Pedal for Peace 2008

Riding the emotional high Peter and I had crossing Monarch pass, we got ready for our final mountain climb and the descent into Pueblo, CO. We woke up in Westcliff, CO–an amazing town where Pete and I sat down to a nice meal of Mexican food and I enjoyed one of the best beers in the world–Fat Tire ale! It was a great night where we got to camp on the back lawn of the Custer County Realty–thanks Sarah!

Pete and I finished our last mountain climb at about 9am and we got ready for our descent to Pueblo.

We’re done with the Rockies!@!!!!! Yeeeehaw!!! Bring on the FLATS!

Getting into Pueblo, Pete and I needed to find a bike shop so he could get his rear wheel checked out and I could swap out my front tire as it had a slow leak in it. We called every bicycle shop in town and the only one open was Vance’s Bicycle World–off we went. There we met Vance, his wife Judi, their daughter Brandy, and the other amazing people at the shop. What happened next really defies description, as it is one of the most amazing things that has happened to Pete and I during this trip. As Pete keeps saying, “this trip keeps restoring our faith in humanity” and Vance and his family are sure one of the main examples of that.

When we got there, Vance pretty much dropped everything else he was working on to help Pete and two other cross-country riders who needed help with their bikes–he didn’t even charge Pete for a truing and a new tube!! They checked the weather for us and we found out that there was some nasty weather coming through, so they let us chill out in the store. Pete and i were discussing how were going to get to the Verizon store (which is 8 miles away and a long ways for us to go off route on our bikes) to get the cellphone issue sorted when Brandy offered to take us there!!! We had some great conversations with Vance and his family about our travels, his fundraising and riding for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, As we were leaving, Vance gave Pete and I some Jerseys from the JDRF ride in 2007 made by Hincape! Thank you so much, Vance and family–we are wearing the Jersey’s with pride and we’ll always remember how much you helped us out!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm and is filed under update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.