Day 36 (7/7): La Junta, CO; 70 Miles

The awesomeness of Pueblo continued as we feasted on some hotel breakfast this morning. Big event of the day was the ride along by Hot Rod himself…yes, Rodney Clements of Shreveport, Louisiana took to the bike today.

Turned out to be a pretty flat and easy-going ride…passed through some cool small towns including “Rocky Ford”…what an awesomely American name. Rodney (who hadn’t ever ridden a bike before) was already hurtin around mile 30. He endured nonetheless…looking rougher and rougher with each 10 mile crew stop until finally…La Junta! (pronounced La - Hunt - Ah…and means “The Junta” …though some scholars argue it means gathering, those fools).

Rodney was as good as dead to the world as we brought our stuff into lodging and ate some crew chief lunch (left over bbq from John Pierce, holla!). We’re staying at La Junta High, where to the delight of Sollner they had a full free-weight set right out in the main gym area for his meathead pleasure. Had some downtime before dinner so after a manly set of 10 reps on the bench I took a much needed nap.

Dinner was over at a local park with the Kiwanis Club…whose members are nice as can be no matter what town you’re in. Munched some awesome pot luck (my favorite kind of meal on the trip) while talking to the group’s head, George, who does awesome impressions (though mostly of people that are long before my time). He lamented the waning membership of the group (upwards of 90 back in the early 80’s…now down to around 25)…attributing it in large part to a dying interest in service among older folks across the country…just a different generation. After eating we all took turns sharing our favorite parts of the trip…I talked about singing “For the Longest Time” with Pops and Don back in Missoula, MT….Chad Snyder joked about the team saving my butt by singing the rose to my mom in Jackson, WY…that silly knucklehead. All in all it was a great visit.

After dinner a bunch of us played a rockin game of volleyball in the gym (I was spiking left and right, baby…our team won, obviously). The rest of the night I spent catchin up on some thank you’s and such before hittin the hay.