That is a BIGGGGG Hill?

Day 1 of our ride and I personally learned a great lesson – eat breakfast before you ride.  I didn’t and about an hour and forty minutes into the ride my body shut down.  We were looking for a place to eat when it happened.  I got dizzy, blurred vision – the whole works. Fortunately we were close to a 7 Eleven and I got chocolate milk, spicy V8, and a breakfast burrito.  That along with some energy gels and some rest brought me back into the game. 

We rode most of the morning and much of the afternoon on bike/walking trails.  They were nice and very scenic, but the markings were not great.  We had to stop several times to make sure we were going the right way.  A couple of times we got off the wrong direction.  That isn’t so bad in a car, but on the bike you don’t want to waste too many ft. going the wrong direction.  All in all we had a pretty good ride.  We had a couple of pretty big hills.  One I would say was about 1 ½ to 2 miles up.  We didn’t make it all the way riding.  When we got down to riding 2 miles per hour, we decided to walk the rest of the way.  That is lesson # 2 for today.  Try to ride fast enough that you are passing the joggers, not the joggers passing you.    Although being very tired we felt good about our first day – We were riding about 8 hours and rode 52 miles – only 1448 more to go give or take 50 or so.  We were real happy to see the tip from the Yogi Bear Campground in the distance.  That is where we were going to meet Matt, Phoebe, Sylvie, Kyle and Sarrah.  Kyle fixed a great supper over the campgfire and then they went back to Denver.  Matt and the girls stayed with us overnight in the tp.  We are getting packed up and ready for day 2.

Yesterday a couple of good things happened.  We had several people interested in hearing about our ride and offering to help us find the right path, etc.  One bike rider even rode about a mile with us to be sure we found the trail.  We also met several interesting people.   One was a young man in a coffee shop where we stopped for a drink in the late afternoon.  We talked about our ride and then I asked him what he hoped for, it was very interesting.  He said that he was moving to Germany in August.  He said he hoped to find out more about himself and what he wanted to do with his life.  He said he hasn’t been too motivated up to this point and is looking forward to the experience in Germany and Europe to help.   His former nanny lives in Germany and has purchased a bar.  He is going to go over to work for her.  He will work four days a week and have time to travel.  In just our short amount of time talking I think he is not only excited about the opportunities, but is ready to take the steps needed to find what he is looking for.  We wish him good luck and that God will be with him.

Do Something for Others Today.  Kyle told us about his experience today.  He was walking down the street and noticed an older lady carrying two big bags of groceries.  She was panting and resting every now and then.  He walked past her and then thought – I should do something.  So he offered to help her.  After 10 blocks they got to her apartment. He felt good and she was very thankful.

Hope to blog again tonight – we need to get rolling.