Finally in Colorado!

Hello from Holyoke, CO! We biked 100 miles (on one road) here from McCook, NE yesterday, and today had the luxury of sleeping in! I got up at 8am Mountain Time, which is 5 hours later than I normally sleep and more than twice the amount of sleep I've been getting each night over the past week. I am still pretty tired and will probably take a nap later but since I actually have time to do that I'm not too stressed out about it...

Nebraska was a great state, way better than Kansas. There were actually people in the towns and they were super friendly and the land was a bit flatter. Yes there were still many hills, but for the most part things weren't too bad. The flatest road we've had since that day in Illinois was yesterday, leaving Nebraska and heading into Colorado. Apparently between Holyoke and whereever we're staying tomorrow night it will be flat as well.

I can't wait to actually hit the Rockies, I mean yeah it will hard but there has just been so much anticipation leading up to this that we are all absolutely dying to finally get there! We just found out today though that we might not be able to ride on Trail Ridge Road (the highest paved road in the country) because of construction. This is particularily disappointing, especially because Trail Ridge Road and the ride from Estes Park to Granby is one of the top three reasons I signed up for this trip (the others were Park City and Lake Tahoe). The Habitat Bike Challenge (which is what Bike and Build stemmed from) went through there earlier this week and was forced to reroute. They also shared with us that it's too cold to wake up at 4, so when in the mountains they woke up at 6! HOOTIE! My life just improved drastically :)

My bike has been doing really well, I am actually pretty surprised he has been holding up. Most people are getting new chains and while I did put on new brake pads and have a new tire, my chain is still going strong (I mean...I think it is...I really have no idea and it will probably break tomorrow...but for now it's great). My new best friends Becca, Roshan, Erin, and Kristi are all doing fabulous too.


Fave part of the last few days:

-when we had a short day (68 miles) and the leaders gave us a scavenger hunt to work on. we got to go in a fire house in some small Kansas town (sounds like Matokat but I really don't remember the name) and got pictures with their fire truck.
-when Cooper's parents provided us with first and second lunch yesterday and I got to not only eat apple pie at 9am but could eat it with Nilla Wafers and a turkey and fresh tomato sandwich.
-swimming in the Alma, NE town pool. and rocking the awful tan lines too of course!
-gaining an hour of sleep as we moved into Mountain Time.
-Becca's very brilliant purchase of speakers, allowing us to listen to Rent slash every mix I've ever made as we ride, and also being able to make mixes solely dedicated to P2SF07 rides.
-mail day yesterday in Holyoke -- I got 3 packages (this is normal and makes me so excited every Thursday) and a letter. This week's fantastic letter was from Tai (thanks Chipotty!) and my packages were from my parents (included new spandex, always a great thing to have, as well as the Times, WSJ, and Lake George Mirror -- in the Bell family the three most important sources of print one can read), my aunt (lots of good food and of course tabloids so I can know what's really going on in the world), and my good friend Jess (I opened up the USPS package and pulled out a colorful bag with ribbon handles and felt like I was back on the Kenyon Lacrosse team again, getting a secret pscyh bag. It was PERFECT, and so Jess. I LOVE it!). So great!

hope you are all doing well, thanks for your comments :)

PEACE.