Monday. Today was a gift from the cycling gods. Cool. Tail wind. Good road. Wide shoulder. Gently rising terrain. Pretty scenery. And only 52 miles ending in pueblo. This is a city of approximately 100,000 people. This is the largest city we will pass through on the whole trip. Riding through the city to the state fair grounds where we’re sleeping in the 4-H dorm was quite an adjustment. Multiple lanes of heavy traffic and lots of traffic lights. We all navigated safely and we’ll ride out of here heading west into the mountains early tomorrow. As we rode west toward pueblo the mountains seem to grow as we pedaled. I couldn’t help anticipating the battle we’ll have up and down the passes or the next several weeks. We’ll be climbing longer and higher than anything back east, but we’ve been promised the grades will be less severe. We’ll see. I’m not too worried as my legs feel strong and I’m carrying less weight(belly) than at the beginning of the trip. I almost fell off my bike this morning. I was riding along minding my own business when a prairie dog. jumped out of the grass beside the road and seemed to be chasing me. The totaling unexpected quick movement startle me and I’m told I yelped and jerked my bike in a instinctive move of avoidance. I did not crash and I recovered quickly and continued onward. 48 hours to the big reunion in Breckenridge. Yippee. Also, we just hit the halfway point of the trip even though as we looked on a national map we’re really about 2/3 of the way directly across the country. I think the extra miles through the rockies will be well worth it.