day 34

today we head up to denver from co springs. my step-mom, brigid, and my step-brother, brad, flew into denver early morning and picked us up from co springs and brought us up to denver. timing worked out well. we got to enjoy a nice brunch at cracker barrel where we all feasted on breakfast goodies. i drove up to denver so brigid could sleep since her and brad were going to be driving towards new mexico later that day. riding in a car is a luxury for evan and i and we enjoyed the speed, comfort, and ease of use compared to our bikes. we got dropped off on colfax and we said our goodbyes and snapped a quick group pic! so great that we got to spend some time with brigid and brad. we then setoff to try and meet up with our friends from Witness who were just traveling through denver for a quick couple of hours. at first we were all turned around and perplexed at the way they have their city laid out but after a handful of minutes we started walking down colfax (the right way this time). i was whistling the infamous five iron frenzy song mentioning colfax & broadway as i went. after some blocks we could see our group of friends coming towards us and our friend, phil running to us. so great to see familiar faces when you are somewhere where you don't know anyone. we gave hugs and hellos like it was nobodies business and chatted with them about our trip and about their camp. they were on a fixed schedule needing to leave real soon to drive back to idaho that evening so we started heading back towards their van at burger king. once we got there, we noticed that their van had been towed; so after numerous "oh my gosh's" and "what do we do's" a call was made to the towing company and the long walk to the containing area was underway. we came across a church where we convinced the pastor to drive us to the tow prison which was still a long ways away. so witness was literally only 10 minutes away from their van when it got towed. ouch! they finally retrieved their van after a hefty fee and we all piled in; they took us back downtown and we said our farewells to once again another set of familiar faces. just the two of us now and we were just meandering through city streets, soaking up the city life since we've been out in the country/mountain/desert life. we walked to their gigantic library where we filled up on water and grabbed a seat where evan read "the voice" (a publication about homelessness) and i took a quick nap (since when i was driving up to denver, everyone in the car was sleeping except me!). we decided to head towards coors field since we were going to hit up a baseball game that night; we went and checked out a cool brewery called the great divide where we hungout for a bit before trekking to the game. our friend, marte, was coming down from ft. collins to join us for the rockies game then take us up to her parents' place for a day. so we met up with her and got our tickets. we had pretty good seats for short notice and for a cheaper price just on the middle upper deck on the first base line facing the rocky mountains. we got to see the most beautiful sunset so far on our trip! we all caught up on eachothers' lives and enjoying the game. yes we did partake in the wave! the game was pretty good and the rockies won 2-0 versus the brewers. we hopped in marte's car and we made our way out to greely but along the way we got to watch a crazy lightning storm just go on and on. it was marvelous! i hope we get to see a few more along our journey but not close enough for us to get zapped. after a little bit of a drive north from denver we settled in to marte's home and we each retired to our own bedrooms.

day 33

today would be our first rest day in awhile, so what did we do? we walked 16+ miles around colorado springs. we went to the coffee shop that eric works at and tried some mai tai (some sort of tea) which was really good and tried some espresso, but both evan and i don't drink coffee so we didn't like it so much. it is a cool coffee shop where they get bags of raw beans and they turn it into their own coffee and ship it out to places all over. we then decided to walk to the garden of the gods which has come highly recommended from other people. so we headed that way and stopped at a safeway to pickup some food while we walked since it was going to be a lot of walking. we finally arrived at the garden of the gods and it was free which was a plus and it was pretty cool seeing these large rocks jutting out of the earth just in this one spot. there were some guys rock climbing up some of them which was neat to watch but for the most part we just wandered around soaking it in. after a good amount of time there we went up to the visitor center then started making our way back to downtown co springs. we walked through a lot of residential and into a older little downtown that was business taking over nice houses. we reached downtown and caught a great sunset while we went in search of food. finding a cheap place to eat is very hard in colorado springs if you don't have a car, we still haven't even found another grocery store other than that safeway that was like 6 or 7 miles away! we went passed downtown and headed back to eric's house hoping there might be a cheap restaurant passed his house but no luck. we went back to eric's house and grabbed our bikes to go a little faster in our search; we finally came across a great burger and shake place open later (everything seems to close at 9 around here). we enjoyed a big burger, fries, and a shake then headed back home. we should be keeping a burger count since we eat so many! got back to eric's and just chatted with him for a long time till we all crashed about 2am.

day 32

we got off to a later start today but had a feast for breakfast: tea, granola, yogurt, toast, grapefruit juice, and we boiled up some hardboiled eggs for later that day. we packed up and headed off from harry and mira's house; we went zooming down there hill and i almost, seriously, crashed because it was such a steep hill and the turn at the bottom was so sharp, i was contemplating bailing off my bike but luckily i narrowly averted death and disaster. we are heading up to colorado springs today which is 104 miles away; a long day ahead of us. we met up with the mighty arkansas river where we followed it snaking its way through a canyon where we faced some headwinds. after awhile we got out of some of the winds and it was a beautiful ride. a good amount of traffic but nothing too bad for us to handle. we had perfect weather and we just rode, rode, rode. there was one intense climb then it plateaued then we went down into canon city. it started to heat up by then. when i rolled into town there was a huge prison off on the left where they added on to the old prison that they had since 1871! then on the way out of town there was another prison, not sure what the deal is, maybe cheap land. i waited for evan to catch up so i got some shade and water at a park. we then went to subway to get a footlong and take a seat for a bit. we met up with a ton of guys from oklahoma or something; they are doing a geological summer course in the nearby mountains so they were talking to us about their mapping of rocks and stuff and we were telling them about our trip. they loved it but sadly had to break paths. after some up and down hills, we made the cutoff to head up towards colorado springs. this road was also up and down but the road was pretty crappy too; we were tired of riding and sore but we had to keep pressing on since there was nothing in between. after some riding we got into city limits and most of the city is an air force base so we took a major road into downtown where eric lives. our friend jeff's older brother lives here in co springs so we crashed with him that night. we met up and chatted for a bit before heading to a good mexican restaurant. after enjoying baskets of chips and salsa and our meals we headed back to just relax. i took a shower and crashed on the floor while evan and eric talked for a bit. our bodies are tired and ready for a couple days worth of rest.

(world's largest rocking chair. no bid deal.)

day 31

today is the day. today is the day we setoff to conquer our last rocky mountain: monarch pass. the summit is at 11,312ft. we are 30 miles away from the base of the mountain. it is a 9 mile climb from base to summit. when we got up that morning, we were greeted by some wonderful muffins, cookies, and coffee that eddie picked up for us. thanks so much for eddie and rebecca's hospitality! we scarfed them down and started packing up and stretching to get ready for the day. the 30 miles out to sargents was long for me, i knew we had to climb the mountain but i wanted to hurry up and get it over with, not wait a couple of hours to get to the base. i tried to reserve my strength and speed so i took my time but i just felt this looming presence or something. we finally reached sargents, where there is a little gas station, and we got some drinks to rehydrate us. evan got some weird sports drink that came with vitamins, looked like a bad idea before cycling up the mountain. we stretched some more, sun screened up, and made our way up the road. we were real surprised; the grade was so gradual we kept a consistent 6mph! i think we were psyching ourselves out and the west to east side is easier than the east to west side. this was one of our easiest mountains to cross over. we stopped and took some pictures off the side of the road at an overlook then a few miles up we stopped at another one trying to synchronize a picture of us jumping but we failed miserably. ha! we spent a lot of time trying to get the right camera angle, then run back in time before our self-timer went off, but we didn't get a good one, just some funny ones. we then kept climbing up and up. the last 2 miles i would say were the hardest of the climb, just a steeper grade and your mind knew you were almost at the top so you were just ready to be done with it. evan made it up to the top first then i shortly followed; waiting for us at the summit was a touristy shop with a "restaurant" and a gondola to take you up to the top of the mountain. we slapped hands and went inside to enjoy a nice fresh sub sandwich (which later gave me stomach issues). we called our dads and told them of our success; we crossed the continental divide and our last rocky mountain. we were super excited to be done momentarily with mountains. we then raced down the other side of the mountain. it took awhile to get into salida, but we didn't have a place to stay yet so we hit up a mcdonalds to use their wifi then we went out in search of a place to eat. we cycled down to a great pizzaria but on our way down there we saw a pretty cool sunset with the mountains, sadly there wasn't a good place to take a picture. we enjoyed 2 large pizzas and talked to the workers there. finally once they were about to close up shop, i checked my email and saw that i forgot to put my phone number but luckily harry e-mailed me and we had a place to stay that night. he came and picked us up since he lives at the side of a mountain and its a 12% grade to get up to his place. when he pulled up, i looked at evan and said, "it's larry david!". i swear, he looks very similar to larry and has the same personality. he's super into cycling and that day rode 100 miles and up the tallest bikeable peak in colorado. so him and mira made us feel at home; they set out pasta, chicken, and cake for us which we quickly consumed. they went to bed and we crashed on their pullout sofa. just another great ending to a good day. harry had all sorts of bike art, i'd call it; he has an autographed picture of greg lemond! so he showed those off to us and i just really liked this little art piece of the cyclists so here they are.

day 30 (1 month)

we've officially been on the road for a month! and we're still alive and well. we started off our morning by enjoying some grapefruit juice and raisin bran while rod and judy were out riding there tandem. we decided to hit up the library that is across the street to send off some requests and check out the route better then we packed up and said goodbye and headed to the bike shop downtown. evan had his wheel looked at by a master wheelman and he retensioned it. hope that works! i bought new brake pads for my back set, a new tube (since i keep bursting them), and bought two butt balm thingys just to try them out. ha! while they were working on his rim, we finished off the ice cream, yes at 10:30am we were finishing off a carton of ice cream. good stuff. they finished up his wheel and we headed down the road towards gunnison which is 64 miles away. we had nice weather the whole way which was great! we encountered two decent sized hills that got us sweating and had a good downhill on the other side but the best part of the day was riding along side the blue mesa reservoir, it was just nice to have the water on one side and rocky mountains on the other. but we were in high gear just trying to get to gunnison as fast as possible. we rolled into town and caught the end of a world cup game and enjoyed some burgers; talked with some locals about the upcoming monarch pass, then we headed to eddie and rebecca's place for the night. we enjoyed a great evening just talking about traveling and our bike trip with eddie and rebecca! both very nice and cool people; they are getting ready to go to spain for basically a month and eddie told us about when he ran with the bulls and his iron man competitions. as we always say, we are always amazed at who we meet and stay with, some of the best people. they spoiled us with oatmeal, ramen, fruits, and tea. after much conversation we all headed to bed.

day 29 1/2

i somehow have gotten off a day so i'm trying to correct it. we awoke to sunshine in telluride and headed to the bike shop to have evan's spokes fixed, again. we wandered around town to check out the sweet waterfall on the side of the mountain at the end of town, hit up the grocery store, and just perused since it was dumping rain on us. there is an area called, free box, and it is a give and take area where people drop off clothes, books, shoes, anything! and you can search through it and find some neat stuff. we sadly didn't find anything that cool enough to add the extra weight to our bikes. we snagged a couple shirts to clean our chains. thanks free box. got his bike "fixed" and we headed out of town, only a few miles until my back tube bulged out of my tire and seized up my back brake! the bike path was the crappiest i've ever seen so i think it may have been the problem, constant smashing of the back tire. fixed it and kept heading out. it was a nice long downhill from there and the weather seemed to be cooperating with us. woohoo! we went through another placerville! (not as cool as the one in california, hence no picture of it). soared through some canyon areas which were nice but hard to stop and take pictures when you're going 30-40 mph. we thought we were supposed to hit a city before climbing a couple thousand more feet to dallas divide but guess we got to the top of dallas divide, with little effort! thats when we started seeing some cool mountains! we were actually fighting to stay ahead of the storm so we got some pics of them. reminded me of alaska, but so far i still think alaska is better! evan broke the speed limit in ridgby, going 30 through a 25 and a cop was down at the bottom clocking people but once evan got close enough he was already to the speed limit! we then had to duck under a tree to seek refuge from some rain at the entrance to a state park. we chatted it up with a ranger there who actually rode his mountain bike from alaska through canada when he was younger! small world. the rain died down for a couple minutes so we ventured back out and rode the rest of the way to montrose (mostly in the rain). we pulled into a rib shack and gorged ourselves. i love to eat! we called our warmshowers hosts and made our way to their casa where they greeted us with a fire pit, smores, and tea/cocoa! they showed off their brand spankin new tandem bike and it was so freaking awesome! evan and i considered buying their other one but decided against it. ha. we just sat around the rest of the evening talking with rod and judy about cycling and traveling. a pleasant evening. they went to bed then we went out to try and get some dairy queen, but they were closed so we hit up safeway and got a thing of ice cream moose tracks and chips and salsa! we proceeded to eat until we fell asleep.