Day 22 -- Pueblo, CO to Lamar, CO

Miles: 121.12
Total Miles: 1590.98
Time: 7:12
Average Speed: 16.8 mph
Max Speed: 26.9 mph
Flats Today: 1
Total Flats: 8
Elevation Gain: 1050 ft
Weather: 10 mph head winds most of the day around 90 degrees

Today was a day of great achievement. We completed 121 miles in 1 day, which is the furthest we've rode in one day. We were on the bike for 7 hours and 12 minutes, which is the longest we've ever done in 1 day. We only took 7 pictures, which is the least we've taken so far. The headwinds were only 10 mph instead of 20 mph. The temperature was only 90 degrees instead of 95 degrees. Jeff Puthoff told me to stop complaining about the wind, and I did. Wade told me to go faster, and I did. All of this combined together turned riding 121 miles in the middle of nowhere into a great day of biking. We woke up at 4:25, ate breakfast at 5:00, loaded at 5:45, waited for Fran until 6:10, then began our longest day ever. For the first 121 miles, there was nothing... The end. I'm just kidding even though there was nothing. When we got about 20 miles in, we stopped to pee, turned around, and saw mountains in the distance. If you click on the picture and look closely, you can see Pike's Peak sort of in the middle of the picture. It's kind of sad looking back and knowing that the scenery of the mountains is gone and all we have now is Ohio farmlands with prairie dogs instead of ground hogs. A couple of people asked us why we weren't taking many pictures today, and we said, "What is there to take pictures of? This looks just like Ohio."

Anyway, we arrived at the first sag stop almost last because Fran took so long to get going. We ate, put on sunscreen, then headed out. We rode with Larry today along with Fran, so at least Fran didn't have to listen to just us for 121 miles. We rode through nothing for about 20 miles, then Fran got hungry and I had to pee, so we stopped at a Safeway, bought some pastries, then ate them. We rode about 10 more miles, then it happened just like every other century we've ridden. We got another flat. This time it was Wade, so we're tied 4 flats each... He so competitive that he couldn't even let me win that battle. I changed the tube out, then Wade pumped it with the hand pump. It's pretty bad when there's so little to see that you have to take pictures of changing tires. After rode about 2 more miles until the next sag stop, then once again, we ate.

After the sag stop, we rode about 25 more miles to where the next sag stop was going to be, but we blew right by it. Only idiots can't spot a sag stop in the middle of nowhere... That's why I blamed it on Wade. We got about 2 miles past where it was supposed to be, then we called the van, they brought us some water, then we found out that Fran was late for a good reason this morning. He was packing brownies that his wife made him, and he gave some to us... I guess we'll let him slide this time. We ate the brownies, drank some water, then we went to finish our last 20 miles. When we got about 5 miles out, we saw a huge feed lot full of cattle. That guy that owned it even had more cattle than Putoff. The picture doesn't do justice to how big it really was though. It went on to the left off of the picture for a mile. We're not even in Kansas yet... I can't imagine how big those feeding lots will be. Anyway, we went about a mile past the mile long feeding lot, and we came upon a sign that said "Arkansas River." That roaring river that we followed through large canyons is now just a small stream. It is amazing that out here the farther the river goes, the smaller it gets because people use it for irrigation. Back east, as the river goes farther, it gets bigger and causes flooding... What a difference. We had to take a picture since we only had 6 at that time. After the photo, we rode the last 3 miles into our hotel. After 121 miles into headwinds, surprisingly, I felt great. Also,we added a video of our beautiful 50 miles along the Arkansas River and a video of the Balanced Rock at the Arches National Park because the connection is good again.