Jun
15
We hit the road early this morning to try to make some miles before the afternoon storms rolled in. We had a pretty uneventful day of riding that looked pretty much like this in all directions:
Occasionally there would be a structure or farm to break up the fields, but mostly the hills just rolled along with wheat stretching as far as you could see in any direction.
The only real excitement of the day was at one point as we were rolling along, two adorable black and white baby kittens came running out of a field towards our bikes crying. Of course, we have a bit of a track record with kittens on this trip (see Georgia posts regarding “Savannah” and Florida posts referring to him by his masculine name, Watson), and so we stopped. They were so friendly, clearly used to being around people, and seemingly healthy with the exception of some good road rash spots on their faces- presumably from being tossed out a moving vehicle. People can be so awful. Anyway, we called the local humane society who informed us we were outside their jurisdiction, and tried to get ahold of a local animal hospital to see if they might help us, but they couldn’t either. We could leave the poor things in the middle of nowhere on the side of a road, so we carried them as we rode back to the last town we had passed. There wasn’t much in the town, but fortunately a woman who worked at the tiny, one-room post office heard them crying (they weren’t fond of flying along on the bikes) and came out. She offered to take them and let them live in her barn, which we thought sounded like a pretty nice life- so she went out to find them something to eat and we headed back out towards Sterling, CO.
The Ramada Inn in Sterling offered us a free room for the night which we gratefully accepted since this evening had another tornado and severe thunderstorm watch. Tomorrow we’ll try to get some more miles in early in the day since it’s supposed to get into the 90’s as we head into Nebraska!
With all this talk of kittens we thought we’d add a recent photo of Watson- the kitten who rode with us for almost a month and who is now waiting for us to return in New York! 
Jun
14
Yesterday we took a rest day in Fort Collins and decided to check out the downtown area. We didn’t make it too far with our loaded bikes before a really nice young couple started chatting us up and ended up inviting us for a beer at one of the local breweries, New Belgium. We took them up on it and it’s a good thing we did- not only were they super nice, but the brewery is the most sustainable brewery in the United States. We ended up grabbing an interview with Berney (pictured below) who works there and even let us try out the sweet slide. Those are Alan’s appendages flying down the shoot.
We literally had trouble getting anywhere in Fort Collins because so many people would stop us to ask questions about the trip. Now, this is no exaggeration: every single person who stopped us to talk also offered us a place to stay. We took one couple up on their suggestion for a burrito at a place called La Luz. If you’re ever in Fort Collins, check it out- they come highly recommended from us now too. Anyway, we must have been offered over 10 places for the night, but we headed over to our pre-arranged Warm Shower host, David, and we’re glad we did. He was so welcoming and friendly. He let us do laundry and even cooked us some seriously delicious pancakes with maple syrup as a power breakfast. Thank you so much David!
After pancakes, we headed out of Fort Collins, away from the mountain and towards the flats. With all this rain we’ve been getting the wildflowers started blooming and it made for a very scenic ride:
And it certainly was flat. At least much flatter than any terrain we’ve had since before southern California! And it got remote pretty quickly…
We didn’t get too far today, partly due to getting two flats!! We had one yesterday too… we think our tires are ready to be changed, but we’ve got a ways to go until we hit another bike store. Oh well. The other reason we didn’t get too far is that around 2pm some serious storm clouds appeared. 
Lately we’ve been kind of ignoring the storms- we get wet and they pass and it’s fine. But something about the clouds today told us to pull over while we were still near a campground. We found ourselves in Briggsdale, CO, set up the tent, turned on the computer and lo and behold, Briggsdale was right in the Tornado Watch zone. Yikes. Fortunately, we were invited to dinner by a really nice couple who had an RV a couple sites away. They fed us like kings and patiently answered all our paranoid northeasterner questions about tornados (they are both from Iowa originally).
The warning passed and the skies became crystal clear again and we retired to the tent full of delicious food (think: fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream) and armed with a little more knowledge of these crazy storms we’re likely going to be encountering for the next few weeks. Tomorrow we hit the road early and try to make up some miles before the seemingly inevitable storms roll in…
Jun
13
Yesterday morning we headed out to conquer Cameron pass- the highest pass of our trip and our last pass over the continental divide! The mountains loomed in the distance…
As we got closer, they got bigger and bigger…
It was so scenic and we had a little sun for the first time in a few days!
We started climbing and climbing and it got pretty chilly.
But then, boom! We were at the top! It was much easier than we had expected and we were so excited! Alan did his kick over the bike…
And I attempted to vault over mine.
We began the loooong decent. It was a really incredible ride, with rolling hills and really rocky scenery.
We hit rolling hills the whole way down and it was a nice ride, but not quite as easy as we had expected. Thunderstorms threatened in the distance the whole afternoon, but we started thinking we might be able to make it the 102 miles to Fort Collins.
We rode 7 hours and 45 minutes and hit Fort Collins hungry and excited!
Today we’re resting a little bit and checking out Fort Collins a little bit. The forecast is calling for severe thunderstorms all afternoon but we figure we’ll walk around a bit anyway. Tomorrow? Towards Nebraska!
Jun
11
Today we woke up early and tried to hit the road before the winds picked up and it started raining again. We knew from our maps that it was going to be a rough day of riding- mostly uphill and into the wind. We also knew it was supposed to rain and thunderstorm for most of the day- but we took off anyway and prepared for a long, wet day.
The rain started up about 20 minutes into the ride and we donned rain gear and kept going. It stopped, it started, it stopped, it started but it remained about 48 degrees the whole time. We had a consistent headwind (from the south) at about 30 mph which just roars in your ears the whole time you ride. On a day like today, you spend a lot of time staring at the pavement right in front of your tire and trying not to look up at the next hill or the next storm.
When we did have a chance to check out the scenery it was mostly ranch land. We saw a couple of old abandoned homesteads too, like this one:
Finally we reached Colorado! Yay! Alan was a little too tired to be much enthused for the photograph.
As we entered Colorado we had a brief and very welcome tailwind that pushed us a bit before we climbed a pass and headed into the “flats”. In fact, they were just as hilly as the rest of the day had been, but with the added bonus of a couple hail storms! Yup. We got hailed on not once, but twice today. That stuff stings in 30mph wind! By the time we were close to our 50 mile mark, we were pretty wiped.
Once we rolled into Walden, CO though, things started looking up! We head due east tomorrow over a pass towards Fort Collins, so with a little luck the wind won’t be at our faces! It’s supposed to keep storming in this area for the next 4 days or so, but we can deal with rain… just not headwind AND rain. Walden is a really cute little town with free camping in their beautiful town park, so we’re about to turn in for an early night and rest up. A big thanks goes out tonight to the Walden Sheriff who suggested we might want to take advantage of their public pool’s showers. But now the thunder is rumbling again and we’re heading in!