Colorado already?

Northeastern Colorado looks suspiciously like Nebraska and what I thought Kansas would look like. It also sort of looks like New Mexico and some parts of Texas. I was expecting it to be immediately hilly and green, but instead riding from Nebraska to Colorado was one of the flattest stretches I've ridden this whole trip.

A few days ago we had another hundred mile day, from McCook, Nebraska to Holyoke, Colorado. It was actually awesome. We woke up to cloudy skies and were worried about rain, but instead the clouds just covered the sun the whole day and kept the temperature well below 90. We awoke at 4:00am and were on the road by 6:00am, and we finished the ride by 2:00. It was exciting to ride so far and still have energy when it was over. That's all I remember now, but I remembered that I wanted to write about it.

Yesterday was a 76 mile ride from Holyoke (we had a day off there) to Stoneham. If you haven't heard of Stoneham, it's because there are only 37 people who live there. To get to the town, you go over a hill, when you get over the hill, you see about 6 houses, a church, a community building (our home for the night), and a few other buildings. That is Stoneham. We had no showers, which I found more exciting than anything else. We got in very early, by noon, and I got to read and take a nap before anything needed to be done. After hanging out for a while, a group of us went to the rodeo down the road in another small town. The highlights of the rodeo included a 25 cent sno cone, lots of photo opportunities, and a few members of my group trying out a new sport. This new sport that I can't remember the name of is something like this: a tarp is attached to a horse, kind of like a tube to a motorboat. The participant stands on the tarp and holds a rope, much like waterskiing. The horse trots, and the participant holds on tight. I'm sure the locals got a kick out of watching our colorful group's attempts. When we got back to our host location in Stoneham, we could see rain and some lightning.

The scenery was unbelievable. It wasn't mountains or forest or anything you would expect, but the fields and sky are expansive and mostly indescribable. Sometimes we don't pass a town or any clear sign of civilization for 25 miles. Mostly I don't know what to say about it just yet, except it honestly blows my mind. It's both beautiful and startling, but in a way I've never quite experienced.

Today was an 80 mile day into Fort Collins from Stoneham. It was a very enjoyable ride, we are still slowly gaining elevation. However, around 8:50 am my friend Erin and I spotted the Rocky Mountains in the distance! It was intimating but also one of the most exciting things that has happened on the trip. It made us both giddy, I suppose, for the rest of the ride we couldn't stop mentioning them. Tomorrow's ride is only 46 miles... the first 20 miles are flat, but then we climb for 26 miles. Everyone keeps complaining about it and psyching themselves out, but it sounds pretty exciting to me. Something new, something incredible. I'll let you know how I feel in a couple days about it.

In Colorado and happy to be here,
Rachel