It's all downhill to the Mississippi..well not really

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Day 23 - Sargents, CO to Cotopaxi, CO
Total Miles: 61.3 (about 1562 miles so far)
(yesterday’s total miles ended up as 77.3)

We blitzed our way out of Gunnison to Sargents, really booking with Scott and Randy. Riding with them made the time go by super fast and we were in Sargents before we knew it. Scott had reserved a cabin (he splurged in honor of his wife, Nan, coming in from Oakland to see them over the pass) and it turned out there was room for all of us - we had a great night conversing and eating and sleeping in a cabin to keep us warm (it was well below freezing that evening). Nan’s awesome, really knowledgeable about birds (we had a lot of unanswered questions) - it was great to visit with a new face. Scott was really excited to see her, to see a couple whose been married 35 years (if I recall correctly) get such a spring in their step when each other is around is awesome. Nan filled us in with tons of biking stories - turns out they had their kids riding on tandems at age 2 (apparently it’s embarrassing to be picked up on a tandem from soccer practice when you’re little) - Randy rode his first century when he was super young (5 or something) - we enjoyed tons of family tales from years back.

Arthur and I awoke the next morning and set out early for Monarch Pass. We were convinced that the ride over the pass would be more enjoyable if we let Nan carry some of our belongings over the pass to lighten the load (we decided that the aforementioned rules are stupid - we’ll have way too many rules to follow when we get back east - but we still vow not to hitch). Feeling light and svelte, we rode at a vigorous pace up the pass and enjoyed the 30or so mile gradual downhill to Salida. Apparently our pace was a little too quick - Arthur started to feel ill when we got to Salida - he wouldn’t eat or drink, was coughing and had a terrible headache (textbook mild altitude sickness). We decided to take it easy for a while. Randy needed a new wheel for his bike - Scott set out on the task of building a new wheel for him while we took advantage of the educational opportunity.

After a 5 hour break in Salida, we faced the terrible headwinds and started off for Cotopaxi. Slow going for us - Arthur wasn’t doing well (Cotopaxi is significantly lower in altitude than Salida so it made sense to try to get there) and I started to feel ill about halfway through the ride. We made it to Cotopaxi to find little bivy opportunity and a tiny mini mart that didn’t seem to have anything without meat in it. The apathetic symptom associated with altitude sickness was beginning to set it - we had a really hard time getting motivated to find a place to sleep - we finally settled on an old baseball field and went right to sleep (dinner wasn’t even a concern for us).

We’re now in Westcliffe. It’s been a really hard morning for us so far (terrible headwinds, I still feel sick, a bit of climbing and just general slow moving). We got to town just as a Memorial Day Parade was ending - I somehow gathered the motivation to eat a delicious crepe from this crepe stand they have in town - I’m regretting it now but hopefully I’ll feel better as we get moving toward Pueblo. We have quite a bit of miles in front of us for today, it’s sure to be a challenge (I think we may be in need of a break soon). Time’s running out at the library - I hope everyone’s doing well.

Scott and Randy are having Nan carry their stuff for a few days and if they end up busing across Kansas we probably won't see them for a while. It was really fun riding with them and i'm sure we will stay in touch.

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