Day 42 - Fort Collins to Cheyenne

Into Wyoming!

Wow I cannot believe that we made it all the way to Wyoming.  I know I feel that way every time we cross, a state, but this is different.

You might not be able to see it, but there are bullet holes in the sign.

Ok so I've skipped a bit ahead in the day, since it took awhile for us to get into Wyoming.  Actually the first part of the day was very smooth and uneventful (which is a good thing), but at a point we realized that we were approaching a highway with fast moving traffic and basically no shoulder.  After we decided to shuttle 20 miles to lunch, our group just kind of fell asleep for an hour, since it takes quite a long time to shuttle everyone.  

Napchat level 1000 (minus Patricia)

Anyway, after lunch we formed a larger group with one of the alums Chelsea.  Somehow we moved incredibly slowly because we had so many bike problems.  Perhaps the most notable was when I broke Emily Lake's frame pump... sorry Emily... We ended up pumping up the tire via Caitlin's CO2, but of course we did it for too long and it was probably at 130+ PSI... in heat... oops.  Instead of letting some air out which would have been sensible, for some crazy reason we decided it would be smart to just ride it.  Only 50 feet after we started riding, I heard a very loud pop noise from the back.  I assumed it was a blowout, but actually the tire just popped off of the rim and while the tube was blown out, the tire was somehow actually just fine.  We quickly put in a new tube and pumped it up to a reason PSI and were on our way.  It was a bizarre and very very slow finish, but I think we all had a good time, which is what matters.

Thanks to our hosts for the night, Grace United Methodist Church.  We had a great dinner of enchiladas and showers at the church!  Showers at the church are always appreciated, since I'm actually pretty lazy...

Thanks also to Bradley and V for helping us with our bikes tonight.  So many tires were trued, derailleurs tuned, brake pads replaced, etc. Bradley stayed up so late into the night doing all of this for us, I can't express how grateful I am.  Also I forgot to mention it, but the morning that we left Fort Collins, Bradley bent my rear derailleur hanger back and while it skipped for a little bit at the beginning of the ride, somehow it seems to have been fixed and there's no skipping at all now!