Day 24-29 Cheyenne, WY - Denver, CO

Day 24 July 4th! Cheyenne, WY- Fort Collins, CO

After spending my last few 4th’s with Collin and Rachel on Table Rock Lake in Branson, I was curious to see how the 4th would play out in Fort Collins, Colorado. I knew I wanted to make the most of the day so I went out and did what everyone does to make the 4th of July special; I bought fireworks…smoke sticks and black cats to be exact. As the team was taking pictures at the Wyoming-Colorado State line, my pace line and I stopped 200 yards out and lit up our smoke sticks and rode into the team. It was the perfect way to cross the state line on our nation’s birthday. Towards the end of the ride, I blew out my first tire and had to jump in the van for the last 8 miles into Fort Collins. We arrived at the CSU chapter house and partook in some showers and food. Around sun down, we headed to the local park to watch the fireworks. It was really fun because the whole town was there…it was packed! Later on that night, we went out to some local establishments and celebrated. Overall, it was an eventful 4th of July!

Day 25 July 5th Fort Collins, CO – Boulder, CO

We woke up and had breakfast provided by a team member’s family and headed for Boulder. It was a pretty easy 30-mile ride. As we got closer to Boulder, we were on a road that had hundred’s of cyclist on it. Typically, we are the only one’s on the road with the exception of a few, but this was a sight to see. We road through the University of Colorado campus and arrived at the Pi Kappa Phi house. 4 of my teammates are Pi Kapps at Boulder. We showered up, grabbed some lunch and headed for lodging at a church annex. After taking some naps, we headed to a local rec center to spend some time with the Denver Harlequins: a wheelchair rugby team. This is one of the better friendship visits we’ve had. It was pretty crazy because almost all of the athletes had suffered injuries that caused them to be disabled. (i.e. diving in a pool, falling off mechanical bull, car accident, etc) These guys were all competitive athletes before their accidents and this was there new outlet. We got to get into the chairs and play a little bit. At the end we put our best 4 against them and they smoked us. Two of the guys were headed to Bejing at the end of the summer to be on the paralympic wheelchair rugby team. After the friendship visit, 11 of us went to dinner at an amazing pizza place called Beau Jo’s. Then it was off to bed.

Day 26 July 6th Boulder, CO – Day Off

We slept in to 9:00 and headed to a sponsored breakfast at the original pancake house. This was the first normal breakfast I’ve had in a long time. It’s typically half a bagel, one pop tart, and one bowl of cereal. I ordered a blueberry Belgium waffle with two eggs and toast. It was glorious! After breakfast, we went back to lodging and put on our swimsuits to go tube Boulder Creek. We purchased our tubes and started to walk up stream to find our entry point. As we were walking alongside the creek, we noticed it was flowing really fast and wasn’t exactly calm. When we got to our entry point, we hopped in the freezing cold water with a few looks of reluctance. Oh well here it goes. After a few drop offs and several de-tubing’s, most of the guys weren’t too keen on floating the rest of the way down. I got back in later on down the river but decided it wasn’t worth it. I considered it a success because I walked out of there without any scrapes and all of my possessions. At the end of the float, some of the Boulder guys bought us burritos at a local burrito joint. That evening we had a friendship visit with a local organization. I helped with the cooking at the grill. That night a few of us went back to the Pi Kapp house and hung out with some of the guys living there over the summer. It was an eventful day off.

Day 27 July 7th Boulder, CO – Denver, CO

We woke up and started our 30-mile ride to Denver. It wasn’t a tough day physically but it took its toll mentally. City riding can get pretty strenuous when cars are whizzing by you and missing you by a few feet. (Sorry mom) As we got into downtown Denver, we started to get rained on. We arrived at Invesco Field at Mile High where we were meeting up with the North Route and staging up to ride into the capital. With an awesome police escort, we arrived at the capital where my parent’s and my Aunt Nat met me. It was so good to see family! We took pictures and hung out for a while and then headed a few blocks to the downtown Marriott where we were staying. After showering, I met up with the family and we chatted at a local deli. I met back up with the team and we headed to a local park for our friendship visit put on by the local Special Olympics and our main sponsor, KRG Capital. My parent’s and Aunt Nat got to come as well. It was a fundraiser for the local athletes called pedal for pennies. About 10 of the athletes rode their bikes around the lake at the park. I got to be one of the cyclists who got to ride with the athletes. I rode with a 30 year old man with Down syndrome named Ben. He was awesome! I loved being the center of attention and always loved crossing the starting line where everyone cheered him on. After the race, my family and I sat down and had dinner with Ben. There was a brief presentation and then a dance afterwards. Ben loved the dance and loved the attention. It was also fun to see all the cyclists dance and make fools of themselves. Everyone was having a good time and it was an awesome event.

Day 28 July 8th Denver, CO – Day Off

We didn’t have anything scheduled today so I slept in to 11:30. It was much needed and felt extremely incredible. I showered up and met up with my parent’s. We grabbed some of my teammates and headed to ESPN Zone to grab some lunch. My gracious father treated all of us to good fellowship and good food. After spending some more quality time with my parent’s in the afternoon, the team headed to a local Chipotle to grab some dinner sponsored by a former rider from CU-Boulder. After dinner, a group of us went to see Hitchcock. It was really good and entertaining. I then took advantage of the Mariott Pool, Hot Tub, Sauna, and Steam Room. I wish I always had access to those things throughout the trip. They sure make the body feel so much better. It was then off to bed for our ride into Colorado Springs.