Sorry I haven't blogged in soo long! I'll just give you some of the
highlights of the past week.
Biking into Colorado was epic, leaving Kansas behind. We spent over an
hour at the welcome to Colorado sign taking pictures, we were a little
excited. Kansas was great, the first hundred miles of wheat fields,
but the novelty of it wears off. This being said, the "town" we were
first in Colorado was literally in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded
by wheat fields, with no sight of any other type of civilization for
miles and miles was the little church in which we stayed. That night
we were blessed to have watched the most incredible, beautiful,
amazing, awesome sunset I have ever seen in my entire life. The
combination of the view over the golden wheat fields, peaceful
setting, the whole CUS 2010 b&b team sitting together for hours,
guitar music, dancing, good conversation made me more joyful than I
can even describe.
I biked 105 miles into Denver!!! And it was windy and hilly! Crazy,
this summer is just crazy, I'm gaining so much self confidence as
well, if I can do this: bike across this great country, I can do
anything if I just set my mind to it. For most of this ride I kept
singing America the Beautiful, especially when the Rocky mountains
finally came into view. Biking past waves of amber grain wheat fields
and seeing the mountains majesty as we bike sea to shining sea was
just mind blowing. Emily and I both teared up multiple times, each
case when we arrived to the crest of a hill we had just climbed.
Denver is a Great Great city, very bike friendly and we were welcomed
by some b&b alumni and family members and friends. I loved Denver. On
our "off"'day we took part in a "race for a place" fundraiser for
affordable housing organizations and bike and build. It consisted of a
luncheon, biking around Denver on cruiser bikes as part of their
amazing bike share program, and then free appetizers and drinks at a
brewery. After visiting with a dear friend from home who is working
for the Denver rescue mission this summer (Brooke Willis!) I was
excited to open mail and then head upstairs for the professional
photographer who wanted takes pictures of us for free! Bed time came
too early.
Boulder is equally enjoyable, I can picture myself living in either
Denver or Boulder at some time in my life. The ride in was beautiful
with some interesting twists-which just made it all the more an
adventure. At times I think my overly positive search for the silver
linings might annoy some people, but it is there!! Anyways. Boulder
is great. Pearl st ( the downtown) is filled with cute shops and
street performers at all hours of the day and night! Live music,
drums, jugglers, magicians and more provide entertainment all the
time, it great. Boulder is very hippie friendly and green. When we
worked with Habitat on our build day I was able to see this even more
with there wonderful green building strategies. This Flatiron Habitat
has been my favorite affiliate by far- they have their stuff together
and have fun. We were framing today and putting up floor joices
(spelling error??) for the 2nd floor. It was a great time and we all
worked hard until 4 pm. After shower and food, some more exploring of
Boulder ensued and we ate cheesecake while listening to some Celtic
rock/string music. Now a little blogging then bed! Tomorrow begins the
climbing of the mountains!!!!
Sent from my iPod
Good Morning Kristen
ReplyDeleteSo very good to hear from you! I knew you were busy and so excited that you are "having the time of your life." After being to several National Parks I know a little of what it's like to be overcome with this awe of the mountains and sunsets, etc. God is so good in provide such an awesome creation for us to enjoy. And to think there are millions of people who never get to enjoy such amazing wonders. Kristen, you are blessed! Keep it up! We'll continue to pray you through those mountain rides up and down. May God's protection surround you and your bike until that front tire hits the ocean. Love you and so very, very proud of all you are accomplishing. Go Girl!!!
Kristen! I love you! And I am so glad that you are enjoying every second of this trip. HOw did the fundraiser go? Good I hope. So I think you should live in Colorado when I live in Utah so that we can visit each other:) Good luck on the mountains today, hopefully I will get to talk to you. Elayna leaves for Guatemala tonight!!!!! Crazy but wonderful. God is definately at work in my friends:) LOVE YOU! (sorry for all of the !!!!, I'm just really really pumped about God and life today)
ReplyDeleteHey Kristen! So I just got mail back that I have sent you twice already, so I'll try one more time, but just know that I ment for you to have mail on the last few mail days but the fates have decided against it...sorry! Days are going good but long. Ski is starting to work together well and we are getting to actually do things instead of just doing drills. I'll try to write more on Sunday, but tonight I'm too exhasted. I don't think I drank enough water and I've been out in the sun all day. And my co-counselor had her first day off, so I've been chasing ten year olds to put their sunscreen on and its also laundry day so that was crazy. And I've been doing early bird ski, OD and homesickness all week. So much fun :) Any ways I'll talk later!
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