4K for Cancer 2013: The Wild West: Western Nebraska and Eastern Colorado

Hello, followers!!

The past few days have flown by with very little time for blogging. We've had a number of very long days which means 4 am wakeups, long hours on the road, and early bedtimes! Basically since my last post we've gone from the middle of Nebraska to the middle of Colorado. We've been steadily gaining elevation because we were nearing the Rockies... from around 2000 ft in Arapahoe to 5300 ft here in Boulder! We also did 200 miles in 2 days, and 370 miles over 4 days. We are getting into awesome shape.

Arapahoe to Imperial, NE: This was a 103-mile day, and with our hottest temperatures yet in the forecast, we went for our first sunrise departure. There was no way we were going to beat the heat entirely, but we needed to cover as many miles as we could before the heat of the day struck.

Sun still coming up at our first water stop!

Upon my arrival to the church in the morning, I had the lovely surprise of a flat tire waiting for me. Changing a flat at 5 am was definitely how I wanted to begin my day. I then got another flat (same tire) on the road around mile 20: I couldn't find a puncture so I think it was because of the heat.

A lot of people have been getting flats due to the heat. Heat makes the air in your tubes expand, which pops the tube. We are now careful to put our bikes in the shade when we stop at water stops, because for some reason the transition from riding on it to sitting in the heat will also pop your tubes. We are all too familiar with hearing the dreaded "HISSSSS" of a flat, doing a community groan, and rushing over to the source of the sound to pinch everyone's tires and find out whose bike it was.

Jared's strategy for beating the heat... he just looked like a terrorist though.

Anyway, this day was really, really hot, but was pretty awesome for two reasons: first, the time change!!!! We entered Mountain Time Zone around mile 80! Second, the distinct change of scenery. I wasn't expecting this, but western Nebraska is totally different from eastern Nebraska. We transitioned from seeing cornfields to basically being in the wild west. The best way to describe this is that basically, green turned into brown. Cornfields turned into prairie. The vegetation also looked different.. more dry-weather trees, and a ton of brush. Also... CACTI!!! There were even a few cacti and I got really excited when I saw one.

Our new scenery!

To actually bike through this change of scenery was an experience I'll never forget. It was just incredibly cool to see my surroundings actually changing! Also, I'd never really been to the "wild west" before, and by wild west I mean wide open stretches of prairie. I was picturing trains and log cabins and Laura Ingalls Wilder and stagecoach robberies right and left. It was awesome!!

Pretty legit.... at the site of our first water stop, we found this stone in memory of an entire pioneer family that drowned in a nearby canyon while heading west.

Gavin getting ready to fulfill his water van duties at one of the water stops

The heat got brutal around noon, when temperatures reached 103. At lunch, Jen asked me if I poured water on my head or if it was sweat. It was sweat. Lunch was barely a relief because we only had the shade of a dead tree and that was the only shade for miles. People took turns getting in the water van and cooling off in the AC. It was also hard to eat because we were just so hot. After lunch, we just kept hydrating and taking frequent breaks, and finally made it to our host in Imperial, NE!

Our host had this awesome sign up at the city limit! :)

Interestingly enough, we were staying at the church of the pastor that wrote the book Heaven is for Real!! They were nice enough to give us like 20 free copies of the book.

Imperial to Yuma, CO: Another long and hot day! We had 95 miles to bike in more 100 degree temps. With the new time zone, this called for a 4 am wakeup and a 5:30 am departure. Yikes!!!

At mile 22, we reached the state line!! We were so excited to have reached Colorado! To me, Colorado is undeniably "The West," so it was really exciting. At the same time, most of us were sad to leave Nebraska! We had a great time there. We had to take a picture with the Nebraska state line as well, obviously.

It definitely was the good life. We were so spoiled in Nebraska!!!

We had a surprise guest at our first water stop...look closely under that pump thing.

A SNAKE!!!

This small town we went through had a museum called "Museum"

I took this photo with a patch of cows at the request of my lovely roommate Rachel :)

Two men waist-deep in a wheat field...

We had the roads pretty much to ourselves because it was a Sunday. The only traffic we we really had to contend with was some vacationers heading west with suitcases, boats, and RVs in tow. Although the heat of the day was really rough again starting around noon, it was a nice, flat ride and my group played a bunch of fun games to pass the time.

Not much else to say about the ride; when we arrived in Yuma the church had wet towels waiting in the freezer (julie is the best person on the team EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) for us! They were the most glorious things ever to put around our necks. And we had homestays! I was with Joanna and Becky in the home of a really nice couple name Darlene and Bob. We hung out on the patio with them and then I went downstairs to blog. I felt a little bit homesick, which is strange because homestays should be good for homesickness: you get to be in a home and part of a family. But I guess the separation from my teammates and the fact I was staying in a girl's room made me miss my own house!

Yuma to Fort Morgan, CO: This was a 60-mile ride, and for us 60 miles = a break! We got to sleep in and leave around 8, but that meant it was hotter. Also, we started to feel the elevation.

As most of you probably know, at higher elevations, the air gets thinner and it becomes harder to breathe. I knew the elevation was affecting me because I was getting out of breath before my legs were fatigued.

Not much to say about this day other than it was really hot, lots of flats because of the heat, and also really windy. That, together with the gradual elevation gain, meant it was actually a pretty tough 60 mile day.