Woke up in Haswell without getting any wetter, but with another night of cats screaming in heat at each other- a most inhuman sound. Were greeted by an old, slightly senile farmer that Michael had befriended the day before while they both stood under an awning, one with his bike the other with a truck full of freshly harvested wheat, who offered us a gallon of milk, some yogurt, and a gallon of water, stating that he didn't have any use for them because he just didn't eat anymore. We politely declined and set about getting our stuff ready for the day. On our way out we stopped at the Grocery and Propane place that looks like an old plane hanger (our next town was a good 35 miles off), and ate on their 50 year old couch some microwaved jimmy dean sausage biscuits, black coffee and little debbie cinnamon rolls, right next to the mechanic shop, while watching their tv tied to the top of their refrigerator. Even inside this place it was still hard to tell if it was open. It must have been our ticket to success though, because as soon as we started rolling, the wind was at our backs and the first 14 miles slightly downhill (YES!). The terrain started to become populated and prairie dogs and mini-mesas began to appear. By 10 o'clock we had gone 45 miles, and were feeling so good that we waited till the 3rd town to stop and have something to eat.
None of us wanted to lose momentum or wait for the wind to change, so after our good lunch including a bag of expired baby carrots (meaning free! yes!) we hopped back on route 96 for the next 45 miles to Pueblo.
It did get a little harder, because even though our brains were really enjoying the ratio of time to mileage to effort, we were still biking 90 miles and our bodies started to tell us so. We stopped once more in Boone, where a man randomly and nicely paid for our ice cream and orange juice.
A little after 2 we pulled into Pueblo where dust was being whipped up like crazy, and we saw several dust devils going about their business under the coming storm. The last 10 miles the wind had changed on us and the altitude started getting to everyone a little bit, especially after Andy and I screamed at Michael (who was a good ways ahead of us) while riding uphill that he had missed the turn to absolutely no avail. A little lightheaded we headed downtown to the Great Divide bike shop where the staff, especially Janna, were most helpful and got us all set up. A&1 made an appointment to get a quick tune up on our bikes the following morning and they took care of Mike on the spot. Michael had developed holes on both sides of the back of his short, which stimulated a whole conversation about how the shop should market bike shorts that say the Great Divide on the rear. Michael is still riding with holes. I really hope he doesn't get sunburned.
After we wrapped up there we ate at the local Irish Pub some delicious sandwiches and some good micro-brew (2.50 a pint!), they even had homemade root beer ($3) which was absolutely delicious and actually tasted like it came from a plant. Yee ha. A little tipsy, just one beer, but the altitude gets you quick, we headed to Marya and Chris's to see our good friends and eat a second supper of veggie stir-fry, salad, cake and coffee. Yummy. It was so nice to be clean, in good familiar hands, and have a nice home cooked meal swapping stories, etc. After a while, the sexes separated for some guy time and gal time and rejoined for desert. We all crashed pretty early and went to bed. Those sheets felt sooo nice and cool.
Today we've been super lazy although we sent Michael into the mountains. We did feed him an IHOP breakfast (sponsored by Britt, now Staley) before dropping Marya at work and letting him get on the road. We went back to the shop, our bikes are running more smoothly, we bought some leftover 99 cent hats from a silk-screening shop that will hopefully hold up against the wind (I was really excited because mine already had a B embroidered on the visor part). Now we're just chilling in their cool house and hopefully letting our muscles restore themselves for our journey and letting ourselves acclimate to the altitude a bit more. We just met the kids, who didn't know we were going to be here, so we felt a bit awkward to be strangers in their house.
Tonight we'll have a cook out and hopefully get a good night's rest before we set off in the morning. I think we're still on East Coast time because we just wake up at 5:30 automatically now.
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