“The sea (sky) was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man sending back soup at a deli.”
-Costanza (Robin)
We woke up nice and early to a rainy Walsenburg, CO. We watched the news while eating breakfast. The big national news is torrential downpours and flooding in Colorado. Even though the worst flooding areas were well north of our path, I still got super nervous. The forecast called for more rain throughout the day.
The tubes Jacob had worked on the previous night had stayed inflated overnight…good sign. However, 2 miles in to our morning ride he gets a flat. It turned out to be a new puncture from a piece of glass. This is much better than if it was due to a patch not holding. Jacob nearly “loses it” but manages to pull himself together and we get back on the road.
We hit a massive headwind and start climbing up the foothills for about 22 miles. We see a sign “La Veta summit 8 miles”. The serious rockies climbing started at that sign. We enjoyed an awesome steady climb fighting the wind. I told Jacob “Great climb, man!”
At the summit it was 45°, brrrr, and rain began to just dump down on us. Then it turned to hail and freezing rain. We found that if we stopped pedaling (descending this mountain, mind you) our bikes would actually stop due to the massive headwind. No joke. There are very few times in my life where I’ve been as cold as I was on this descent. My bones hurt and we both were shaking. The worst part was not knowing when the next opportunity for shelter would come. We didn’t say a word to each other because there was nothing to do or say. It would be worse if we stopped. Our destination of Alamosa was at least 35 miles from the summit. That could be 3 or 4 hours.
We rode in this misery for about one hour when a kind soul in a truck stopped and offered is a ride. When he stopped ahead of us I sped ahead of Jacob and said “Yesss! Thank you thank you!”
Micky works at a Ford dealership and was on his way to trade vehicles…so we got a ride in a brand new 2013 F150. Micky blasted the heat for us but Jacob and I both still had problems getting warm. We told Micky how grateful we were (and continue to be) for the generosity of strangers. He is originally from Serbia, is a computer security guy by trade, and has lived throughout Europe (Switzerland was his favorite) and recently moved close to Denver.
He drove us about 25 miles into town and dropped us off in Alamosa at the Grizzly Inn at 1:50. After we waited at the front desk for a while (at least the lobby was warm), the strange-ish manager showed up and told us “we won’t have rooms ready until later”. “How much later?” we inquired, still shivering and soaked. “2p”. Ummm, I think we can wait 10 minutes… Jacob went next door and checked with the twice-as-expensive Best Western while I hung out in the lobby of the Grizzly Inn. He calls me with the too-expensive rate quote and said, in a crazy high pitched squeaky semi-paniced and fet up Jacob-voice, “So I say let’s do the Teddy Bear (he meant grizzly inn and I thought this was hilarious) and I see KFC!!!”. He came back with warm food and we ate in the lobby. The same strange-ish manager lady came back and asked “what can I do for you?” (like she didn’t recognize us from 8 minutes ago). She said “Oh you are gonna WAIT?” Jacob said “We have no where else to go!”.
She proceeded to check us in to our miraculously then-ready room. It was only after hot showers did either of us feel normal again.
Later on we walked towards Walmart to get new tubes and stumbled upon Kristy’s Sports Store which was similar to REI and had bike supplies. We purchased new tubes (woohoo!) and cold/wet weather gear since the forecast still called for cold and rain. After a six year drought, this was the rainiest week in CO history. Perfect timing.

We did laundry at the motel and Jacob snuggled with his fresh-from-the-dryer warm clothes. We ate pizza at the local pizza shop with Adam’s College kids. It’s the college from Revenge of the Nerds!
We went to sleep dreaming about freezing rain, cold mountains and numb extremities… a big test was still ahead of us on day 30.

We woke up to a cloudy morning in Boone. Today we are going off the bike 76 trail to head south towards Durango CO and then Flagstaff AZ. I was nervous because those ACA maps were so good to us. They showed each town’s amenities and how far to the next convenience store, etc, as well as an elevation map. Now we will rely on gmaps. Mistake.
The “road” we took from Boone to Walsenburg was dirt and gravel. Granted, it was mostly flat and smoother than the gravel road we took the day I fell…but it was still challenging to keep balanced. The road took us though Red Top Ranch, a gorgeous 90,000 acre working ranch. We had to ride over a bunch of giant cattle grates almost big enough for me to fall into.

After 10 miles on this road, I start getting more comfortable and able to take in and admire the gorgeous scenery. I started to have fun again… Jacob whistled at some horses and they came right over to the fence for a photo op.

We were slightly worried when we passed cattle (no fence) and a giant bull went from laying down to kneeling and almost got all the way up…looking right at us. Avoid eye contact…does that work with bulls like humans? He let us roll on by.
A man in a truck stopped us and told us “You woulda been better off taking the highway! 30 more miles on dirt ahead. There’s one ranch house between here and the main road but that’s it. And it gets real slimy!”. Great.
Shortly after this encounter, Jacob starts getting flat tires. Like, a, lot of them. He took off the tires (and I pumped them up) 12 times. Needless to say, we ran out of tubes so he was doing “patch jobs” that were not holding. Glueless patches are useless. They suck!
We weren’t getting anywhere so I started biking ahead to see if I could find tubes or patches or something. Jacob started walking. My only plan at this point was to make it to Walsenburg (25 miles), check into a motel, drop off my heavy gear, find tubes (if possible), bike back to Jacob and hope he could make it.
Thank goodness Jacob  found a ride.
I rode about 7 miles and I hear “Heeeey what’s a pretty little thing like you riding all by herself in the rain?” Did I mention it was raining? Jacob was yelling at me from the front seat of Kenn(withtwoNs)’s truck. I scream “Yeeeaaaaay!” Kenn works at red top and have us a ride into town. After loading my bike, I hopped into the back seat and noticed a hand gun two inches from my left knee and a rifle behind the driver’s seat.
Kenn was so nice. He drove us to a tire store (to get some kind of better patches) and then a motel. We also found the “Walsenburg Walmart” which was a garage filled with junk. Lots of marijuana flags everywhere and crap piled up on top of other crap. However, the dude working knew exactly where to find bike tube patch kits. Hopefully they will get us to the next “real” Walmart or bike shop where they sell Jacob’s particular tubes.
We picked up Carl’s Jr for dinner. Jacob has been looking forward to the point when Hardees would switch to Carl’s Jr “cuz that means we’re out west”.
Jacob meticulously worked on patching his tubes while I showered and watched the news about Syria, etc. Wow there’s a scary “real world” out there. We are in a biking bubble most days.
Pleeeeease, patches HOLD!

Bike day 27 on September 11.
My alarm woke me up at 5:30. Jacob said “that alarm always makes me think we’re in a video game”. Apparently Jacob will wake up when his iPad stops making the “white noise”…it happens 8hrs after he sets it, so 4a this morning. When I asked “so what have you been doing for an hour and a half?” he said “just laying here! whaaat?”
As we ate breakfast, Jacob and I talked about where we were when the towers were hit. We had similar stories of getting ready for our college classes. I remember being so scared that James, my marine boyfriend at the time, would be sent to Afghanistan. And he was. One of the scariest times of my life.
It was a rainy and cool morning.
We had about 35 miles to get to the 2000 mile mark for the trip. I was a little excited, plus I had fresh legs from our rest day…so I might have “taken off” and left Jacob in the dust. I got to 2000 miles and celebrated (happy dance, self shot pictures), looked around…no sign of Jacob. Oops! I waited for a few minutes and then turned around to look for him. About 2 miles back he had a flat. Uggh. And I had “abandoned him”. Bad Robin!

I think he forgave me and we rolled on.
We went through Arlington, CO. There were probably a total of 8 buildings in the whole town but there was a sign for Arlington Cemetery haha.

We ate lunch at Sugar City Cafe. The owner had a full menu but really would only serve us the “daily specials”. I had beans and ham with cornbread (so good and warmed me up!) and Jacob had a bbq sandwich (not so good) and pumpkin pie (pretty good).
Paul and Enya, the couple we met a grew days ago) had signed the restaurant guestbook. They had eaten lunch there the day before.
After lunch we made it into high desert terrain. Jacob pointed out different cacti and other plants…juniper, sage, cholla, succulents, cottonwood trees, etc. The scenery  was so beautiful.
We set up camp at the Boone City park. I was nervous because the forecast called for rain and it had been sprinkling on us throughout the day. We bought a few snacks at the local convenience store before they closed at 5. The cashier told us that we will see snow on the summit of Wolf’s Creek. We plan to get there in a few days. Jacob does not believe her and I really hope he’s right. I’m not prepared for snow! Nice rainbow at camp.

Boring, lazy rest day in Eads, CO! Woot!
Slept in nice and late…I needed recovery after a few consecutive century days and the redskins loss.
We ate breakfast and Jacob had a few more slices of pie (cookies and cream OMG!).
Jacob did laundry and I walked to the market to restock our food bag. Jacob bought me a new-to-us gatorade flavor, cucumber-lime. Delicious.
Every establishment in town has fly swatters. Buggy Eads.
It was a hot and sunny day with cloud cover rolling in by evening. Where were those clouds yesterday when we were overheating and sprinting to get to football watching?

It’s Redskins gameday!!!!
We woke up early, hit up the Kwik Shop for breakfast and Jacob also picked up a cheap pair of sunglasses since he lost his during our “night ride” on day 24. We got going at 7a. 
We crossed into the mountain time zone about twenty miles in. Jacob did circles back and forth, exclaiming something to the effect of “I’m the lord master of time and space” (apparently a Dr Who reference) while I proceeded to ignore him completely, instead focused on more important masters, namely getting our butts to Eads, CO in time for kickoff. Must see RGIII! The NFL does not care if we are going back in time!
We battled headwinds and crosswinds all day. We entered Colorful Colorado.

We took a rest about 25 miles outside of Eads at a convenience store. We met Paul and Enya, a newlywed couple of west bound cyclists from Rockville MD. They told us about another cycling adventure they took in Indonesia! Wow. I asked if they felt safe there and they said “no”… attempted mugging and “flogging”. Yikes!
As we were chatting, a local gentleman came in and addressed us with “Let me ask you stupid people something!” Paul responds “Good opening!”, and the gentleman proceeds with “Isn’t it crazy to be biking in 110° weather?”…Yes…the answer is yes.
Soon after that I started getting restless and anxious to get to a TV. We hit the road and got to the econo travel lodge in plenty of time…the econo travel lodge with NO ESPN. And they told me “no bars are open on Mondays”. I was crushed. I tried a number of internet options without success and decided to gamecast the game on my phone and go to dinner with Jacob. 
Lucky us, the lodge was next door to the best (read: only) restaurant in town. Yummy pie for dessert. We both had a slice (chocolate cream and banana cream) and Jacob got a second slice to go.
After dinner and at halftime of the game I decided to go for a walk.
I met a nice man and his dog at a nearby park. He said “excuse me, is that your truck?” (pointing to a gigantic “big rig” in the parking lot)…I now apparently look like a trucker. I said “nope” and he said “Oh, cuz I was gonna be impressed!”
I walked a but further and what did I spy but Jan’s Bar with lights on. It looked scary but I decided to give it a go. Tiny, smoky, hot, but had a big TV with my Skins on and 2 old men (reminded me of Grumpy Old Men) to share the bar with. The Skins mounted a comeback and by the fourth quarter I had both grumpy old men cheering and rooting for the Skins with me “HTTR one TD at a time!”. Turned out one touchdown too few…too bad.
I walked back to the lodge a little sad but exhausted and ready for bed. When I got back Jacob said “Found the game? I thought you either found it, or you were kidnapped”. Thanks, Jacob!
We made it to another rest day.

100 miles from Alexander KS to Leoti KS. (Pronounced like ray liotta)

If there was such a day, this is the day we would run into the Wicked Witch of the West.
8 miles to a soda machine for a much needed coke for Jacob, 35 miles to a shady spot for a rest. 50 miles to a Kwik Stop convenience store break.
On day 23 Jacob was bitten by a horse fly. As he swatted it away, he lost his right ear piece for his headphones. Gone. Needle in a haystack to look for it. Today Jacob swatted at another bug and lost his left one. Gone. Bye bye music. Hello instead to (as Jacob describes them) “the voices” inside his head.
Now to quiet the voices, Jacob talks to me about the Homestead Act. We debate about whether or not either of us would have made the journey out west back in the day. Then he speaks to me as if he was writing from the west to a friend back east… “To my dearest friend Robin…life here is splendid” etc. Now I kinda wanted to silence the Jacob voice at this point.
SW Kansas… desolate, hot and windy. The winds mainly blew in a north-easterly direction. Well, isn’t that just perfect since we are going to the south west?!? It was tough to even maintain 10mph.
When big mack trucks passed us going 70mph in the opposite direction it felt like running into a hot brick wall. We literally would stop pedaling for a few seconds in order to bring all attention to controlling our steering… gotta keep going straight and not veer off the road. The truck wind could move our biking line six inches to a foot or more.
The other thing about Kansas is that the terrain generally goes uphill from east to west. It looks totally flat, and sometimes it is, but we’re “going up” most of the time. Sometimes it feels like we’re on an incline even when it’s not…or it’s just a really gradual one. We can see miles to the horizon. Sometimes we look at the horizon and think “oh, if we just make it there to the to of this crest we will get some relief and go downhill for a bit”. Nope. That “crest” is just the curvature of the earth. We just get to keep pedaling against the wind and maybe slightly up until the end of the map.
The terrain actually reminds me of the ocean. A green prairie ocean on either side (no trees) with the road a straight as an arrow endless boardwalk out to sea. Sometimes I half expect to see the tip of Christopher Columbus’s sail boat cresting the horizon.
We did find shade in Scott County (hi to my little bro Scott!) about 24 miles from our destination. We walked the bikes thorough some grass to the shade of a cute little tree.
After our rest, Jacob’s rear tire goes flat. As he’s fixing it I notice my rear tire going flat. It seems we had walked our bikes through a thorn patch! Jacob’s front tire also went flat. Yikes, that was no good. We picked about 60 thorns out of the tires.
This means we ride into the night. 7p and 24 miles still left to go. “Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing” is our saying. We flew though the last miles, used lights, watched the gorgeous sunset with windmills in the background, and made it to camp around 9:15p. This sunset ride was one of my favorite parts about the whole trip so far.
Wicked Witch, where you at?  Missed ya…or was that you with the thorns?

We were tucked in our sleeping bags next to the splash park (Jacob in his hammock.and me in the tent) by 8:30p on day 22. However, the park officially closes at 10p. So, of course, from 9-10p, local hooligans (preteen kids) attacked the park and made enough noise to keep up awake for another hour or so. I hear Jacob mumbling curse words under his breath and then I hear a kid yell “We can be more quiet!” Followed by Jacob “We appreciate it!”. They eventually left, told us “Good luck sleeping!” and Jacob says goodbye by hollering “Good luck choosing a girlfriend!” (he could hear the dramatic conversations of the preteens…)
At 10:15p, we hear a train roll close by. After the no-sleep-train-fiasco of the previous night, both Jacob and I moan and scream in unison “Noooooooo!”. Luckily that was the only train that night and there were no whistles.
We woke up relatively refreshed and had breakfast at the Kwik Shop convenience store. Met a man who’s sister lives in Alexandria VA and he proclaimed “DC is filled with crazy people”
That morning we knew we would ride over 100 miles, including a tough first stretch of 60 miles without any services. We stocked up on water, gatorade and snacks and hit the road.
We took two breaks during the 60 mile trek. It was tough to find shade and once the sun came out out took about 20 min for the water in or water bottles to warm to the temperature of hot tea.
At about mile 45, we were crop dusted. Well, really the field right next to the road was crop dusted. I don’t think we actually got hit. It was so cool to see the extremely low flying plane cross back and forth over or heads. It looked and felt close enough to touch.

We did manage to make it the 60 miles and took a long lunch break in an air conditioned Subway restaurant.
We continued on and made it to Rush Center (13 miles from our destination) where we hoped to pick up food to cook for dinner. Nope. The stocked liquor store was open, but that’s about it. Jacob asked the liquor store owner if we could camp inside the store. It was nice and cool in there! Even though Jacob was serious with his question, the owner laughed it off.
Jacob downed a green “buzz ball” (strong tequila drink), we both had sodas (excuse me, “pop”), and left Rush.
Our camp for the evening was a rest stop in Alexander, KS. Pop 65. It was beautiful (gorgeous sunset) and the bathrooms were clean. I ate tuna on a tortilla from our food bag for dinner.
We fought a lot of wind and heat today. Another “century day” in the books.

Sleeping in the gazebo at Cassoday city park seemed just fine. Sure, the mosquitoes and flies were out, and yes, there were countless gigantic spiders in the outhouse (my “outhouse” in the middle of the night was a tree instead), but the temperature was lovely and the stars were gorgeous. Then came the trains. Oh, the trains. We were 100ft from the tracks. Trains came every 15 minutes throughout the night. I am not exaggerating. I lived next to train tracks in college and have dealt with the rumbling noise overnight. But I swear these effing Cassody trains had the world’s loudest and longest whistles. There are 128 residents of Cassoday, yet the conductors seem to expect all of them to be milling around the tracks at all hours waiting to get hit. Jeez. So, we got zero sleep. Literally.
At breakfast we spoke to a man who’s mother owns a house by the tracks and he says the loudness of the whistles has forever been a problem for his family. Poor guy!
We saw some cool things today. Rode by an airfield and saw 4 tiny planes doing loop-de-loops, rolls and flying in formation.
We saw a calf being born.
We also made it to 1650 miles, the point Jacob had designated as “halfway”. We are passed the point of no return (cue phantom of the opera). Although Melinda told me “you know, when you get to Missouri, you should probably just keep going. Not worth turning back after that”.
A local cyclist on a spiffy neon yellow Bianchi road bike talked with us for about a mile as we rode. His bike looked so speedy and light. Jealous! He told us he always thought about doing a cross country trip but never has made the time. Jacob and I are so lucky.
We made it to Nickerson around 5:30p. The main street is bricks (bumpy) and the side streets are dirt/gravel/sand (my enemy). We walked our bikes on a side street about a quarter mile to our city park camp site. The city park had bathrooms but no showers. Then what did we discover? A SPLASH PARK. OMG what a fun shower!!! We put on swim suits, lathered up, bathed, and “did laundry” like hobos. So much fun!

After showering we hit up the Pizza Connection that had a Jesus fish doormat and a “wrong” anti-Obama sticker on the window. We did not talk religion or politics to the proprietor. Before our food arrived Jacob serenaded me in a Kermit voice “why are there so many…songs about pizza?”. I looked at him like he was nuts, didn’t get it until he got to the “rainbow connection” lyric and instead sang “pizza connection”. Ok, ok, got it.
As we walked back on the dirt road, Jacob said “Nickerson county…we can either pave streets our build a ridiculous water park…whaaaat?”
Back at camp we met a toad. Jacob told me to kiss it so I could finally meet my prince. I told him “that would be too easy…and I’m not done with my adventure yet anyway!”.

We thought we might be able to say goodbye to Marco and Ronny in the morning but the kids slept in. Apparently they have done some illegal camping in other cities. They try to wake up super early and get out of there, but they have actually gotten ticketed a few times. This was a legal free site, so they took advantage of the extra shut eye. Marco actually goes running up to eight miles per day in addition to his daily bike miles. Hard core. This is a navy seal in the making.
Jacob and I ate oatmeal at camp and got going early.
There were not too many rest stops on our route but about 40 miles in we hit a nice restaurant. When we asked to use the rest rooms the lady said “follow the yellow bricks” (on the floor)…I skipped to the ladies room humming “follow the yellow brick road”. She said “good girl!”
I went outside to make a peanut butter and honey tortilla (yum) and happened to meet Adam, an attractive solo west bound cyclist from Toronto, Canada. Which is funny because we just went through Toronto KS about 5 miles ago. We chatted for a while and he asked if Jacob and I were married or a couple (that means he likes me, right? haha). We might see him again since he’s headed for San Diego and plans to arrive there around the same time Jacob and I plan to get to Morro Bay.
After Adam and I said goodbye (sniff sniff), a gentleman in the restaurant warned us “you got a few hills between here and Cassoday!”. I looked at him and said “No we don’t! I don’t believe you!”.
“Hill” is a relative term. There were some baby inclines, maybe “Kansas hills”, burt nothing scary. At all.
We stopped at another restaurant close to Eureka. The sign on the door said “closing at 6:15tonight for the middle school football game”. The nice owner of the store told us her grandson is the starting QB and this is his first game. She couldn’t miss it. When Jacob asked if she had any other grandkids, I heard her say “oh yeah! You know those 20 goats you passed on the corner? Those are my grandsons”… I looked at Jacob nervously for a second…this crazy lady thinks goats are her grandsons and she is probably sitting here watching us fatten up on candy like Hansel and Gretel before she will cook us and feed us to them! Now, what she really meant was “those goats are my grandson’s”. Possessive. He raises and shows them. She’s just a proud grandma.

After our rest we passed Homer Creek, DOH!
The road in the afternoon was beautiful and deserted. We didn’t see a car for 20 miles. On this road we passed a wild horse sanctuary. The sun was just beginning to go down and there were about 50 horses together at the fence closest to the road. When they saw us coming, they took off galloping about a quarter mile in formation. It was gorgeous!

We made it to Cassoday and set up camp at the gazebo of the city park. There were spiders in the out houses. Tons of them.
We got some grub at the country store and heard about a few recent break ins. The manager told us “yeah he took tobacco, jerky and all the candy except for the twix”. Huh.
There was a box of free home grown tomatoes at the store. I ate 4.
As I was getting ready for bed I was secretly wishing that I was watching the first NFL game of the season. But I’m still having fun here!

Jacob and I snacked at the hotel instead of really eating dinner on day 19. All evening and through the night, Jacob looked forward to the continental breakfast waffles at the super 8.
Breakfast opened at 6 and Jacob got to it. I slept in since I knew we still had to wait for the UPS shipment with Jacob’s wheel to arrive at the bike shop. Estimated time noon-1. 
I hit breakfast around 8 and met a few sets of retirees who, at the breakfast table, mind you, had GPS devices loudly telling them “drive to the road and turn left”…and “recalculating”. They also had giant road atlases. They told me about a Vietnam memorial at the PSU (Pittsburg State University) campus that is similar to the one in DC. Didn’t make it there.
Leisurely morning of stretching and relaxing in a Mexican restaurant parking lot followed by a Starbucks hang out session for me while Jacob made his way to the shop. 
Although I didn’t see it, I hear Jacob did a happy dance in the store and might have even kissed the new wheel when he saw it. He threw it on the bike, trashed the old one and we got going around 1p. Jacob says “rumble strips, you don’t scare me no more! See my shiny new wheel? Ha!”
A little while down the road we see a sand-colored coyote watching us from a soy bean field. Jacob loves coyotes and this was a highlight of the trip for him.
Chanute, KS was our destination for the evening. About 20 miles out, we run in to a “road closed ahead” sign and decide to take the detour. Then the detour has a road closed. No open roads to Chanute? I’m muttering “no gravel no gravel no gravel” like “no whammy” under my breath and when we hit the bridge that is closed we ask the workers nicely if we can sneak across. “If it was this morning, no way, but these guys worked hard today so I think it’s safe”. Oh gooooood. We make it safely across.
A half mile outside of Chanute we run in to Marco and Ronny, teenage west bound cyclists (going our way) from PG county, walking their bikes. Uh oh. Ronny’s rear wheel is messed up even worse than Jacob’s was. We told them we’d meet them at the park and Jacob would help. It turns into a fiasco but Jacob managed to jimmie the wheel (after a second trip to Walmart to get a tool) so he could make it hopefully to the next bike shop 20 miles away. 
We had zataran’s rice and pork meatballs for dinner. It was delicious. 
Marco and I chatted for a bit. He and Ronny are enlisting in the navy after this trip. He worked at papa johns and a construction job to save up money for his journey. We also told each other our “falling” stories. The day before we met he was climbing up a hill and noticed a grasshopper on his pannier along for the ride. He decided to use one hand to swat it away, and then, when that didn’t work, he tried the other hand. Then he realized that he was climbing up the hill with “no hands”. It was at this point and in conjunction with this realization that he bit it. Ouch.
We slept in the tent by a baseball field in the city park.