Samosa?! Almost?! Mamosa?! A la Mode?! No, it's ALAMOSA!

Photos from Yesterday and Today...Blog Post Below

Ryan, working his "upper body" in hopes to land a girlfriend.

Nate with his latest sponsor.

A house about 4 miles into Colorado made from 100% recycled materials.

A historic gorge, still back in New Mexico.

The sign should read like this: Welcome to Colorado Where Our Roads are Awesome for Cycling.

Dani, capturing the zeitgeist as we wait out the rain on our way to Taos.

On our way out of Taos, we were warned in case we got randomly blind-sided with a head-butt.

Well Chris already gave me a shout out but here's our official introduction...Hey! I'm Josh. From Philadelphia. Where the Rocky Theme runs rampant and the cheesesteaks define our very being. Of course there's all that history mumbo-jumbo in there too, but I'll leave you with that for now.

Although only my third day with team awesome, I'm quickly learning that an 8:00 bedtime is not just for the elderly (no offense Tony, Chris, Doug...and a prematurely-gray-haired Ryan)--especially when your wake-up time is 5:00 am. After some incredible hospitality from Pastor Wes over at St. James Episcopal Church in Taos, NM as well as some moving devotions from Doug we headed out for the Colorado border. Although we papered it out at 93 miles, we knew that nothing was going to stop us from tasting some fresh Rocky Mountain Air.

We were joined about 40 miles in by a previous cross-country rider, Kendra, who lives in La Jara, CO and biked down to Tres Piedras, NM and rode the whole way with us to Alamosa. Way to be, Kendra! 

We hit the border sometime around noon (mile 58. After the ritual Rocky-themed new-state song (Philly Represent!) we marveled at what Colorado had to offer us besides beautiful scenery. Although incredible, we were blown away by their "smooth, wide and clean shoulders," said Katherine, who definitely put the feeling into words. Give us a smooth road and no rain and I think we're all pretty content with riding back-to-back centuries. But no climbs...I keep having bad dreams about 11% grades, waking up in a cool-sweat calling out for Doug to come and pick me up.

After we crossed into Colorado it was an amazing 32 miles ride to Alamosa. Although tired, it was flat black-top which was a piece of cake (with Gu Chocolate icing of course) for us afterthe climbs yesterday. We made it to Alamosa around 3:15 and found ourselves welcomed by the hospitable folks at First United Methodist Church of Alamosa. While our laundry crew did wonderful washing and fabulous folding, our food-crew bought food and goodies from the bike-shop.  

We were fed a wonderful meal by the church staff where we ate until we were full and laughed until it hurt. Tomorrow we head out to Buena Vista, CO--a full 102 mile trek, full of relished roads and scenic sights. Oh yeah, and climbs. 

Oyee!?!

Live from the 709,

Josh

"Adventure is Hardship Remembered."