July 12, 2015 – Sunny, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 24

Miles to Date: 3,983

States to Date: 18

Boulder’s church aisle is a bike path. I saw more cyclists, on road bikes, dirt bikes, and mountain bikes, on one Sunday morning in Boulder than in the rest of my travels combined. There were plenty of cars too, laden with bike racks, as I climbed out of town on Highway 93. Even though it was a short day, I got a good workout; the wind was in my face the whole way.

Once I turned east on Highway 72 I enjoyed the long decent into Arvada, with Denver beyond. The distant skyline sparkled on the horizon, where it wasn’t interrupted by the steady crawl of single-family houses scratching up the foothills. Denver probably has the largest psychic catchment are of any city in the United States. Ever since Bismarck, Denver has been the reference city for everyone I’ve met. It is the capital of the West.

Since I was invading my brother and sister-in-law’s house house on their anniversary, I picked up a big bouquet at King Sooper before I arrived around two and we passed the hours in catching up since we got together last year. My eight-year-old niece Izzy is deep into Barbie. We spent an hour dressing and redressing her collection, eventually distorting our play into ‘What could get Barbie kicked out of the prom? Out of boarding school? And out of church? Bachelor uncles can be mischievous influences. After pizza and beer and s’mores on the backyard fire, we played cards until we were too tired to reminisce any more.