Distance: 96 miles
Terrain: Farm roads - mostly flat
Conditions: Bumpy roads, slight headwind
It was pretty tough to roll out of bed at 5:30am but I managed to walk my robot of a body down to the lobby for breakfast. As I mentioned earlier I had been having a bit of hip pain on and off of the bike. Our resident bike expert, Alex, moved my bike seat down just a quarter of an inch and it helped tremendously.
I rode with Jack and Jason. It wasn't an easy ride, but Jack pretty much has a hilarious story for every topic of conversation, which made it go pretty quickly. It's easy to get bored here on the trip, so one of the ways we pass the time is by playing the odds game. It works a little like this:
One person will say, "Hey Blake, what are the odds you pedal your bike on your back once you arrive at lodging until the very last cyclist gets there?" Then, I would respond by giving them numbers as to my likelihood of actually doing that. If I'd probably do it, I would give easy odds like one in ten or one in five. If I really don't want to, then I'd say something like one in fifty or higher. When I give odds, I then think of a number between those odds. The person that posed the question and I would then count to three and say a number between the odds. If that person guesses my number, I have to do what the question asked. Well, that exact question was posed to me. I chose one in ten, and my number was guessed. Upon arrival at lodging, I flopped onto my back and begin pedaling. Conveniently, the guy from the local newspaper rolled up as I was, and proceeded to snap a few pictures of me. If that's what it takes to make the front page, I can handle it. I probably pedaled for about 5 more miles until the sweeps arrived. I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt for having ridden a century day.
After settling in, we had dinner with the Elks Club of Fort Morgan. They provided us with sloppy joes and it was delicious. Afterwards we headed to a nearby town called Brush to celebrate the 4th and watch fireworks. We all just sat in the bed of the Push America truck and blasted country music, ate sunflower seeds and yelled, "'Merica!!" and sang the National Anthem a few times. People probably hated it, but the fireworks shut us up. We were all a little upset that we couldn't spend the holiday with our families, but we still had a blast spending it with each other. All in all it was a great day. Not too much to handle. Tomorrow is our second 95-miler in two days, and our last stop in Colorado. After that, it's off to Nebraska.
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