It's been a month!

So we've been riding for over a month now! How crazy is that. Trust me when you do the same thing every day you tend to loose track of time... lets just say depending on how I'm feeling it may feel like we left 4 days ago or 4 months ago!

The weather has started to cool down for us, nothing much over 85 and cool in the mornings. We had an awesome time in Benkelman, NE and also got a day off there.

-Arapahoe to Benkelman
A pretty long day so we had to get up from our homestays around 4:30, but most of us pushed that to about 5... We got on the road and headed out past the miles of corn fields. The directions were pretty long and consisted of one road for 92 miles. The last 20 miles were brutal. Fierce headwinds are not a tall guys friend. My knees were killing me and I was almost in tears because of the pain and how slow we were moving. But we all finally made it and the town greeted up with open arms! Chris and Carolyn opened their house and business to us all and we were quick to make smoothies! They are one of the only people to have been invovled with the 4k since it started. The first group happened to walk into their diner right before a big storm and were housed for the night... the rest is history!
The next day was our day off and we got to take over the pool and just relax in small town america. With only 1009 people in the whole town, everyone knew who we were! Chris and Carolyn threw a big BBQ outside their coffee shop 'Jitter Connection' and invited the whole town. We closed down a portion of main street and met the locals. A bunch of kids came out and lots of the townsfolk. It was cool to talk about what we were doing and just have a good relaxing time. Of course being that fireworks are legal during the week before July 4th in Nebraska I was quick to purchase a few. After we headed home, fun occured in the streets of benkelman!
Instead of being crammed into a basement with 26 of my new closest friends, I opted to sleep outside in a tent. It was nice. But once that sun came up in the morning it was HOT and time to get moving.
Chris and Carolyn are trying to move back to California where their family is, but I'm sure Benkelman will stay on the 4k list. The people are great and the pace of life is even better.

-Benkelman to Yuma, CO
Another state down! We've made it to Colorado. Today was a very wonderful day. There were great surprises around every corner.
The first of the day happened at our 2nd water stop. It was inside a old school building that is now a community center in Laird, Co. Little did the water van driver know, but just last night there was a school reunion! With much of the classes graduating in the mid 50's the ladies that met us were great! We had a full array of leftovers and it was a great surprise! The joy went both ways and we sure made each others days. To continue to amazingness these two ladies came over to Yuma during dinner and delivered us all reunion hats! It was another great surprise.
Also during the ride today, right before lunch, we all waved to a biker heading the other direction. After three groups passed him he decided he better turn around and see what we were all about. Turns out he was the state senator for the town we were biking through. We all got talking about politics, our ride, and colorado. I happened to mention that I was having alot of problems with my left shoe. For those who don't know, bike shoes clip into the pedal so you can both push down and pull up. Well I lost one of the bolts that clip the cleat on and my shoe was pretty much useless. Greg Brophy offered to dig through his bike parts at home and drive out to Yuma to help me out. Now thats awesome. Not only was it cool to meet a state senator while out biking, but to have him and his family show up at dinner in Yuma, 30 mins away, and bring me a new cleat for my show... Thats wonderful.

It really blows my mind how much you can touch others lives with simple gestures! It goes both ways. Greg was excited to have met us out there, and he really helped me out too! The little old ladies we met today offered to cook us steak dinners and house us next year! Their surprise visit to dinner with presents meant the world to us. This ride is really starting to open my eyes to how generous people can be and how keeping a smile on your face and doing the right thing can get you a long ways in this world.

We are at homestays again tonight and all I can see from my house in every direction is wheat! It is so flat and so gorgeous that I'm at a loss for words. The dinner was great tonight and we actually get to sleep in till 7 tomorrow! Not too long of day tomorrow to Wiggins, about 75 miles. Then Boulder after that!

I'm having an awesome time and can't believe we are half way done! The rockies and dessart in front of us will be a challenge but so senic and breathtaking that I can't wait.

Thanks for check out the blog and I'll keep ya updated!

Peace, Love, & Spandex!

-Travis