We slept in a little this morning since we knew we had a shorter ride than normal. We made oatmeal, packed up and were on the road by 9:15. As we were riding we could see the mountains off in the distance, so we were pretty excited about that. About 7 miles into our ride, I got a flat tire on my back wheel. After riding for about 24 miles we arrived in Ault, where we planned to stop for lunch and patch a tube. We planned on having mac and cheese, but surprisingly there was a Subway, so we decided to go there instead. After a tasty lunch we headed out towards Fort Collins. The traffic had picked up significantly since leaving Ault, but the ride still wasn't bad. When we made it to Fort Collins, we rode around for a little and were just amazed at how bicycle friendly the city was. There were cyclists everywhere you looked and almost every street had a bike lane. It was incredible. We found the library and looked up to see where a bike shop was because we needed to get some more tubes. There was this awesome bike shop called "Crank and Stein" that was a bike shop, bar and coffee shop. We had never seen anything like it. People could ride their bikes in through the open garage door and park their bikes inside and go grab a drink or snack. We found the size tubes we needed and decided to get a drink of some sort. We were able to buy 3 tubes, a beer, and a hot chocolate all on the same bill, it was really cool! I had a hot chocolate, the the server made a bicycle wheel in with chocolate syrup, and Joey had a beer called a "chocolate yetti." There were so many people in the city who asked us about our travels it was almost like we were celebrities. It is amazing because there are so many people around here who understand what we are doing and can relate to it, where that isn't the case in most places. At one point the street we were following to find our Warm Showers host was closed for a concert/party. We walked our bikes through the small crowd and 4-5 different people asked where we were going, etc. Everyone was so excited to see us, it was so neat. Since I had been craving brownies for a few days, we found a supermarket to buy a box of brownie mix at in hopes that I would be able to make them at our Warm Showers hosts house. We arrived at Jesse and Lauren's house at about 6:15 and were greeted by their dog Mr. Jones and their friend's dog Captain Pickles. After a great shower we enjoyed sharing with and hearing stories of adventures Jesse had been on. We had some amazing chicken tacos for dinner. I had a chance to make my brownies and we enjoyed some time by the campfire in the back yard. We got to enjoy our first S'mores on the tour thus far along with brownies in the same night, it couldn't get any better than that! After another wonderful day, we got to sleep in a really comfy bed. We've decided to spend an extra day in Fort Collins so can explore it a litte more; it's a pretty neat place! We rode 47.44 miles today.
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