Day 37: Centennial Sunflowers

Lakin, KS -> Lamar, CO — 77.25 mi, 1,490 ft

I awoke at 4:30 am to Ruth full on launching herself onto the bed where Charles and I slept. Ruth cracked her nose on Charles’ knee upon impact, causing sudden onset bleeding. I was pretty bewildered, but it turned out that Ruth couldn’t bear to share the same bed as her partner for the night, Ishaq, for any longer. Ruth gets pretty terrible sleep already, so an active sleeper is a bad person for her to share a bed with. She switched places with Charles, and we all went back to sleep.

We later awoke played out our usual morning routine. The inn that the church in Lakin had graciously provided us rooms in had self-serve breakfast, a nice change from our usual make-your-own breakfast. Eventually, we got ready to leave. Today was an unusual combination of people for me. Charles, Greta, and Ishaq would be my riding partners for the day. I had ridden with Charles and Greta a few times before independently, but Ishaq is usually chasing PRs, so it’s not often I get to ride with him, much less everyone in such a large group. This group was full of a lot of the speedsters of the group, though, which led to a fun dynamic for the day. Ruth, Tian, and Ramona left earlier than us, but we eventually caught up. They would leave rest stops before us, but we would always catch up. At one point, we passed them while performing the Indonesian Boat Racing Dance Formation, which we later all attempted as a big group.

Pretty early in the ride we crossed into Mountain Time, a first for my 19 years on this Earth. A short while later, we crossed into Colorado! This marked the end of our 8-day stretch in one of the flattest states in the Union. It’s not like we had left the Great Plains yet, though. Eastern Colorado contains the High Plains, and it’s pretty darn big. We wouldn’t be able to even see the Rockies for another two days. There is some interesting stuff in this region of Colorado, though, like the site of the Amache Internment Camp in the small town of Granada, CO. It’s a bit strange being in the middle of nowhere and then passing through a site where thousands of Japanese Americans were held in WWII. Apparently, the townspeople treated them well, but they were still treated like POWs by the government. We weren’t able to see the site up close, but I could see the ruins from afar.

After our stop in Granada, I was feeling particularly good. In fact, I could feel endless energy emanating from my legs. It was go time. I turned on the music and led the pack for the next 10 miles. I was zooming. A quick 30 minutes later, we made it to our first gas station in Colorado. Charles bought a bunch of scratch offs to commemorate our new state, and wouldn’t you believe it, he won big time. This win was big enough to offset all of his losses in Kansas. Colorado was off to a good start.

We eventually made it to our church in Lamar, and sure enough, I set a lot of PRs. I was averaging 23 miles an hour for that stretch! What a good day for cycling… as long as you ignore my seemingly chronic finger numbness. It really doesn’t want to go away. RIP my nerves, I guess.

I spent some time before dinner hashing out details with Ramona about our road trip back to Boston. For those of you who are unaware, once the team makes it to San Francisco, most people are going to eventually fly back to wherever life takes them next. But not me or Ramona. We’ve been tasked with driving our van, gear, and bikes back to Boston. It was cheaper than buying a one-way rental and logistically simpler than shipping a packed van’s worth of gear. That’s not even mentioning the free road trip I get out of this. The quickest route back to Boston involves passing through a lot of the same regions of the country we will have just spent nearly 3 months cycling through, and that seems a little lame. We will instead drive up to Seattle, then cut across the Northern states and hit some awesome national parks. After zooming through the Rust Belt, we will end this 10-day road trip with a journey into Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. I’m really excited for this drive, but I have to get to San Francisco first!

Dinner time came and our lovely hosts at the Lamar Christian Church invited us to their Friday community dinner. There was a great variety of food brought in from various members of the church. It was quite a feast. They also do a weekly viewing of a TV show, this time the House of David. It was very dramatic and entertaining.

Following dinner, I, Sarah, and Ruth went on a walk around town. We had a great time.

Crossing into Colorado is a sign of the beginning of the end of one of the longest stretches of the trip. The Great Plains have been both boring and eventful and were the first segment of this trip completely new to me. I’m glad to be leaving, but the many days on Highway 50 have been a nice kind of predictable. I knew what to expect day after day, whether good or bad. It gave my mind space to think about other things. The Rockies will bring real challenge back to the trip. Tune in next time to the single hardest day of the trip: crossing the Continental Divide.