Meredith Bikes and Builds: 120 miles and Andrew's back! (Colorado Springs, CO)

Yesterday (Saturday) was yet another epic day for Bike and Build. We had what's hopefully our longest ride of the trip--120 miles(!!) and a couple thousand feet up into Colorado Springs. We got up extra early in the morning to hit the road at a quarter of six, which was tough but almost worth it when we spied the Rocky Mountains for the first time at about 6:45am. The early morning light was really beautiful and the mountains seemed like a mirage, rising out of perfectly flat land--completely unlike the Appalachians. As the day went on the Rockies got bigger and bigger--it's amazing to me how dramatically they changed in just one day. First, we started to notice the clouds, which seemed to gather around the mountaintops in big poofy shapes, then all of a sudden the mountains took on 3D shape and we could see the shadows the clouds cast on them. The first 70 miles of the ride went amazingly fast and easy, then the adventures began. We hit about 15 miles of dirt road, which was treacherous on our tires and plagued with biting flies. Anita and I rode together and would yell whenever we saw a fly land on the other, like "fly on your butt, right cheek!" but there was no avoiding them. We started getting really tired and running out of water, but Anita and I kept cheering each other on, which we pretty desperately needed. The last 18 miles of the ride went right through Colorado Springs on a scary 6-lane highway with no shoulder that only went uphill. After seeing our lives flash before our eyes at least half a dozen times, we ended up riding on the sidewalk, which wasn't much better than the road. Somehow or another, we made it to our host site and could hardly believe what we'd just done. The Rockies were huge and loomed right over us. Our host Saturday and Sunday night is New Life Church, a megachurch (congregation ~ 14,000) led until recently by Ted Haggard. The church itself is unlike anything I've ever seen and I guess in that respect a fitting destination for such an adventuresome day. Our real reward, however, was picking up Andrew from the airport and welcoming him back to the group with big posters Lee Anne made. It feels so good to have the team complete again--welcome back Andrew!

Bike odometer: 2245 miles

PS - Another cool thing that happened today is that we ran into another cycling charity group going across west across the country called Push America --Journey of Hope. Journey of Hope is made up of fraternity brothers raising money for people with disabilites, another cause I've cared a lot about during college, so please check out their website because I think what they're doing is really cool. On the inside, though, I was scoffing at the fact that they're biking east, with the prevailing winds always at their back. Bike and Build is definitely way more hard core.