Colorado Recap

We've gone over 2,300 miles now and are still going strong!  About 1,000 to go and almost feel like we are on the home stretch.  We know there are still many adventures on the road ahead so keep on rolling with us!

We had some great times in Colorado!  The flat eastern side of the state was enjoyable with massive cattle feed lots and endless farm fields.  We even got to meet Nolan Stone, General Manager of the Five Rivers Cattle Feeding in Kersey, home to 80,000 cattle.  He heard we were riding by and drove out to the entrance to take a picture.

As we were eating breakfast at the amazing Doc's Bed and Breakfast in Wray we saw a guy ride by on his unicycle.  We were very excited since this is the first uni rider we've sighted on the Refuge Ride so far.  Lance is Wray's resident unicyclist and it was neat to meet up again with him, his wife and 2 kids that evening for dinner. 

In Wray we also met a neat couple, Dick and Marty.  Dick is still an avid cyclist and he and his daughter used to ride lots together.  They gave us contact info for their daughter who owns a great pizza place in Greeley.  When we got to Greeley we looked up Tracy at Fonta's Pizza and she and her husband Troy graciously personally delivered an amazing calzone dinner to us at our hotel.  Such a tasty blessing and fun connection! 

Katie celebrated her birthday on the 31st en route from Greeley to Fort Collins.  It was a treat to ride part of the way on the Poudre River Trail and it almost seemed like a fun activity that we may have chosen to do on a birthday anyway...almost. :)   A donated dinner had been pre-arranged in Fort Collins by the great Dave Sinclair at Texas Roadhouse, one of our favorite places.  The manager had spread the word about the Refuge Ride and after we had been seated, dozens of servers and staff came to our table, sometimes in groups, to thank us for what we are doing and ask us about the ride and project.  It was a very encouraging experience and we were so blessed by our thoughtful server "Moose", Keenan and the rest of the gang there.  They even made Katie's birthday super memorable and had her sit on a horse saddle, wear a pink cowboy hat, tipped the hanging light in her direction and had her swing a napkin in the air like a lasso while they sang and cheered.

Fort Collins began a new phase of our ride.  Support arrived all the way from Minnesota!  Dustin's mom and step dad are now driving with us through the hills and wild west of WY and beyond.  It has been an incredible blessing to be able to unload the weight of our racks and bags with them and not have to ride from hotel door to hotel door, since it's difficult to find hotels in this neck of the woods within our daily riding average of 50 miles.  We saw some beautiful scenery climbing out of Colorado into Wyoming.  Riding to 8,000 feet was challenging but we made it and the view and terrain were breathtaking

Thanks to everyone in Colorado who supported the Refuge Ride!  Off we go into the wild blue yonder.  Refuge Ride or bust!