I cannot express how happy I am that I am now done climbing mountains. The final two hills reminded me why I hate this part of biking so much. However I'm happy to say that I survived over 20 days of climbing mountains and managed not to injure myself and keep my sanity!
Rebecca met up with me part way into the ride at a small little gas station just over the last mountain. The man at the gas station told me a very interesting story about how the Mesa Verde Tribe members came from a spaceship and were sent to kill other tribes until they met with the Vikings and changed their minds. I just wanted to us the rest room but won't soon forget the story!
It ended up being another 7 1/2 hour day on the bike but I arrived in Gunnison and we enjoyed a fantastic KOA! Rebecca took the kids to the park while I made dinner, Charlotte and I had a great practice outside and we all got to bed pretty early hour.
Today was a day of driving with a little bit of biking. As I mentioned above I'm tired of climbing mountains. Last year I rode a bike tour that covered mile for mile the route I would've taken the next two days. This would have included two of the most extreme passes of the trip and since the goal is to cross the entire United States I decided to pack it up and just drive the route since I rode it last year. My knees thanked me. 
It was really nice to relive Monarch Pass from the comfort of the driver seat of the truck and think about all the incredible climbing and descents I did last year. The second pass would've been Hardscrabble pass but we ended up taking a slightly different drive and it was really beautiful anyways. Fueled up with a little bit of food at Canyon City and ready to ride Rebecca droped me off at Wetmore, which was exactly the point where I left off on tour last year.
I ended up putting in an exceptional 64 mile bike ride from this point to a town called Fowler and Rebecca got things set up at the campsite for the night.
I can't express how happy I am that today's ride was mostly flat to slightly downhill and below 5000 feet. Despite having a very direct 10 to 15 mile an hour headwind I was still able to average about 60 mph. This is about twice as fast as what I've been doing the past month.
About 30 miles in I got my third flat tire of the trip and my CO2 cartridge was a little difficult. However, I got the tire all fixed up un only about 15 minutes.
About 40 miles into the ride a large storm started develop both to my south and my north and I was closed in by dark swirling clouds. 
However, Rebecca picked me up in Fowler just about the time I would have gotten wet and we were able to get back to the campsite and only the truck got rained on.
We enjoyed a nice ice cream social at the KOA, made some dinner of sesame chicken and convinced Charlotte it was really time to go to sleep.
Tomorrow we're off to Colorado Springs to see Pikes Peak and the city. Originally, I was going to make a second attempt at climbing Pikes Peak. However, I'm done climbing now. Maybe next time.
Rebecca is tired of stepping on sharp things. The desert is mean! The Rock was all the way through her flip flop in Hanksville and the other one is just one example of many found all over the camper floor when you least expect it.
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