Day 8, August 9th 2007 (Sidney,NE to Ault,CO)

I woke up with a mission today to get to Fort Collins,CO. I've heard that it is beautiful because it's just on the borderline of all the mountains. It was a good 160 miles away and so I knew it wasn't going to be easy. As soon as the sun was up, I was up. It was about 5 am and felt like 50 degrees. I knew it wasn't going to stay cool forever so I packed up and started to ride. About two hours into the ride the temperature had increased to about its' normal temperature of around 90 degrees. I reached Kimball and needed to take 71 south. I noticed I had a good 50 mile stretch between towns so I ate and stocked up on all the water neccesary. Almost 20 miles later I was in Colorado. It was a great feeling to be out of Nebraska and to be able to see a few new things. Although Nebraska may have have been mostly flat the wind never seemed like it was very friendly. It was always around 20 mph and was going from the west to the east. The hospitality was great in Nebraska and I can't wait to see if good people and things continue along the way. The road instantly changed as soon as I hit the border of Nebraska and Colorado. There were no more flat roads, it was one hill after another. I continued riding and made it to the next town after about 50 miles of nothing except for grassland and road. The town I came into couldn't have been more than 50 people because ther was nothing there. No restaurants, gas stations, or even any people. I decided I would ride 8 more miles in hope that the next town would have something. The next town had a nice little cafe with one lady working everything by herself. It was obvious that she didn't have to many people in there at this time. I was able to chat with her for a little while and enjoyed a great meal for only 5 dollars. I headed back out on the road and still had about 80 miles remaining to get to Fort Collins. The road had finally started to flatten out a little but it was still fairly warm outside. I biked as far as I could before the heat caught up with me and I was still about 40 miles outside of Fort Collins. I stopped at a school that was on the side of the road and noticed that the doors were unlocked. They had their A/C running and they had water. It was great to finally see something like that because it had begun to steam up a little outside and there was nothing else in the area to my disposal as far as cold air and water go. I still had a couple of hours before the sun would go down and I knew that thoses were the best hours to ride because it would finally cool down. I travelled very slow, but managed to put in another 26 miles before it was too dark and I had to pitch tent. I was thinking of going to Fort Collins, but it said it was still another 20 miles away and it was too dark. I found a park next to a school that I threw my tent up at and slept very well.
Daily mileage: 142.8 miles
Average speed: 13.6 mph
Total mileage: 791.6 miles