Colorado Springs (Chapter 1 of bike trip)

6-11-09 ~ Today's ride was shorter and consisted of 60 miles of terrible weather and bad roads. After working out a few problems with flat tires, we narrowly missed a torrential thunderstorm by arriving at the Colorado Cyclist bike shop 15 minutes before the rain began to pour. Even the shop employees were surprised by the amount of water that the storm dumped in about 10 minutes. Our next stop was our hosts Che and Carolines' house on the north side of the sprawling city. We saw the local attraction "The Garden of the Gods," which consists of huge rocks jutting out of the mountain side. While climbing there, we met some highschool graduates who have been traveling in a converted school bus from New Orleans. We had delicious pizza for dinner and met all of the 5 children in the house.

6-12-09 ~ During our day off before continuing to the plains of Colorado and the ensuing midwest, we played games with the neighborhood children, saw deer casually walking through the neighborhood, visited Focus on the Family and Colorado's Olympic training center (where Michael Phelps trained 2 days ago). We also watched a local short track mountain bike race, which featured aggressive male and female atheletes from both semi and professional levels.

Dan Lehman Signing Off ~ "While I have experienced many great things on this trip, including the sights we have seen as well as the amazing people we have met, I have found that my goals for this trip conflict with the team's and that my athletic ability does not meet the team's expectations. I have decided to depart from Colorado Springs tomorrow with no hard feelings and return to Lancaster for the summer."

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