5/22 day38 73mi 6:50 wetmore,Co

Stayed up late last night talking to mellisa who came into the hostel late. Split a 6 pack with her and got to bed around midnight 1 a.m. Woke up early and made chocolate chip/banana waffles which turned out better than I thought considering I haven't made waffles in years and have never added anything to them. Chris and Mellisa ate the leftovers becaus eI had made way too many. Walked around the city of salida with Mellisa and they had an amphitheatre which was pretty neat. Bought a book for $5 at a used bookstore. The problem with bookstores is that I see 4-5 books tht look good, so I pick the cheapest one and then write down the others to hopefully find later. Swapped my front and rear tires and lubed my chain. checked my e-mail and uncle larry is going to be in la junta, CO around saterday afternoon. I gave hima call and left about noon so that I could get over the last of the climbs of colorado. My front tire wasn't seated properly and I had to let the air out and reinflate it as I left town. Started raining just past cotopaxi and the road A1 was a bunch of cracked red pavement. Rained pretty much the rest of the day. Got over the summit at around 9,000 ft and then started the descent. Got hailed on for about 10 minutes. It seems like the more miserable the conditions the more I like it and I get some wierd satisfaction riding in them. It would have been a fun descent if it was dry, but wet it was petty treacherous. Took a bad line through one corner and went into the oncoming lane witha car coming. Tried to motion sorry my fault to the driver, but I don't know if he understood my arm movements. Got really cold coming off the descent. Got shivering/shaking cold. got my lower jar is jackhammering my teeth cold. Saw patches of snow on the ground as I was trying to make it to wetmore. finally made it and pulled up to a steakhouse/general store. A girl wa standing outside and asked if I was eating. I mumbled yes and then stripped off all my layers and put on a dry longsleeve shirt. Went inside and just sat down and tried not to spill some hot chocolate that I got. It took me about 30 minutes to warm up. The owner saw how cold I was and gave me a blanket to wrap myself in. She also threw my clothes in her dryer at her house to dry them out a little and called to see if I could camp by the community/library building just up the road. The hospitality and kindness just blew me away. I ended up camping on top of a picnic table with a little roof overhead and just laid out my sleeping bag. Had to walk around in the dark for a bit trying to find a guy named alvin and there was this dog that was barking its head off and you could hear its cahin scraping against things as it ran back and forth. It was kind of unnerving. ended up sleeping o.k. after the dog finally shutup.