"He rode a blazing saddle He wore a shining star"

As we entered Rocky Ford I felt like I was in the movie "Blazing Saddles". The terrain resembled that of the movie and well, the movie did take place in Rock Ledge! We had to pay a dime to pass through the town and I thought I saw mongo passing through! (not really) Today we had a nice 66mile ride into Rocky Ford Colorado! We left from Lamar and had breakfest at a local community center at 7am. It was "bike to work day" and for everyone that biked to the community center they got a nice breakfest consisting of eggs, sausage, pancakes, and fruit! I road with Olivia and Emerson today and we had such a great ride going between 14mph-20mph for most of the day! The terrain was mostly flat with dessert plains mostly. We stopped in a little town called Las Animas at a little mom/pop lunch place and had a great lunch! I has some fresh gazpocha (spelling?) with home made herb/parmesean bread turkey sammich. It was delicious! When we got into town we all went swimming at a local pool which was fun. We played marco polo and jumped off the diving board! It brought me back to the days when I used to be on the swim team when I was younger. Except, I'm sure back then I was a bit graceful versus my flop off the board today! haha Three churches got together in the small town and provided a wonderful dinner for us. We had chicken alfredo, a few different pasta salads with garbonzo beans, different salami meats, veggies, a few different fruit salads, green beans, and brownies! I ate dinner with a lady named Diane (aka Mrs. Piggy). A few of the girls and I were sitting with her and we had asked what brought her here to Rocky Ford. Diane answered simply, "A man." haha Diane was a sweet older lady who told us about her love story. Basically, she met her husband dressed in a mrs. piggy outfit for halloween at a lunch spot where they were both just eating lunch alone (didnt know eachother) and he asked her out for a drink after they spotted eachother at lunch and have been together since. She told us girls that you never know where you will meet your man! What a character she was and we really enjoyed chatting with her and appreciated the work they put into feeding us for dinner.

We have a few builds coming up! I shall explain where most of the money that was raised goes. Each rider has raised $4500 and in total our route has raised about $150,000. We have a grant program that affordable housing organizations can apply for. As a group, we will soon go over these applications to give out some bigger grants. Each night we have a different church host us. These hosts have $100 to give to an affordable housing organizatin of their choice. Each rider also will give out a $500 grant to an org of their choice. While on the road we have some expenses that some of the money goes towards but the less money we use on the trip the more we can give to affordable housing. This is why when we grocery shop we try to get day old breads, veggies, fruits, or anything grocery stores donate. We also buy off brands that cost less to save and keep track of the food we have so we dont waste. Usually churches or YMCAs host us so we have a place to stay for the night and we are able to shower either at the church or local highschools allow us to use their facilities. Many times some of these hosts have laundry machines we can use every three days or we have to go to a local laundrymat. We also have a few other expenses such as gas for the support van. If you have more questions feel free to ask! I'm becoming more knowledgable about the affordable housing cause while on the trip!