Day22

Note the ride data is off slightly because I had forgotten to start the watch. Missing aprox 25 miles of data.

(This is cool if you like lots of data! It may take a few seconds to load but you can hit play and time compress our ride. )

DAILY REPORT: The weather report called for another ideal biking day. Temps in the high 90's w/ lots of humidity. Head wind increasing after noon. A 30% chance of a thundershower.

We drove down to Pueblo this morning. We chose our starting point just after the Pueblo airport as a convenient place to start. You will notice that for the next several hundred miles we will not longer be following the TransAmerica route. When I was planning out the roads; I specifically chose Rt50 because of the very large shoulders and the relatively low number of vehicles on the road. For the next several days we will be dropping several thousand feet. This week is our high mileage week - all days over 100 miles. If everything goes as planned we will complete 6 century+ rides back to back!!

Today we had a fun day biking. We started w/ little to no wind. the shoulders on Rt 50 were perfect for riders; wide and in general clear of debris. Traffic was light. For the first several hours we averaged a little over 19 mph. Then we got some head wind and rolling hills. The boys were bushed by the time we finished for the day.

There we plenty of water stops along the way so we had told Skip to meet us at La Junta (~60 miles) for lunch. After he dropped us off he went to go have breakfast w/ his brother in law who lives in Pueblo. Several hours later we arrived in La Junta so we called Skip to find out where he was at. He said he was 35 miles from town. Asked what happened and he said it was the GPS's fault because it had gotten him lost. Now I found that very amusing since for the entire day we are on only one road - Rt 50!!! No turns; just a straight shot!!! So we ended up biking to the next town 20 miles further down the road to meet Skip for lunch.

The temperature was really rising. It reached over 100 deg; our hottest day so far. It felt like we were in an oven during some stretches of road. I told John & James that it builds character!!

Near the end of the day we started experiencing some head winds which the boys said "this sucks." and we were racing a storm into town to avoid getting rained on (which we did!). We are staying at the the Blue Spruce Hotel in which they are picking up one of the rooms for us. We thank you very much for your kind hospitality. Thanks!!

Dinner was at KFC; on Sunday they have an all you can eat buffet. Once again this is just great for several starving teenagers. I am pretty sure they lost money on us!! Skip then took the boys out for shakes at the local Sonic Restraunt which was very nice.

Tomorrow is our longest day of the trip of over 150 miles. I was really hoping for a tail wind but doesn't look like we are going to get it. But no matter how you slice it; there will be some significant saddle time tomorrow.

We really appreciate all the kind words of encouragement and fan mail we have been getting through Facebook and riding4hope@yahoo.com. Keep it coming. Thanks!!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY
I guess Skip should have studied that map a little harder. Yes Skip you'll be on the same road the entire day.....any questions??	Although you can't really see him in this picture; we spotted a Red Fox standing in the grass. He was pretty cool until he took off. During the day we saw a number of hawks, dead snakes and even a dead badger. Lots of wildlife.
It is amazing what they can do w/ irrigation. This is our first farm w/ corn we have seen on this trip. My guess we will be seeing more.....what do you think??	I guess a few folks get out once in a while. We didn't see any :)
Nothing like a little KFC when you are starving!!	A little siesta during the heat of the day!!

Day 22 (Sun 7/19/09)

The high plains & hot!!

Yesterday Tomorrow