QUICK STATS

It's always a bit of a hassle to get back on the road after a rest day. Usually we've unpacked just about everything in order to do laundry, tune up the bikes, cook, etc. Today was no exception.

When we woke up, it was about 28 F. So we decided to go have breakfast at the Glory Hole again. Those cinnamon roles had our names on it! Except when we ordered, we were informed they were out.

What?! We biked across three and a half states dreaming about Smiley's cinnamon roles and we only got one! And now they're out!! How could this be?!

After recovering a bit, I decided to have the breakfast burrito and April order the french toast. Mine was pretty good, but April got a rather small serving of DEEP FRIED french toast. She ate one of the pieces, but wasn't happy about it. I suggested she stop eating it and tell the waitress she wasn't happy. So she did.

She explained that she wasn't expecting it to be deep fried and she really didn't want to eat that before spending the day biking. The waitress asked what she would like instead, so she got oatmeal. When the bill came, we were only charged for my meal and the oatmeal! Yay!

So the day was off to a bit of a rough start...it took forever to pack everything up and then breakfast was disappointing.

After we set off though, the ride was beautiful! We rode through a different kind of mountain terrain and there was a river off to one side. As usual, we were amazed at the beauty around us, though due to the late start, we didn't really want to stop and take many pictures.

Around lunch time we arrived in the town of Kremmling. It was also one of the few towns on our route today with a grocery store. As we pulled up to the store, something caught my eye: two grills. I wasn't sure if they were for customer use or not, but the idea of fresh grilled brats was pretty tantalizing!

April asked a lady at the meat counter if we could use the grill if we bought some meat. She thought for a minute and said, "I'm not sure, but probably not. No, no you can't."

Not to be deterred by someone who wasn't sure and just decided we couldn't, April sought out a manager at customer service. He thought for a minute and said, "Sure!" and proceeded to walk over to the meat counter and tell the lady who had told April "no" to go "fire it up" for us! Cool!

Excited about a new and different lunch option, we selected Cheddar Wursts and I cooked 'em on the grill armed with only a plastic fork for a grilling utensil! We ended up adding a strip of Mozzarella to the already cheesy brats and eating all six!! It was delicious and I'm sure we're going to burn off all those calories anyway ;-)

Even though it was cold this morning, the temperature was warming up fast! We were dressed in our cold weather gear and we were warming up fast too. There weren't any towns coming up that we could change in, but there was a national forest campground coming up. The only problem was, when we arrived, we found a gate across the drive and a sign that said it was closed for the season. Boo!

After consulting the map and realizing there were no other options anytime soon, we decided to go around the gate and head for the bathrooms anyway. A little ways down the road, we realized we were out of view of the main road and decided to just change right there! So we did. April said it made here feel seriously uncivilized to change in the middle of a road!

Our route took us along a large mountain lake with a town on the other side. The water was really low in the lake, but it was really interesting to see all the water rings that showed the different levels that the lake had been at.

We finally arrived at Silverthorne, our first town in a while. It was getting late, but we needed supplies and we saw a Target! So we decided to stop and get what we needed before heading the last 10 miles up to Keystone. After getting the groceries loaded in April's panniers, we headed off. The first mile or two was some serious uphill at an elevation of almost 9000 feet. It was pretty tiring, especially for April since her bike had just been loaded up with groceries!

The condo turned out to be pretty much the last building in Keystone coming from our direction, but we finally arrived. When we tried the combination we were given it didn't work! So I gave Kim, the owner, a call. After running through a few different combos, we got the right one and we were in!

The room was cozy and had a comfy couch and a real bed! Woo-hoo!! Plus there was a hot tub down by the pool. I told April she could go soak for a bit while I made dinner. She really enjoys her relaxation time...

After dinner, I worked on the website a bit while April did a load of laundry in the laundry room down the hall. She met someone from Italy there, but he didn't speak much English. Then it was time for bed, in a real bed! What a great ending to a hard day!

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