Day 31: Goodbye Mountains

Today we headed from Pueblo, CO to La Junta, CO which is a smaller town of about 7,000 people in the desolate area of South Eastern Colorado. We got to sleep in today until 7 AM which was the perfect for the amount of sleep I neede to catch up on. The ride today was flat and there were no signs of mountains, it was clear that we were heading out of the beautiful Colorado that we had come to love and into some new terrain. The ride was also the hottest it has been all trip as it reached a high of 103 degrees. I was drinking a water bottle every crew stop for the 75 miles that day and half at least half a water bottle in between stops. I was really starting to struggle as the day went on, this Seattle boy only sees heat like that maybe once or twice a year let alone rides bikes with it being that hot. A very nice gesture of generosity happened today when a lady pulled over and asked we were doing, after explaining our Journey she invited the team to have a crew stop at her house a few miles up where she provided fresh peaches and cold water. The lady and her husband were very nice and it was a great change of pace from the normal crew stop. One of the advantages of days like today were the wide shoulders because it makes it possible to double up in your pace line and talk with the guy next to you. We had great conversation all day with the guys in my pace line, it makes the day seem shorter and I love getting to hang out and chat with these guys every day.

Arriving in Lamar was a relief, well sort of. It was great to be out of the heat but without an air conditioned gym it made the rest of the day a little stickier and hotter than usual. After a nap we headed to dinner where the local Lions Club hosted a wonderful feast of food. They were all very nice people with their home country town hospitality. During our time spent there we got to share of our favorite memories thus far. There are too many amazing memories to count but I shared about our day after Yellowstone in WY when we cycled at the base of the Grand Teton Mountain Range and ended in Jackson Hole, WY one of my favorite cities on the whole trip. It was great reflecting on everyone elses memories as well.

We then headed back to the gym and played a volleyball tournament at the gym we were staying at. I love doing fun stuff like this with these guys, it seems even though everyone is beat from the day we still find a way to have fun and mess around whether it be a game of volleyball or whiffle ball.Tomorrow we head for Lamar, CO as we move even farther East and into another smaller town