100 miles!!! McCook, NE to Holyoke, CO
Nothing too wild today. We actually went 99.8 miles on the same road, good ol US - 6. I thought today of how its kind of cool to see how one road can change so much and all the different kinds of towns it can take you through(though not too many of those on this one)
More of the same great weather and terrain. The group is really starting to ride at similar paces which is great. We actually had everyone at lunch at one point today which isnt the norm for such a long day. Ended up settling into a groove riding with Noah today which is always fun. Especially when he shares the same, if not more, enthusiasm for frolicing and silliness as i do. Found our first ever unharvested wheat crop and had a "field day" messing around in it and having blind races and such with some others. Know whats not fun though? Pesticides. All over your legs. Didn't break out in hives fortunately but that was an itch like no other. I could definitely tell why they work after that little taste. Oh industrial agrobusiness...
Guess who's no longer in Central Time!... Again, funny how something so arbitrary can be at the same time so real for people's practical lives.
Stopped in a town around mile 60 and had some ice cream shakes generously donated by JJs, right after which i proceeded to pass out face first on the table for a solid 20 minutes. If there's anything I've learned on the trip, its listen to your body! While i can't always give it what it wants, it usually gets its way eventually. Sleep happens to be a very convenient example.
Rode into "Colorful Colorado" at mile 86 to an awesome huge wooden sign, which has been the best yet. It was super fun to see Noah's excitement at entering his home state. The last piece of riding out of Nebraska and into Colorado was pretty intense farmland. It was super flat and literally had crops(though not too much corn) for as far as you could see.
A kind of dilemma but not really that i find is that doing 100 miles is a pretty decent feat and in a way i expect a huge celebration of it. However on the other hand, we all did it rather easily and its sorta just another day in the life. I guess it bothers me that we've lost the initial enthusiasm of completing a day's riding, i can still remember how utterly wasted i was after our first 70 miler but also so simultaneously proud and happy. Now its just kinda routine. I think its inevitable though given how much stronger we've become and how easier the land has gotten.
A big reason im looking forward to the Rockies really is to re-taste some of that extreme "I need to get myself mentally checked out for doing this" struggle. Shared hardship like that is just awesome for bringing people together and im very hopeful for the bonding it should create amongst our group. Good thing we'll be glimpsing them tomorrow!
Also, did my first ever decent dive off of a diving board today! I've literally just spent almost no time in pools growing up where i would've been able to learn that skill so ive made a serious effort to pick it up now and its going well. Yes, except for the intense testicular pain caused when occasionally belly flopping the diving is going well.
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