Rest Day

I met up with Finn yesterday in Fort Collins and we're taking a rest day here. I'm writing from the library at CSU, which is really nice by the way. Yesterday I was just supposed to ride around the city looking for a place for us to stay or to camp for the night, but I ended up riding about 30 miles. Not a lot compared to what I've been doing, but I wasn't even wearing my bike shorts or jersey because I thought it would be a lighter day, so it still took its toll on my caboose.

I was on my way out of town, heading toward a KOA (Campground of America; I don't know what the story is with the "K") when I saw Finn on the other side of the road. I had been climbing a hill and didn't even notice him until he stopped and yelled across the street. A funny way to meet, I thought, especially after not having seen him in nine months.

Shit. Finn just directed me to this headline from cnn.com: Dangerous heat has parts of U.S. sweating. Turns out the plains states are expecting a record heat wave, right as we're riding through. Ugh... The heat is the only thing that actually worries me about this ride. It'll be okay though, we're careful people and we know how to deal with it. It may push our schedule back by a few days, which is fine but frustrating. We'll have to go slower and stop earlier than we would otherwise. Oh well.

I forgot to bring my card reader, so no photos today. Sorry. Here's a quick story for you:

On Day Four I rode into the tiny mountain hamlet of Bailey, CO and asked at a local cafe for directions to a campground. They weren't too sure, but they told me to turn back the way I'd come and go about two miles back to Shawnee, where there's National Forest Service land on which I could set up a tent for free. It was just beginning to rain at this point, so, reluctantly, I retraced my steps until I found this dirt road that they had mentioned. I rode, very slowly, up until I found a flat piece of ground that I thought might be an acceptable spot, in between two sections of obviously private property. I eventually got my tent set up and prepared to spend the rest of the night cooped up out of the rain (this was around 5pm, I think).

After an hour and a half or so, spent anxiously peering through my rain fly every so often at the sound of barking dogs and passing cars (I was afraid that I had actually set myself up on someone's front yard and would be asked to pack up and leave in the middle of the storm), someone called out to me. He said he knew what it was like to camp out in the rain and offered me a bed in his camper. At first I politely refused, but with his insistence and promises of a warm, dry place to sleep, I found myself enthusiastically accepting. His name is Sean and he and his wife were amazingly kind hosts, saying modestly that that's what you do in small towns. Long story short, I had the best night's sleep since leaving Telluride.