California Here We Come!

In Arizona, there is almost no internet, thus the delay in a good long post.

First of all, there are some BEAUTIFUL pictures added to the second set of Webshots. The Grand Canyon, the Rockies, the wild and surprisingly mountainous desert of Arizona, and just about an hour ago, crossing the Colorado River to enter CALIFORNIA!

We have two rough days in store to get to the outskirts of San Diego, one just under a hundred, the other about 108 miles, but we are getting up well before the sun so that we can leave as soon as it rises, and I know that everyone is strong enough to at least get a very large portion of those miles done before it is too hot to ride.

It's been so long, and so many sights now that I am not even sure where to start. I might have to wait for some downtime in Portland to really start describing everything in detail. Plus, I have really hogged this computer for about an hour. If I have another chance later, I will write more, but will go ahead and publish this now.

I am in California! And I biked here!
Emily

Mountains in the Distance Today!

Today we are in La Junta, CO, with a long day to Colorado Springs tomorrow, another century +, but I've been taking it easy the last few days so that I am not really tired at all (we did a century yesterday to get from Kansas to Colorado). Yesterday was full of milestones. We hit 2,000 miles, changed into a new time zone (I am now 2 hours earlier than the East Coast), it was my first century of the trip, And rode into Colorado! (whose state sign, I might add, says, "Welcome to Colorful Colorado." The sign is brown. The landscape all around is brown. The irony did not escape me, clearly. And immediately when we entered Colorado the road we were riding on became the worst road I have ever tried to ride a bike on, full of holes and cracks and debris. It was horrible. Molly Pederson hit a hole and fell off her bike, breaking her collarbone, but she is so stoic! Just riding in the van for a week or two....(wow).

Because I don't have too much internet time left, a list of things I've seen and want to tell you, and want to not forget:

Camp Amache: Japanese "relocation camp" from WWII. We rode past this in eastern CO yesterday.

We are also riding along the Arkansas River, and have been for miles. I have been wondering if the Arkansas River empties into the Mississippi, in which case I think we have crossed it at least 7 times in the last two weeks, and are heading up to its headwaters.

No more dead armadillos. Mostly dead withered snakes and birds.

TONS and TONS of cattle feedlots. It makes me very glad I do not eat beef. They smell horrible, and are packed with cattle.

Holcomb, KS, setting for Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

I know I left a lot of things out, but I am about to run out of time, and I can't think of them right now. The group is good. We're camping out tonight at a city park. Biking is good. The mountains will be intense, but I don't really care. I will go slow and steady, and it will be so beautiful. Mom is coming on Saturday, and we have a day off on Sunday! I need even more bike stuff now, sigh. Probably a new chain, new brake pads for the rear brakes, maybe new gloves because my left ring finger is permanently numb, and tire liners so that maybe my tires can make it to the Pacific. I will talk to you again from the midst of the Rockies, if I'm not too tired :o)

Love, Emily

Tomorrow we will get the heck out of Dodge!

This is where I am. Dodge City, KS. Home of Fort Dodge, now a VA Clinic and Soldiers' Home, and Dodge City - also home to U.S. Beef, a huge slaughterhouse/processing plant run by Arby's on "Wyatt Earp Boulevard." I have thought Kansas and Oklahoma were both beautiful, chiefly because of how dramatically different their topography has been from anything I have seen before. I think I wrote a little bit last time about the flooding in Oklahoma. I few a pictures of this. I saw corn up to its tassels in water. And a barn completely flooded, and a house with water lapping around its foundation. Speaking of natural disasters, today we passed with a mile or so of Greensburg, KS, destroyed by a tornado about two months ago. I did not go myself, but the pictures I saw today (look at Meredith's blog maybe?) were just astounding. Trees stripped of their leaves and branches, just trunks standing there with two months worth of growth on them. FEMA trailers were at Coldwater Lake where we camped last night. P.S. The campsite at Coldwater Lake was A-Mazing! No mosquitoes. No bikes tied up in trees in the morning or other sketchiness which I will only describe on the phone. Big pavilion, a cool breeze from the lake, tents pitched under gently rustling trees, and as if all that wasn't enough, I am thoroughly out of my biking mid-trip slump and am SO ENERGIZED AND EXCITED FOR WHAT'S COMING!! Kansas is beautiful. Oklahoma was too. I have had some great bike rides and great conversations, and I love my teammates. This Saturday Mom is flying to Colorado Springs, and then we will be surrounded by the breathtaking Rocky Mountains!

I have a lot more to write about but the computer lab at the library closes in about 5 minutes! I put up some new pictures today on the second batch on Webshots, and I'm sorry I can't write more about them right now. I am doing great, and something very exciting is that Andrew, who was hit by a car in Memphis, is rejoining the trip this Saturday in Colorado Springs also!

We are SO GLAD to have him back because it has felt like a missing limb ever since he was hurt.

More ASAP. Thanks for all of your mail and emails and encouragement. My mail drops are under one of the first blog entries in May :o)

Love, Emily