colorado is cold

2nd rest stop of the day, i think this was a small town called colona. gotta love the pbr. pabst - for alcoholics, hipsters, and the thrifty.

finally living the big city life! pedaled into montrose, CO and passed a target, wal-mart, and a starbucks! passing through all these tiny towns reminds me of how much i miss some of the little comforts in life like starbucks and target. so as you may predict, bobby and i took an immediate break from the ride, slipped free of the paceline and dove into the starbucks and wow was it delicious. and with bobby's sweet talking, he lined up free coffee for tomorrow morning. yess! didn't want to delay the ride too long so drank about half the coffee and put the rest into my water bottle so i could finish the last several miles. it didn't mix all that well with the lemon-lime powerbar powder that was in the bottle but was still very tasty.

arrived at the montrose methodist church just in time to get to our event at the library speaking about access to healthcare given by ashley, kel and erin. there really wasn't much of a crowd there, but the few people there were very interested and contributed very well to the discussion.

the ride was, in my opinion, very easy today. the first 18 or so miles was downhill and very very cold. next was a few thousand foot climb over 12-13 miles that helped me warm up then a descent into a town called ridgeway that cooled me off again. the summit was not really too dramatic but gave an amazing views of the snow-capped mountains all around. town was nice - had this cool bike shop (peak to peak i think it was called) and a little coffee shop/bookstore (a reoccurring theme in colorado - not the b&n type store but more of a small mom and pops type store). the last 30 or so miles could have been terrible (because of the headwind) had it not been for our teamwork. first 15 miles was van, jen, bobby and i as we took turns pulling about 2 miles at a time. the next 15 miles or so miles we had this gigantic paceline that allowed me to cruise behind a bunch of people and avoid the headwind altogether. overall did about 67 miles then did a little push-up/sit-up session with a few people to avoid some upper body wasting.



after the event, arrived back to the church to a delicious stir-fry dinner with mac and cheese prepared by marianne and caitlin. mmm...mac and cheese. currently sitting at this little coffee with nate and erin while others went to see a movie, went to a bar, or went grocery shopping.