August 17, 2021

Fairbury, NE rest day

After the tough 75 or so miles we did the previous day, we decided that it’d be a good idea to take a rest day here in Fairbury where there was resources to hang out and recuperate. We’d seen a motel with a great neon sign advertising rooms for $40/night on the way into town, and after packing up our campsite in the morning, we hopped over to try to check in early to maximize our indoors relaxation time.

The room settled, we relaxed for a bit and then I decided I wanted to get some painting done. I strapped my art supplies and folding chair to my bike and set out to find a scenic spot to set up shop.

The entirety of downtown Fairbury, Nebraska is on the National Register of Historic Places due to its preservation of a bunch of 1860s-1900s brick buildings that popped up with the train lines that ran/run through the town. If you cruise around down near the courthouse in the center of town, you’d see why it earns this distinction – there’s plenty of beautiful old architecture to gawk at. I found a little coffee shop, got myself a strawberry Italian soda with cream (which was insanely good), and got to work painting a slice of downtown. It was nice to watch the ebb and flow of people coming and going on a random workday in a town this size, and it was fun to imagine what they might be up to.

Right as I was finishing up, Alyssa popped by. She was in search of WiFi, so she headed off to the library. Having finished my painting for the day, I cleaned up and headed back to the air conditioned motel room. We met up later for a punching-above-its-weight-class Chinese buffet for dinner that was honestly delicious.

We retired back to the motel to continue relaxing, and I popped over to the laundry machines to wash our clothes and posted the previous blog post. That done, we chilled in the room for a while, before getting to sleep early in preparation for the next day.

August 18, 2021

Fairbury, NE to Superior, NE

While relaxing in the motel room the previous day, we lined up a host in the small town of Franklin, Nebraska, about 100 miles away. We decided to split the ride there into two manageably short days in order to stay out of the heat as best as possible and to give our tired legs a little R&R. So we got out of town and onto the road at about 7 AM and set off for Superior, a town with a nice park that allowed camping.

The riding was frankly relatively unremarkable. Pretty easy going, slightly hilly but not too bad (or we’re just getting stronger… ha haaaa). We took 136 straight west for almost the entire day, through very small or completely empty farm towns. In the last 10 miles, we turned left onto 14 heading south, and encountered a slightly demoralizing and perfectly timed headwind. Despite this, we rolled into town in pretty good spirits and stopped at a really (almost bizarrely) nicely appointed Mexican restaurant for lunch. After some taquitos, burritos, and tamales, we hopped the mile or so over to the park.

The park was nicely kept, with power hookups and a pretty nice bathroom. Alyssa wanted to go try and interview someone for her project, so I stayed and relaxed at the camp site playing mandolin while she rode back into town to try her luck at the town bar.

While I was playing, someone drove up, rolled down their window, and called out to me, “You jammin’?”. I of course affirmed, and he hopped out to chat for a while. John and his dog Hunter were both extremely friendly. He is a general contractor and handyman who relatively recently moved to a nearby town. Since he works for himself, he gives himself an hour and a half lunch break to take his small dog Hunter out to a park to pee and run around for a few minutes. John and I chatted for a while about Nebraska, what it’s like to live in a rural area, and music – and when the topic shifted to music, he suggested we play a bit together and grabbed a guitar out of his car.

We played little noodly nothings in the early afternoon sunshine, which was really very fun. John said that he didn’t know any songs, that he only writes and plays his own music intuitively. It was fun to play along!

He mentioned that when he first moved to town, he saw his 93 year old neighbor shoveling the snow off her own sidewalk in order to walk to the post office. Ever since, he gets up early to shovel her sidewalk and the entire way down to the post office so she can get to and from safely. On top of that, he mentioned that this summer he was growing his first garden, and he had such a bounty he’d shared cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and more with his neighbors. To prove it, he asked if I’d like some cucumbers he had grown himself – of course! He gave me a bag full and then excused himself to get back to work. It was a really nice little chance meeting in the middle of the day, and a great example of the random lovely social encounters you sometimes have when doing this sort of thing.

I continued relaxing, talking to my brother Elliot on the phone for a while, until Alyssa came back, having had no success at the bar (and actually, having a really bizarre interaction wherein she was kicked out of the bar because the bartender needed to leave? So strange). As she settled back in at the campsite, I got started on dinner. I’d wanted to cook a few things this week and had gotten the ingredients to make it happen in Beatrice. On the menu tonight was red lentil dal, which turned out wonderfully and was very easy to make over our minimalist cook set.

After dinner, I took a phone call from my lovely friend Jake in Boston and Alyssa retired to the tent to watch a movie. Jake and I caught up over a few hours and shared the good news of each of our past years or so, and then I retired to the tent and to bed as well.

August 19, 2021

Superior, NE to Franklin, NE

By our recent standards, we slept in a bit (until like 6:30), but we got going out of the campsite pretty quick. After a short pitstop at the local Casey’s for some munitions, we got on our way with Alyssa once again leading the way a few miles ahead. The miles came easily, again, in what was a very similar riding day to the previous. We dodged a storm that passed north of us as we passed through the town of Red Cloud, which is apparently the author Willa Cather’s hometown, based on all the museums and paraphernalia around the downtown area.

We cruised down 136 for another 55 or so miles into the small town of Franklin, where we’d arranged a Warmshowers host for the night – Michael. But before we met up with him, we killed some time by getting lunch at a local spot called the Frosty Mug, where we had some delicious sandwiches and some even more delicious ice cream, served by a man who was originally born in Downers Grove of all places. He’d worked in ground shipping out of Colorado for a long time, and had retired to Franklin where land was cheap to sell sandwiches and ice cream to strange passersby like us. After a lovely meal, we headed over to meet Michael at his house.

Michael works in soil management for the US Dept. of Agriculture, selling farmers on more sustainable techniques for land management while operating their farms. His line of work has led him and his family to live in some of the farthest reaches of the US, which I found really interesting. His wife was out of town for the weekend, but we did also get to meet his two younger sons, Seth and Justin, who were both very nice and sociable (a lot more sociable than I was at their age).

As Michael graciously prepared dinner for us, we showered and then I played some Minecraft on Xbox with Seth and Justin. Dinner was delicious and nutritious, chicken and salad with a myriad of sides. After dinner we relaxed with some nice conversation about Michael’s line of work, touring aspirations, and neat biking and camping gear. Around 9, everyone – us, Michael, and his sons – retired to bed for the night in preparation for another early morning.

August 20, 2021

Franklin, NE to Norton, KS (Prairie Dog State Park)

We woke in the morning ready for a relatively long day. We’d had a couple easy ones back to back and felt prepared after a relaxing and wholesome night at Michael’s house in Franklin. He helped send us off in the morning with coffee and breakfast, and soon enough we were on our way.

I stopped in to the store in town on my way out to take care of some stomach problems I’d been recently dealing with, and as I was tidying up my bike outside I was approached by a lovely curious couple who seemed excited to know about where I was from and where I was going – it was nice to have a quick chat about our plans and about the crazy bicycle I’d built for the job.

On the road, we made pretty easy work of the first half of the mileage for the day. The landscape got increasingly pretty to look at as we went, and changed from green farmland into gray-green and tan rolling hills of grazing area or managed land. We stopped in to a grocery store in Alma, NE in order to stock up on some snacks for the day. Alyssa rode off ahead, but I stayed behind and checked out a nice bakery in the business district, where I got a few pastries and had a short chat about Chicago with the nice people staffing the place.

Well stocked, I continued on, and soon we passed into our fourth state – Kansas! The landscape was decently pretty to look at, but it seemed as soon as we crossed the state line, the drivers took us much less seriously than in previous states. I was run off the road due to someone passing in the oncoming lane despite my riding in it – twice. After a few hours, the close passes had sort of made their mark on my tone for the day and I was a little pissed off. Despite my mood, we had a very genial stop in the middle of the day for a meal and some ice cream in Long Island, KS, at a tiny restaurant that’s only open during the summer time (due to student help). We had a nice chat with a local veterinarian while we ate about our trip and what we could expect from the route ahead.

The sun really started to heat up throughout the day, and by the time we’d done most of our 70-ish miles and arrived in the town before our intended stop, it was like bicycling in the sights of an angry laser beam. We grabbed a few treats at a store before the campground, and then hoofed it the last few miles towards the state park we’d chosen for the night. I’d opted into heading straight there instead of hanging out in the town of Norton, because I was frankly pretty over biking in this infernal sun with cars passing WAY too close for comfort.

Our reward was rolling into the very beautiful Prairie Dog State Park, just southwest of Norton. The host pointed us to a site that was shaded, private, and near the nicest showers, and he was right on all counts. The park was so nice, in fact, that we decided to take a rest day here soon after arriving. We enjoyed our treats (in my case, a Modelo tall boy) and relaxed in our beautiful camp site for a bit, and having recuperated a bit we got our dinner situation sorted.

Apparently, bright red hot dogs are a Nebraska Thing, so we made sure to get some in Alma before we’d left the state. We fired up the stove and had a bunch of them for dinner, which was predictably delicious – they’re just normal beef hot dogs, but red. Combined with the Modelo and our beautiful campsite, my mood was pretty readily repaired.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing; I played some mandolin, and Alyssa explored the rest of the park. After a nice, cool shower (because yes, this park was so nice it had showers with both hot AND cold knobs – living in the lap of luxury out here), we adjourned to bed.

August 21, 2021

Rest day in Prairie Dog State Park

We woke in the morning after a really nice, cool sleep and had some breakfast – coffee and chia seed pudding for Alyssa; decaf, a banana, and a nutella pita for me. After some relaxing around the campsite, I set off to do some R&R of my own and went to find a nice spot to paint.

Prairie Dog State Park really is very pretty, with gentle hills covered in tall grasses and wildflowers rolling down into Keith Sibelius Lake, a nice medium body of water. I cruised around the park on my unloaded bike for a bit, and then found a nice spot near the end of the campground road by the boat launch to paint for a little while.

One painting under my belt, I moseyed back to our campsite for lunch, where Alyssa had been writing on her computer and working on a message to her Russian pen pal. I had a bit of a snack (a two banana & nutella pita that looked atrocious – I was trying to get rid of some stale pitas that day) before heading back out to do some more art.

I posted up my little folding stool next to a particularly scenic bend in the campground road, with my back to the lake, looking uphill at the waving grasses and a small grouping of trees. This time in pencil, I blocked in the positions of everything on the page and then moved with the shade as the afternoon progressed. Some folks slow-rolled by in their cars to check out what I was doing (and to make sure I was okay, which was nice), and after another hour or so I wrapped up. It was a lovely scene and a lovely day to be out making art. I particularly felt inspired by Andrew Wyeth, even though many of his scenes are from the Northeast, the spare landscape of waving grasses really felt reminiscent of some of his work, and I tried my best to channel some of that energy.

I headed back to camp and reunited with a sweetly napping Alyssa, and got to work cooking dinner. Our second use of lentils for the week, I made a recipe that got a lot of mileage back home – lentil tacos. Basically, you season lentils with taco seasoning and salsa, cooked down to the point where it holds together in a tortilla. It’s delicious and extremely easy to make, and this dinner was no different. I even cooked the tortillas on the open stove flame! Patting myself on the back here a little bit, but it was delicious.

I cleaned up from dinner, took a shower, and relaxed in the tent with Alyssa for a bit before bed, reading until I fell asleep.

August 22, 2021

Norton, KS to Colby, KS

We knew we wanted to put in some really good mileage this day, so we woke up just before dawn and got packed up and ready to go just after the sun rose. We were anticipating about 80 miles through a stretch of fairly sparsely populated Northwest Kansas on Highway 383 to 83. The first 20 miles or so were absolutely breathtaking, with a beautiful sunrise over the prairie, then easy and cool morning riding through very majestic rolling hills with the occasional rocky bluff. Cattle and horses dotted the vast landscape all morning, and I stopped to take pictures basically every time I turned my head. I’d been led to believe that Kansas was a featureless wasteland, and at the very least our little slice we were riding through that morning was anything but.

Unfortunately, the beauty of the morning didn’t last. As we rode on, we realized that the towns that dotted the road on Google Maps were sometimes not towns at all, and were really just a grain elevator with a name and a road sign. Every gas station we tried to stop at for water was either closed that day (Sunday, of course) or was capital C Closed for good. In general, all of the towns on that stretch of highway were in some stage of critical disinvestment, and it was a very strange mood to be rolling through what looked like an evacuated shell of a village over and over. The landscape flattened out, the temperature soared to 100 degrees, and a very stiff headwind of about 20 mph blew for the entire rest of the day. We stopped at every town, looking for water, but ended up not encountering a single open business for 78 straight miles. Eventually, we went into a small town and Alyssa found someone’s garage door open, so we asked if we could use their hose to fill our water bottles, which they kindly obliged.

In general, I was losing the ‘head game’ all day. I was not happy to be riding, I was not happy about the headwind, or the heat, or the lack of resources, and my mental state was self-confirming. Which is to say it was making things worse. Alyssa pulled farther and farther ahead of me over the course of the day, and eventually pulled into Colby, our destination for the evening, almost an hour before I did.

The last 15 miles were difficult – I ran out of water and was sweating so profusely that I couldn’t keep sunscreen on and was getting burned. I had to stop every mile or two just to rest due to the wind and heat, and ended up getting so heat sick I was literally dry heaving on the side of the highway. By the time I got to Colby, Alyssa had already gotten all my favorite snacks and booked a motel (on the near side of town, at that). I spilled myself into the room and spent the better part of an hour trying to recover, with a cold shower, a cold cloth on my head, and a bunch of water.

My head screwed on straight and my body temperature normalized, we took a short stroll down the main drag in Colby to blow our budget a bit for the day and have someone else prepare us dinner at a local bar. Soon enough, we reveled in a cheap cheeseburger and fries, and a couple cold beers, and my mood really began to normalize. The bar itself, the B-Hive, had all the hallmarks of a good local spot – sometimes you can tell just based on the energy when you walk into a place. The woman behind the bar (who also was cooking all the food), whose name I didn’t catch, was an absolute wizard at her job. She recited everyone’s tickets from memory when it came time for them to cash out, sometimes tallying their total in her head – all that while tending bar and manning a grill. Impressive!

After dinner, we took the still-blazing-hot walk back to the motel and settled in for the evening. The motel owner, a very genial South Asian man and his family, was absolutely jazzed about what we were doing. He apparently regularly watched an Indian bicycle tourist vlogger on YouTube, and was such a fan of the concept that he not only gave us a discount on our room, but allowed us to do our laundry for free. Super nice, and much appreciated on both fronts.

We did in fact do our laundry, and we watched Coming to America on TV as we relaxed in bed in the air conditioning after a long, hot day.

August 23, 2021

Colby, KS to Goodland, KS

I declared my need for a short day the night before. The constant headwind of the preceding day’s ride had really made my left knee pretty angry, and I was a bit worried about pushing it too hard. So, we set our sights on the town of Goodland, KS, just under 40 miles away.

Even though we planned a short day, we still woke up with the sun to try and beat the heat. The heat was our primary enemy all trip so far, and dictated our schedule more than anything else. After the long hours under the 100-degree sun the day prior and the forecast portending more of the same, it was a must to get on the road as early as possible.

Alyssa got ready and out on the road a few minutes before I did, and we made easy work of the more-or-less half day. Basically a straight shot west, paralleling I-70, we rolled into the town of Goodland, KS in the late morning. Once again, Alyssa beat me to the destination, and got the hotel sorted. Leaning on hotels this week to sleep in air conditioning was an absolute blessing, and this particular hotel was absolutely killer. For roughly the same (very low) price that we paid for the motel the preceding night, we got a really nice hotel room with two beds, and the facilities had an arcade, hot tub, and large indoor swimming pool. What. A. Find.

We more or less immediately sped to the pool area, relaxing in the hot tub for a long time. I scooted to the nice, cold pool after that, and spent a good long time floating around – relaxing not just for my own sake, but for the sake of my angry knee.

We arrived so early that we had most of the day to hang out, and we popped over to a nearby coffee shop by the highway for a quick brunch (and an absolutely delicious “eye-talian” soda, as the cashier described it). We did a little bit of shopping for the coming days at the Walmart next door to the hotel, and then retired to the room to relax. It was supremely nice to have a short day. I iced my knee, laid in bed, edited some photos and wrote a bit of this blog post.

For dinner, we had an astonishingly delicious salad of Alyssa’s design. Shredded rotisserie chicken from the Walmart, avocado, arugula, red onion, parsley, lemon mustard dressing, and some extra sharp cheddar crumbled up. It was extremely delicious, and some much needed feel-good food after some junky eating of the preceding couple days. Alyssa wrapped the leftovers in tortillas for lunch the next day, too, so it was a win on more than one front.

Sated, relaxed, and recuperated, we retired to bed in preparation for another early morning departure, and our fifth state.

August 24, 2021

Goodland, KS to Stratton, CO

In our now-normal pattern, Alyssa headed out about 15 minutes before me in the morning. Our route for the day was another reasonably short day, at my behest once again – continuing to parallel I-70 west into Colorado.

The riding was easy, and I felt fresh. Podcasts about revolution in my headphones, the miles flew by. The scenery was much the same as the preceding day – mostly flat, but really slightly uphill the entire day as we made our way towards the continental divide. There weren’t a lot of hills per se, but we ended up gaining a decent amount of elevation over the course of the day. As we passed into Colorado, the emphasis on ranching instead of farming became even more pronounced, and aside from the occasional wind farms dotting the landscape, it was like the world stopped rendering in a video game – just tall grass, no trees at all, all the way to the horizon.

In the mid-morning, we rolled through the town of Burlington, CO. Alyssa reached it a little while before I did, and texted me the location of a small donut and ice cream shop that was a must-stop. I missed Alyssa by about 20 minutes, but I popped into the shop nonetheless and had the breakfast of champions – a decaf iced coffee, an apple fritter, and a large vanilla soft serve cone. It was absolutely delicious, and you couldn’t beat the price (barely $3 for that haul).

I had a nice, short chat with the cashier about the town and about working there, and she filled my water bottles for me and let me use the bathroom before I went on my way.

Before noon, we rolled into our destination for the day of Stratton, CO. Alyssa had headed straight into town proper, and popped into the coffee shop. I took the time to check out the two RV parks near I-70, and found both of them lacking – one of them had absolutely no shade whatsoever, and no bathroom, for the price of $25/night, and the other was attached to the Conoco and wanted $20 for the privilege of setting up our tent in the gas station parking lot.

Alyssa, meanwhile, had made friends with the proprietor of the coffee shop, and gotten a tentative invitation to camp in her yard. While we mused over our options, we headed to the town park to relax in the shade for a few hours. The park was lovely, with bathrooms and a shady central gazebo, and we thought it might be a nice spot to camp. Alyssa popped into the library, and received a pretty convincing “no, that’s not okay” from someone with some level of authority on the subject, and so we decided to relax for a bit, grab dinner, then try our new friend’s yard for the night.

While in the park, Alyssa invited me to join her in her bodyweight workout, which was a nice and invigorating way to while away the early afternoon. We both spent some time after that making calls to folks back home – Alyssa to her dad and brother, and me to my dad and brother Elliot as well. It was nice to catch up with folks, and good to hear my dad’s voice after three weeks on the road.

We hopped across town over to a spot by the highway that was absolutely slammed for lunch when we originally rolled into town – when in doubt, follow the crowd for the good stuff. We popped in, and immediately felt like celebrities. The owners were the daughter and sister-in-law of the owner of the coffee shop, and both of them had seen us milling around town earlier in the day. They were extremely nice, and full of questions about the trip. It was a very sweet conversation.

Alyssa was hankering breakfast food from the diner inside the gas station across the street, so I was the only one who got real food. I chowed down on an absolutely incredible burger and fries, with a cherry limeade to wash it down. Alyssa got chips and salsa, both of which they make by hand every morning in house. Pretty impressive for a small town roadside stop!

We popped across the street to the diner at the gas station and Alyssa lived her breakfast-for-dinner dream with some pancakes, and I topped off my dinner with a second dinner of a personal pizza (bike touring appetite is something else, man).

After dinner, we figured it was probably best if we go knock on the door of our would-be host for the evening to make sure it was still alright. Nicolette, the owner of the coffee shop, welcomed us into her family home with open arms. She pointed us to the shower, bathroom, and kitchen, and said we were welcome to relax inside and watch TV if we wanted to.

We spent most of the evening chatting away with Nicolette, who it turns out is more or less the official matron of Stratton, CO. Her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and wider family own and operate what seems like every business in the entire town – the diner at which I ate dinner, for example. She was rightfully very proud of her family, and it was sweet to see how much her home was a shrine to them and their accomplishments. We talked with ease for a few hours about Stratton, coronavirus, her family and their wide net of influence and accomplishments, and her life’s story – she was a prison guard for something like 15 years, a job she was very passionate about. She was an absolutely lovely host, and took special care to make sure we had everything we needed – her daughter and son-in-law came by after we showed up to help her turn the sprinklers in her front yard off, so our tent wouldn’t get rained out at any point during the evening.

After a lovely chat with Nicolette and anyone who happened to stop by, we retired to the tent for the evening. I drew on my iPad for a little bit before the sleepiness got me and I conked out for the night.

August 25, 2021

Stratton, CO to Limon, CO

We woke at dawn and packed up. We had a lovely little goodbye with Nicolette, who sent us off with baked goods (made herself, intended for sale at the coffee shop). Her family pride was inspiring, and it was really neat to see the impact they collectively had on the town.

Our target for the day was Limon (pronounced Lie-mun), a city more or less straight west of Stratton. As we were eating dinner the preceding night, Nicolette’s daughter-in-law warned us that the route we were planning to take turned into a not-great unpaved frontage road along I-70. We took her warning and figured it didn’t yet warrant a change of plans, and we headed out along our route.

She was, of course, correct. The road was okay at first – riding right alongside I-70 has its benefits, with all the wind turbulence from traffic somewhat deadening what was otherwise a kind of stiff northerly wind. But as the miles went on, the road degraded to a sandy, loose mess. The rolling hills became white knuckle affairs, as going even 12 mph became harrowing when you could hit a patch of 6 inch deep sand at any moment.

Alyssa, ever biking ahead, called me to warn me of a turn off I could try taking to avoid what had become a bad time for her. I took her advice and peeled off north to a county road. Still unpaved, but in much, much better condition, I just about caught up with her when she took the next opportunity to duck north as well.

Alyssa was having a little bit of a hard time with the head game due to the road conditions, but I felt wonderful. The landscape had firmly transitioned into high plains beauty, and I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed the scenery. It was honestly fairly awe-inspiring to bike through such vast, big-sky, rolling grassland.

We made good time in spite of the difficult roads, and I caught up with Alyssa after most of the day apart in the small town of Genoa, a creepy little place with another bombed out looking downtown and an air of vague hostility. We stopped in an RV park that had actually pretty nice single occupancy bathrooms, used the facilities, got some water, and got back on our way.

Alyssa led the charge, and I stayed back for a few minutes to book a hotel for the night in Limon. I found a good deal at the Econolodge by the highway which included the bike touring treasure that is continental breakfast. We set our GPSes for it, and made our way the few remaining miles into Limon down an extremely scenic descent (with extremely sketchy loose sand riding).

Alyssa popped into a nice little bakery before I showed up, and shared her donut bounty with me when I arrived. We grabbed a few things from the grocery store to eat for dinner, and then headed the last mile or so to the hotel. We checked in and set to relaxing in air conditioning on what was, of course, another blazingly hot day.

I spent most of the evening finally joining my friends for what has been a weekly-if-not-more occurrence for the last 4 or 5 years – playing D&D. It’s not actually Dungeons and Dragons it’s technically a different game but that’s just splitting hairs, it’s basically D&D. Anyway, I was thankful for the motel WiFi, which enabled me to join in from the road and play just as normal. It was great to hang out with my friends, even digitally, and a lovely way to spend my evening.

Alyssa used the opportunity to catch up with her friends on the phone as well, and once D&D wrapped up, I took a short walk to decompress and let Alyssa have the room for a while before heading to bed myself.

August 26, 2021

Limon, CO to Colorado Springs, CO

We got up in the morning and got all packed up to go, and headed over to the continental breakfast the minute it was declared ‘open’. It was predictably nice after not really doing the breakfast thing on this trip due to trying to avoid heat, and we took a half hour to have waffles, cereal, pastries, and coffee.

Alyssa got on her way, and I shortly followed suit after checking out. Our route was extremely simple, and landed us in our first major destination of our trip – Colorado Springs. Alyssa’s cousin Emily and partner AJ live there, and we’ve been using it as our target for the entire trip so far (often telling people our route by beginning, “Well, we’re going to Colorado Springs, and then…”). I was excited to finally have made it this far!

The excitement really came to a head right away in the morning. I climbed out of Limon on the nice, wide shoulder of Highway 24, and at the top of the climb out of town I was rewarded with a beautiful view. Not just of the high plains spread out in front of me, but of the Rocky Mountains in the smoky distance on the horizon! I got a little verklempt sitting on the roadside at the top of this hill; it felt really momentous to have biked the 1100 miles or whatever it’s been to get to this point. Mountains are basically foreign to an Illinois city boy like myself, so it signified having REALLY gone somewhere.

The scenery was honestly tremendously beautiful all day long, and we cruised down 24 making great time to our destination. The long rolling hills, steadily inclining towards the mountains forever in front of us in the distance. At the top of every hill, I reveled in watching the shadows of the clouds flowing over the shimmering grasses below me. Biking down Highway 24 towards Colorado Springs should be a part of the official marketing campaign for the state of Colorado – it’s really stunningly beautiful, and native wildflowers dot even the least scenic of roadside ditches.

I spent the entire day in a near-euphoria, cruising down beautiful highway singing along at full volume to some of my favorite music. At some point, the wind even shifted directions and turned into a stiff tailwind that brought us all the way into Colorado Springs. Flying down the highway at 25 miles per hour, we came into town with a bang. We hopped across some trails and made our way to rendezvous with AJ at the bike shop where he works.

I rolled in about 10 minutes behind Alyssa, and AJ greeted us. We bummed around the bike shop, which is an extremely cool place with food and beer but also bikes, while AJ did some repairs to Alyssa’s bike. Soon, Emily rode her own bike over to meet us there, and the two of them rode with us in a caravan to AJ’s house nearby.

They extremely graciously welcomed us into their home and let us take several consecutive rest days to enjoy our time with them and in Colorado Springs. The four of us had bonded at Alyssa’s family reunion in July, and it was great to see them again. Emily is studying to be a nurse, and AJ works in bike sales and as a mechanic at Criterium, the aforementioned great bike shop. They’re both extremely kind, thoughtful, helpful, cool, and interesting people, and I’m glad we get to spend some more time with them here in Colorado Springs.

AJ went back to finish his shift, and Emily and Alyssa did the laundry while I fired up their grill to make some cheeseburgers for the whole bunch – Emily, AJ, Alyssa, Me, and AJ’s roommate Zach, who also works at the bike shop. By the time dinner was done, so were their shifts, and we all had dinner together. We had a lovely time relaxing and chatting in the living room for hours that night. We all have a lot in common, and so it was generally a really easy, low-stress hang. It was a lovely welcome to Colorado Springs!

August 27, 2021 – August 29, 2021

Colorado Springs rest days

We spent the next several days setting out on little adventures around Colorado Springs. I set out to paint by myself and rode my fancy schmancy touring bike on some pretty fun, rocky trails to get to a worthy view. Alyssa worked on some writing and spent the weekend trying really hard to learn a difficult song on guitar (since AJ has a guitar, so Alyssa’s jumping right back into it!).

We shared another dinner the next night as well. Alyssa and I made roast chicken and cauliflower with capers and parmesan, which was both delicious and another really nice relaxing evening in.

The next day, Alyssa and I rode our bikes to Garden of the Gods, an almost preposterously scenic park only 2 miles from the house. We spent the entire afternoon bumming around the park, hiking every trail and taking in every view we could. I spent another hour and a half or so painting in the sunshine amidst more beautiful scenery, while Alyssa hiked the entire loop twice to come around back to me. We even had a little picnic with sandwiches we’d brought along for the purpose to cap it off.

Later that evening, we met up with everyone else at their favorite local brewery, and had some absolutely delicious beer, wings, and fries. Speaking for myself, I really enjoyed the scenery, the company, and the kindness with which they hosted us.

As I sit at AJ’s kitchen island writing this blog post, I can say definitively that I’m well-rested and ready to head up into the mountains tomorrow morning. AJ and Zach have given us their local expertise on route selection, and I’m thrilled to be biking up my first Actual Mountain. It’s been supremely lovely to have a few low-impact days, and have a moment to spend time with Emily, AJ, and Zach. It feels like we’ve reached the end of the first (of many) phases of our trip, and as we head up into the Rockies tomorrow morning we begin phase 2: the scenic part!