And away we go.

Yesterday was another great off day. I figured I needed two after the beating I gave my legs on Tuesday. It was good to be able to recover. I woke up early and biked about 9 miles to the other side of Lakewood, over near Denver. I met up with my buddy Jared Draper from Clemson. He took me out to eat at this little breakfast place called Breakfast on the Edge. So cool. It was on a little lake, with downtown peaking up on the other side. I got the huevos rancheros, my favorite breakfast dish. It wasn't the very best I have ever had, but it was certainly in the top three huevos I have tasted. Jared and I got to talk about the wedding he had the other day (congrats again big man), about the trip, and about hiking the 14,000 mountains in Colorado.

After we ate, we went for a little ride around the lake, just to see things. His only advice was, "So, the geese don't move when you ride at them... so be ready for that." Luckily I escaped any encounters with stubborn goose-mates, so the ride was awesome. I felt like a feather without all of my stuff strapped to the bike. We went over to where he lived, I got to see the missus, Lizzy. They are both super happy and it was great to see them. Oh and Jared stabbed himself to the bone with a knife the other day in his thumb, I thought that was funny too.

I rode back and did a little research for the trip at the house. We grabbed our bikes and went down to the bike shop to hang out for a while. We ended up staying there for 2.5-3 hours. Somewhere in that area. I got spare parts, I got fitted for my bike (but somehow in my ignorance, my set up was perfect, so there was no adjusting that we had to do to make me fit the bike any better. That was weird.), I went and ate a yummy bagel from Bruegger's, and I read 3 bike magazines. The guys at the shop were crazy cool. I got some free stuff from them, some hydration tablets and what not.

Fletcher and I were talking about what we wanted to do for dinner, Dave offered to take us out with his wife. Of course we said yes. We went back to the house for a little while and they came to pick us up. Brief side note, while we were waiting, I had a wild animal encounter. We are staying on Green Mountain, and there is apparently wildlife that roams the area, even though it is heavily populated. I came face to face with a fox. Now at first, I thought it was Mr. Fox, from Fantastic Mr. Fox, the movie. Then I remembered that he lost his tail in that movie, and this fox had his tail, so it wasn't him. But he walked about ten feet away from me and just stood there, staring. So I just stood there, and stared back. Then went into freakout/ primal mode and started to walk towards him for some stupid reason. Guess who the alpha animal was. Wasn't him, that's for sure. Ran away like a little baby. You just have to glare them in the eyes, gets them every time.

We went to some local tap house. I had this burger that would melt your face off.

- 1/2 pound burger

-Cheddar Cheese

-Root beer Pulled Pork

-A huge onion ring

-and the Taphouse Secret Sauce.

I will buy a plane ticket for that burger. It was that good. Seriously. That good.

It was really great talking with Dave and Francie. We talked about bikes a lot of dinner. My favorite argument that happened though was when we talked about Barbecue. Dave thinks that Kansas has the best Barbecue... Fletcher and I and Dave were in a legitimate yelling match about Southern (mainly Eastern TN/ Western NC) Barbecue versus Kansas on the patio of this porch. Francie was just shaking her head laughing. It was pretty awesome. Kansas isn't even on the list of states that are recognized for even making barbecue. Come on Dave... Really? Really Dave?

That's what I thought.

Today we ride. From this house it is all downhill to Tennessee. I think that I can see the ocean from the back porch.

Maybe not.