Day 24 - Burlington, CO to Colby, KS

Daily Stats:
Time: 3h53m19s
Distance: 109.06km
Avg Spd: 28.0km/hr
Climbing: 154m

Nothing to special to report about today's ride.  The distance wasn't too bad, and we climbed much less today than yesterday.  Despite four flats (2 in camp for Karel & Brandon, and two on the road for Mark and Karel), our spirits weren't hampered. The roads were flat and straight, and the wind was 20mph from the south as we rode east.  We were able to keep a decent average speed for most of the day, then Mark and I hit it for the last 15km after the road turned and we had a slight tail wind.  We probably averaged over 40km/hr for the final run into camp.

For all you Calgarians - we rolled through a small town called "Brewster" today.   I was hoping we could stop for beer in honor of the brewery in Calgary by the same name.  Unfortunately Brewster, Kansas is a tiny farming town, and the only thing to see is the grain silos as pictured.  And it was 11am when we rolled through...

Camp tonight is at Fike Park in Colby.  We've backed the semi's onto the pathways, and taken refuge from the sun and wind amongst the trees.  Showers were the best we've had in a week at the community center across the parking lot.

We set out from camp hoping to find a local coffee shop with Wi-Fi to hang out at for the afternoon, but the downtown is pretty dead.  We rode our bikes toward the freeway and came across the Oasis rest stop - twelve pumps, four restaurants, a Starbucks and free Wi-Fi.  One could almost say it's a traveler's "Oasis"...  And there are more people here than we've seen in a long time.

You probably noted we crossed into Kansas today, but we were on back roads so there was no sign to stop and photograph to commemorate entry into our fifth state.  With the new state we bump our clocks ahead another hour and are now on CST (or GMT -5hrs).  This is a good thing as it will shake up our sleep schedule and hopefully encourage people to sleep in a little bit more in the morning.  Every day feels like a race to get out of camp.  Today, we were the last ones to leave - even after fixing two flats after breakfast (Karel & Brandon) - and we were on the road at 7:30am.  There's nothing wrong with this, per-se, but our evenings feel super rushed after peloton meetings and it would be nice to be able to hang around and chat after dinner without feeling the need to rush to bed so we can get up the next morning to race out of camp again...  And that's the end of my gripe for the day.

I really appreciate all the comments and emails you readers have been sending my way.  Internet time is, incidentally, quite rushed so I don't have time to respond to everyone.  Thanks for taking the time to express your interest and encouragement - it is encouraging.