The Rockies at our Doorstep

We made it through another state!  Utah check!  Next up Colorado.  

Tom was excited

I was excited!

And Dave was excited

From the looks of things Colorado will be a doozy, at least for the first half. We will be hitting two major passes (lizards head and monarch) along with days that contain up to 3,200 feet of climbing and falling.  If we weren't in shape before by the time we hit Pueblo we will be.

In comparison to the next week or so yesterday was super easy. We did 81.5 miles of slowly rolling hills; a relatively pleasant ride.  As we got closer to Delores the hills slowly got more rolling and hillier.  And the little barely visible I think there is something over there bumps off in the horizon slowly but surely became big looming mountains staring at you right in the face.  We have arrived at the Rockies.  

Our original goal was to make it near Stoner, Co.  Which is roughly 16 miles from where we slept last night.  We didn't

 get quite that far for two reasons.  The first, we stayed at a hotel last night.  Man did that feel good!  Probably too good because we had set a timer of leaving by 8:30 which was easily missed by a good hour hour and a half.  Haha.  The second reason is that Delores is such an awesome town.  We had no less than three people come up to us and tell us a free place to camp.  One of the dudes that approached us works at a grocery store and ended up opening his store so that we could shop after hours.  Can you say mind blown from generosity. 

The place they told us to sleep was right rive sandy beached river.  We cought a single crawdad(yea Dave), almost went swimming(insteaded we attempted to fish with our bare hands), and had beautiful background noises as we fell asleep.  Hmmm I love the sounds of water as you fall asleep.  

As I woke up this morning I read Psalms 13,14, and 18 and talked with Jesus. I am really excited about today.  Not only do we get to dominate the beast known as Lizards Head Pass(10,222 foot elevation), and not only do we have the possibility of hitting up a much needed bike shop, we also have been given another opportunity to enjoy God's creation, his people,and whatever unforeseen circumstance we happen to run into.  Woohoo yay Colorado and yay breakfast that I am now going to eat.  Peace and blessin's

~Paul