"Welcome to colorful Colorado..."

...read the sign that greeted us this morning. A lot has happened since we laat posted. We had some tough days, some long days, a delicious home-cooked meal, and many answers to prayers.
After our first three arduous days of heat and hills in Eastern Kansas the landscape began to iron out and the clouds came rolling in. After our stay outside Overbrook we rode 80 miles to Herington where we camped at an RV park. There we encountered a family of skunks, which thankfully did not grace us with their perfume and after a bat swooped between Scott and I in the morning we decided it was time to head out. That day proved to be more than we had bargained for. We were headed for the town of Frederick, which as it turns out is not more than a grain elevator and train tracks. We thought we might stop east of Frederick at Geneseo so we dropped into the local cafe. The waitress let us know that the town was actually pretty run down and, with little opportunity for the locals, they was a prevelance of drug dealing, drug use, and other crime. Scott felt like this was clear direction not to stay there. So, even though it was the hottest part of a 90+ degree day, we headed on to Claflin, 25 miles down the road. We prayed and called the Sheriff to see what the cmaping options were in CLaflin. He said there was a great little park right by the swimming pool! When we rolled into the city park and swimming pool our odometer read exactly 100.00 miles. We were thankful to dive into the refreshing pool. Since we went extra long we had a shorter ride the next day to Bazine, at about 70 miles. There we stayed at Dan and Elaine's Bicycle Oasis, which is a cyclist only Bed and Breakfast. Thank you to Dan and Elaine for your hospitality!! We had a fabulous stay and an excellent pasta and chicken dinner!
Yesterday we headed out at 5:45 onto a flat landscape just before the sun rose and got to see the large orange moon set below the horizon. It was a relatively easy 112 mile day due to the terrain and clouds. Last night we stayed in Tribune KS, which is about 15 miles from the Colorado boarder. This morning we crossed the boarder with great excitement. The first miles of Eastern Colorado are much like Western Kansas, flat corn fields and yellow flowers dotting the roadside. But as we came over the rise after our rest stop in Sheridan Lake there was sage brush as far as the eye could see. The wave of sage scent flooded us with memories of our desert home. Now the plains are just beggining to give way to a sonata of hills and rises that will culminate in the grand finale of the Rocky Mountains. So after a very hard couple of days in eastern Kansas that nearly broke us, the past four days have been very encouraging and the joy of bike touring is restored. Hopefully this continues as the roads get steep again!!
Jenny and I have been finding fun ways to make the somewhat monotonous flat miles go by quicker. Jenny really enjoys squirting me with her water bottle and hearing me yelp when the cool water gives me the shivers. We also play a lot of '20 Questions' and we talk about memories from earlier on in the trip and plans for the future.
We were talking the other day (near the end of a 112-mile ride) and I said that it is wierd to feel on one hand as though I am in the best shape of my life and on the other hand to feel like my body is completely ravaged. We are really learning the importance of proper 'fueling' and how important it is to recover well by resting and taking in lots of carbs within the first hour after we stop riding. Scott continues to create new, wierder 'wraps' for snack breaks and meals...he can seemingly fit anything into a tortilla...one of his favorites is peanut butter, granola, prunes, and a little of our energy gel. It's also good to substitute a whole banana for the prunes : ) Don't knock it til you try it!
We will probably stay in Haswell, CO tonight and try to get into Pueblo tomorrow or the next day. We will try to post some pictures in Pueblo.