis. One of them used to work for the Adventure Cycling Association (whose route I was following). For this trip, they were planning on going off route and off road and try to cross 100 mountain passes in the Rockies in 6 weeks (they were on mountain bikes).

Anyways, that evening, we moved our tents into a little 4-H auction barn that was open and right by the park when a couple fronts moved in - one from the south, one from the west. The wind was from the east. The fronts hit each other just east of us, and we got some pretty good rain and wind and lightning through the night (sounded like the barn was going to get blown over), but no tornados touched down.

Day 5: ...of Fruit Flies and Cracks

Short day, only 58 miles to Eads, CO. Made pretty good time. The main problems were biking through enormous, dense swarms of fruit flies that seemed to completely cover your front by the time you got out the other side, and then the road. At least the second half of the trip, there was a nice little crack in the road every 5 or 10 yards. Bumping around like that does NOT help matters of comfort. Camped in the park in Eads, *again* saw two fronts converge just a little ways north of me (neither traveling in the direction of the wind, again). Rain didn't end up hitting until 4:00am, and not a whole lot came. That evening I missed the library AND the grocery store closing times by 15 mins. Supper: like most lunches (peanuts, tortillas with peanut butter).

Day 6: ...of Paying. and More Cracks.

Got to Ordway, CO. I actually had to pay to stay at a campground tonight. Turns out I payed $15 to bruise my hands pushing the tent stakes into the hard-packed ground in an RV campground. With no showers. And guess what. Yup, got to watch a couple more fronts collide (neither moving in the direction of the wind). Some rain, but not a bad storm. Met a couple guys from Ft. Wayne who are riding coast-to-coast to raise money for a jail/rehabilitation program - going for an average of 100 mi/day (they have someone carrying their stuff and following them in an RV - www.grace2009.org ).

The first and last 5 miles of the day I had a great tailwind, but the rest of the 61 miles, I was fighting crosswinds or headwinds. It was probably the toughest day mentally thus far.

Day 7: ...of Pueblo

It was a somewhat long-seeming 53 miles to Pueblo, with a crosswind much of the time. I got into town early afternoon and hung out in the city park for a couple hours until I got a hold of Dave Foncannon - pastor of the Pueblo Mennonite Church (camped in his yard that night). It was great to get a shower for the first time since Dighton (Wednesday, this being Sunday) and to be able to just sit and relax on an actual couch. This day was an excellent morale booster for the next day.

Day 8: ...of Hills and Wind. and Poor Planning.

I didn't get out of Pueblo until 9:45 or so (didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic in the AM). After going about 5 miles, I passed a sign: "Pavement Ends." Not a welcome sight. Spent the next 15 or so miles on packed dirt/not-packed-enough gravel. Then I had some fairly pleasant riding - tailwind, not too serious of climbing, sunny, all the time with the Rockies in sight to the west. Well, after about 30 miles of riding, I was getting into Colorado Springs. At rush hour. 

Turns out that, between Pueblo and Denver, there's a divide (the Palmer Divide) that runs east/west and is about 7500 feet high. Also turns out that most of the climbing starts around Colorado Springs. Also turns out that sometimes in early afternoon, the wind can swing around from the south-east and start coming out of the north. At 15-20 mph. Put it all together and what do you get? 70 miles in about 9 1/2 hours of pedaling. Physically, this was by far the hardest day. I'm pretty sure I hit some 15 - 20% grades (those are the ones you only make about 5 mph going up and have to take a break in the middle). I ended up biking down a gravel road at 9:00 at night with my headlight and taillight on, and when it got fully dark I still hadn't passed anywhere I could camp, so I pulled into a guy's drive and asked if I could camp in his yard. It was a little horse ranch (everyone has horses up there) at around 7100 ft. His response was along the lines of, "Um, yeah, sure. How did you get *here*?" I mumbled something about google maps, he remained confused, and I went to bed. He pointed me down the road that, in about 5 miles, would hit CO-83, which goes straight into Denver. And is all paved. He looked a LOT like Dustin Hoffman.

I went that late because I hadn't expected to make such poor time - I was halfway intent on doing the 115 miles to Denver in one day. Nope.

Day 9: ...of Getting There

From where I thought I was, I figured I had another 10 or 15 miles of climbing to the Palmer Divide before I could coast most of the rest of the way into Denver. Turns out that the road I camped on, that hit highway 83, was Palmer Divide Road. After averaging less than 8 mph Monday, I averaged more like 18 mph through the day. I still had a few climbs to do (some of them fairly long and steep), but I'm pretty sure I coasted at least half of the 50-some miles I covered before I got into Denver-proper (most of the way with a 15-20 mph tailwind). At one point I hit 44 mph according to my speedometer. Coasting. But it was certainly the most beautiful scenery I've passed through thus far - rolling hills of the high plains (Mom and Dad: I found a house for you. I didn't actually see it, but it's for sale - 3500 sq. ft. on ~3.5 acres, up around 6500 ft. altitude, I believe). It was green, and rolling, with creeks and wildflowers and rocky outcroppings poking through sporadically. It probably helped that the weather was nice.

I got into Denver, biked through about 15 miles of sprawl and stopped at Cherry Creek State Park to hang out and relax until Denver people got home from work so I could go to their house. I was there several hours, had a nice big pot of rice and beans, swam in the (cold-ish) lake, dried out sitting in the shade, and generally relaxed. And when the time came, I got to bike another 10 or so miles to get from there to James' (et al.) house. So, I'm now at their house, clean, with clean laundry and fresh bread.

Anyways, yeah. Sorry for the long post. Now it's time to relax. I'll try to get some pics up later this week.