Route: La Junta,
CO to Florence, CO (First Southern Baptist Church)
Distance: 95.8 miles
Riding Time: 5
hours: 47 minutes
Average Speed: 16.5 mph (enjoying it while
it lasts… :-)
Max: 40.5 mph
Weather: Cool-er this morning (upper 80’s) warming to a dry, hot 98 degrees. Light
winds out of the east (yeah tailwind!!). Scattered t-storms several hours after
we arrived. (these dropped 1” of rain and caused flash flooding around Colorado
Springs because of the fire damage from several weeks ago… just to keep things
interesting)
Extra-Special Bonus Stats
Current Elevation: 5180
feet
Total Elevation gained since this
morning: 1102 feet
Population of Florence, CO: 4,000
Here’s a bit of what today looked
like:
- Wake up at 4am – stretch, brush teeth, get dressed, pack
- Breakfast at 5am – Wonderful women from the church (Helen and
another woman whose name I forget… Note: these two are exactly 1/5 of the whole
church population) woke up bright and early to make us pancakes and sausage!
Unfortunately I’ve learned that pancakes and sausage don’t make for a very
comfortable first hour on the bike so I had my oatmeal and peanut butter and a
pancake or two on the side. Yum! They made them with 7-Up instead of water and
were delicious and fluffy. Woah. Who knew?!
- Devotions at 5:45 and off on our bikes riding off into the sunrise
by 6am
- I arrived at our host church by 12:30… and discovered I was the
third biker in today out of 15. Crazy! This might just be because I didn’t have
any flats or have to serve as a witness to a car accident in Pueblo like some
of the other riders… but hey, I’ll take it. Wahoo!
- My wonderful college housemate Angela (who just happened to be
working in Pueblo, CO today and passing through Florence on her way home to
Colorado Springs) showed up a little after 1pm… and I was pretty excited! It is awfully reassuring to see familiar faces and
realize that, in some circles of people, I am indeed completely normal. Yay!
- Angela kindly helped to heft our giant, obnoxious, stuffed-full
bags out of the trailer and into the church while I showered and applied my
anti-stink (which I sadly forgot this morning ;) and then we headed off to
downtown Florence to find some serious FOOD. Thanks to Angela, I had a
delicious, amazing giant Swiss Mushroom Burger and a mountain of fries with
copious amounts of ketchup and mustard followed by a raspberry truffle ice
cream cone. Happy. Happy. Happy.
- Angela took off for another interpreting job in Colorado Springs
around 4 and I proceeded to stay awake long enough to blow up my air mattress
and then crash face down on it for a long 2-hour nap… that could have easily
lasted until tomorrow morning.
- Supper – chili by Ben’s chore team. (just barely awake for this)
- Blog catch-up. (sans internet connection :(
- Sleep by 9 on a cool, cloudy night… I have no idea what climbing
5000 feet will feel like tomorrow but I think I’m gonna need a lot of sleep
first and a lot of
taking-it-one-pedal-at-a-time-and-stopping-for-picture-breaks-all-the-time
tomorrow for our 85-mile climb. Oh yeah. We rock. We can do this… with a little
help from our friends the Super Duper DoubleStuffOreos from Mama and Poppy.
Wahoo! Ok, Goodnight! (snorrrreeee…. drool… snort… sigh...)
 |
| And we're off! |
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| Ok, can you see the mountains just above the horizon? Yeah, that's what I thought! Wahoooo! |
 |
| Midas is getting bored waiting for the mountains at rest stops. |
 |
| Ok, can you see them now? Wahoooo! |
 |
| I was just a little excited... and yes, I do have a ridiculous purple Gatorade tongue. |
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| Does anyone else think this cloud looks like a big heron? So cool! Also... you'll note the mountains beneath it. ;) |
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| Lunch with Angela! I ate this all myself. No regrets. I guess I was just a little hungry. Yum! |
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| Angela and I... and pots... in Colorado. So great!!! |
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| Mmm... 2 Sister's Cafe Man, you make a mean burger. Deeeelicious! |
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| Angela brought me goodies! So exciting! |
 |
| Woah! There is apparently a lot happening in Florence these days! |
 |
| Laundry. Sleep. Supper. Computer. Sleep. |
Awesome post. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis post inspired me to order a nice hearty 'shroom and swiss burger at dips 'n dogs last night. Of all the inspirational things on your blog, that one is probably pretty low on the list, but it was really delicious:) You're awesome, Kristi! Keep on rolling!
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