Greetings and happy Fourth of July from Gillette, Wyoming! I am writing this blog during a thunderstorm. This is the first year I have not seen fireworks on the Fourth of July, due to the storms canceling Gillette's show. However, the past week or so has been beyond amazing, so I am not complaining one bit!A few days ago we rode through the Badlands! Words cannot describe the beauty witnessed on this day. We had a shorter mileage to ride, which was perfect. It allowed us to take ample time to climb around on the badlands and explore! I've always loved being fully surrounded by nature. It reminds me of how small we really are! Here is a picture Jordan took of me hanging out, I'm the small dot in the middle!
A few days later we biked through the Black Hills! Boy, was that a long day! We stopped for coffee really early which was a great start to the morning. Then, at a visitor information center, we met a man named Neville who told us his story of battling cancer three times! It was super inspirational and we loved getting to know him. We continued the day with another stop for ice cream and snacks, and then biked up to see Mount Rushmore! Some of us have decided it should really be called mountain Rushmore because of how long it took us to get up there. What a way to get those legs moving! We took some team pictures and fully embraced the monument before moving on. We also ran into Neville and his wife again! That was a great surprise. Here is a picture Jacqueline helped take where Catherine, Jordan, Shun, and I try our best to replicate the monument.
The rest of the day included more climbing but also some amazing descents through the black hills. We also entered Wyoming! (The welcome to Wyoming sign said "Forever West," hence the name of this blog post.)Today was the Fourth of July and we had a wonderful day. I pulled out all of my patriotic clothing for the ride! We sang songs about America and even were treated to an amazing cookout by our stayover hosts and First United Methodist Church in Gillette, Wyoming. The past few days have been amazing and I can't wait to see what the next few will bring as we begin to climb through the bighorns!