Day 40, 41, 42, 43

So....those are mountains

Miles biked: 80 something
70 something
60 something
0 Much needed rest!

Hello from Boulder, Colorado! As I traveled through the town I have decided this town is AMAZING. Then I got to thinking...this town may be amazing due to our travels on HBC. Boulder is the first town we have been to with more than 2,000 people in weeks. Boulder is the first town we've been to with people under the age of 60 (and in large numbers). Boulder is next to the mountains. And finally, Boulder is not in Kansas. Whatever the reasons are for loving Boulder.....I am very happy to be at the edge of the Rocky Mountains!

Boulder hasn't come with all good news. Two of our members have decided to leave the trip. My longtime friend from elementary school Morgen left two days ago, and Nick Krug took off home to Dallas today. Our group of 27 has now dwindled to 22 and somehow I am still around.

Our journey through Colorado took us to the smallest town on the trip yet. Cope, Colorado has a population of 80 people. Everyone is a farmer. The closest Grocery store is 45 miles away. The town consists of a church...a gas station....and a steak house. I showered at the house of a Canadian who married a North Dakota farmer who moved to Colorado and became a crop duster. We talked a lot about tornadoes.

From Cope, we headed into the fog to Strasburg. I must say I enjoyed my stay in Strasburg better than Stroudsburg, PA (where my wallet still continues to watch "Knocked Up" at the mall in the Stroud 7). Strasburg is the home of the golden stake, where the railroads from East and West met. Just before dinner a nasty storm was brewing nearby. Apparently softball sized hail was reported on the roads we had biked through in the morning. Strasburg only received heavy wind which wasn't windy enough to wake up Craig who had fallen asleep outside in the grass. Actually nothing could wake up Craig.....even when we threw a stray cat on his face.

From Strasburg we headed past the Denver airport to Boulder. We knew we would see the mountains and I spent the entire morning staring off into the distance. I finally saw some blobs through the thick summer Haze. The blobs became clearer and clearer and now tower above us. I wonder if the altitude will effect us. We are currently at over 5,000 feet and will continue to rise. Night time in Boulder brought us to a very cool strip with restaurants and bars. I decided I would have a very easy time being educated as a Colorado Buffalo (grad school?).

Today we climbed in the van and went tubing on Boulder Creek. I was expecting the kind of tubing you see in CT with large wide bodies of water. This kind of tubing was a little different. The water was on the edge of the mountains and contained rapid after rapid in a skinny little creek. The leaders rented and extra tube...duck taped a trash bag to the bottom of it and filled it with cheap beer. It was a Yale education being put to full use. It was pretty funny to watch people dive out of their tubes to rescue the beer tube from escaping downstream or flipping over in the rapids.

Tomorrow Pat and I are heading into the mountains and I can't wait to find out what calf pain really is!