5/26 42 74mi 6:20 scott city,KS

woke up to rain. Made some oatmeal on the stovetop and headed out. About 12 miles into the day I crossed into Kansas. Ate lunch in a diner and had 2 doublecheeseburgers. Kept riding and stopped at a gas station to let my hands warm up. Bought a hot chocolate and talked to some old tymers sitting there about my trip. It was cold,windy and raining all day. It was fine though, just felt like another long training ride back home except there weren't any hills. Made it to scott city around 6pm and found the athleticlub. It is a pool/gymastics/weight training facility where they let me sleep in there lounge and get a shower for $10. Put my wet clothes in the laundry and went to the grocery store in town. Called a couple people and read for a bit. Trying to finish 'dreams of my russian summers' so I can start on one of my other books. Today was the first day I got rained on all day and I can't complain. halfway through the trip and only one full day of rain, thats easy.

5/25 41 84mi 7:20 sheridan lake,CO

woke up and took a shower and headed over to that pancake breakfast. $5 got me sausage,eggs and pancakes. I filled up and got on my way. Saw a lot of emty railcars sitting on the tracks. Have been paralelling a railroad all day. Ate lunch at a city park and saw a couple of snakes on the shoulder that I avoided didn't know if they were dead or alive. Had a crosswind from the north again today. Met a german named 'claus' who was riding from 'chicago to the middle mountains of the usa and then to oregon.' Got rained on about the last hour of riding. pulled into the gas station at sheridan lake and saw a sign that said cyclists are welcome to use the basement of our church. I asked a kid shooting hoops where the basement was and he showed it to me. Took him over to my bike and showed him all the stuff I was carrying. Set up in the basement and read for a bit then fell asleep. Had some right quad pain but my tendons on my left knee felt better.

5/24 day40 27mi 2:20 sugar city,CO

got up and had breakfast downstairs in the lobby. Ate a lot. Updated my blog in the computer room. Saw larry adn joni before they left for the spanish peaks and had a little bit more to eat. Got on the road and got rained on for about 5 minutes and then it was sunny except for a crosswind from the north. Backtracked and got back onto the adventure cycling route and just really, really didn't feel like riding. Stopped at sugar city and went into a bar called smitty's. Talked to the bartender/owner shari for a bit and showed her some pictures of my trip. A little while later 2 guys named golbert and mel showed up. They were 2 brothers who had retired from the railroad. I talked with them for a whle and then headed across the street to eat a a little cafe. Had a burger there and then came back to smitty's. A little while later another brother named billy came in and he was married to shari. I sat around and talked to them for hours and shari was nice enough to find me a place to sleep so I didn't have to sleep in the park. I slept on the couch of her mom's house while her and billy slept in another room. I was very glad that I stopped in and met all of them. It wasnice to relax and not think about riding or anything and just chat with people for a bit. I need to try and do more of that. Found out about a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning from the lady who runs the cafe and will definitely hit that up.

5/23 day39 93mi 6:58 la junta,CO

woke up and got an early start. started off wearing knickers and ls jersey. Got into pueblo after a couple of hours and changed into shorts and a shortsdleeve jersey. Rode through a city park with a zoo in it and it was nice. Rode through some quiet residential neighborhoods and it was nice to be off highways for a couple of miles. Called larry and left a message that I would be there around 3-4. Got out of pueblo and a sign said 60 miles to la junta. I thought great I am going to get there at like 6-7 at night. An hour or so later I got rained on for an hour and stopped to put on booties,arm warmers,leg warmers and gloves. Then after it stopped I took them all off. I was taking my clothes on and off so much I felt like a stripper. had a head/tail/crosswind for the last couple of hours and actually made really good time and got to the hotel around 4. Tooka quick shower and then met larry and joni in the lobby. We talked for a bit and then I showed larry some pictures and some of my gear in my room. Later on we went and and ate dinner at a place called 'a taste of tuscany' and it was very good. dropped about 2000ft elevation total and had a lot of slow rolling hills today. Met 2 guys who were riding from missouri to san fran. My right inside quad had a knot in it but after the rainshower it loosened up and felt fine. Some tendons on my right leg by my knee running up into my hamstring/quad are kind of achy. Not sure where I'll go tomorrow, but its about 25 miles to get back on my route and then I'll just head east. I'm going to try and take it easy.

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.

day37 72mi 6:40 salida,CO

Woke up early at 6a.m. to overcast skies and it was cold. Put some embrocation on my legs and headed out. Got into gunnison and had some tea at a coffee shop becasue My fingers weren't working to good becaus eI was too lazy to put on my full fingered gloves. Changed into knickers and put on my gloves and headed out. made decent time to the the start of the climb and got rained on for about an hour. Reminded me of washington and I was wondering when I would run into some bad weather. This was the biggest and pretty much last pass that I had to go over. Monarch pass is over 11,300 feet high and marks the continental divide for my trip. I am also about halfway done with my trip, around 2200 more miles to go. I met a biker who was from belgium who was touring and he was warming up after the descent by the side of the road. We talked for awhile and he told me it was raining at the top and the road was good pavement but steep. Saw a sign that read 7 miles to the summit and started to climb. It started raining and I put my raincoat back on, knee warmers under my knickers and booties with another pair of wool socks. I love smartwool socks, they are awesome. Climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed some more. A red jeep passed and started honking and yelled and gave me a fist pump out the window and that cheered me up for about 20 yards. I never went above 6m.p.h. the whole climb. It took me 2 hours of contiuous climbing to get to the top. That is like a 3.5 mile an hour average. That climb was brutal and cold and windy and raining. I stopped at the top and got a picture of the sign for the continental divide and then went inside to warm up and who was in there but shawne. I couldn't believe it. He was sick for a couple of days and I caught up to him. We sat around and talked for a bit and decided to descend the nountain together. He was going to push on about 50 more miles and I was going to try ands tay ina hostel in salida because nicky said it was cool and I have been wanting to stay in 1 since I started the trip. 2 hrs to climb it and 20 minutes to descend it. We rolled into salida 23 miles away in 40 minutes. I asked around an found the hostel and shwne continued on. Got a hot shower and am going to do some laundry. Went to a laundromat and stopped at a bar to wait for it to get done washing. Met a girl named jackie there and she was very supportive of the trip and encouraging. Got to talk to miles and pat and steve as I was folding my laundry/walking home and I really feel happy and good about what I've accomplished. Somehow going over the continental divide boosted my spirits. I'm about halfway done and I fell really good about today. Went through some nasty weather, met some cool people, got a shower, had a beer, met up with shawne. Today was a good day. I'm very content right now. That also might b the 3 beers talking. I don't know.

I am 2 days away from pueblo,Co. If the boulder girls want me to come up and hang out I will, but I really don't want to backtrack once I'm past pueblo, so shoot me an e-mail leftd@usa.com and I will ride up there, otherwise maybe I'll see you around.

day36 85mi 7:20 5mi E of gunnison,CO

Woke up and made some oatmeal in the house. Got a late start around 8:30. Made really good time into montrose 27 miles in 1:47 about 16m.p.h. average. It was slightly downhill though. Loaded up on groceries at walmart which was really cheap and bought 'in defense of food' which they had on sale and I had been wanting to read. Ate at areally good chinese buffet and gorged myself. Ate way too much and felt sluggish on the rollout of town. rode a couple miles and then started a 4 mile climb. got over it and then an hour or so down the road started aother 4 mile climb. Got over that one and then rode along a river/resevior awhich was really pretty. Most of the roads I have been taking are right along rivers or cliffs which is really cool. The grades are pretty gradual and everywehre you look are mountains. In ridgway I was surrounded on all sides by mountains. At night you can see so many stars, I remember loking out my tent one night and staring right at the big dipper. Stopped at the elk creek visitor center and ate 6 bratwurst warapped with pita bread. Actually only 2 of them were wrapped in pita bread, the rest Ate ate as they were. Called some people and as I was leaving met a runner named john? He was training to try and Qualify for boston which is 3:15. I ran a 1:36 for seattle and I can't imagine holding that 7:20 pace for 26 miles. Go out and run a mile as fast as you can and see if you get anywhere near 7:20. Then imagine running that fast for over 3 hours! I was riding on the right side of the road and he was running on the left side of the road just like you are supposed to. We had to shout across the traffic to hear each other. It was kind of funny. Camping out at a park and sleeping on a picnic table. Go over the continental divide tomorrow and I heard its a beast.