Leadville Day 7 Boom Days

Day 7 Ride Strava Data: http://app.strava.com/activities/174540307

Wow race day is a week away! Time here is just going by so fast and other than ride and eat really am not doing allot, I haven't watched any tv in week. I am looking forward to my Sweety arriving on wednesday it will be awesome have her here, really missing her. This weekend is the Boom Days Festival here in Leadville, if you have ever thought of visiting the town this is such a fun weekend to be here, its a small town america festival. Our job this morning was to help out Lifetime Fitness in the parade, in previous years we build a float, this year we dedicated our parade float to Lance Cpl Nicklas J. Palmer of Leadville who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, we carried a very large flag in his honor which was followed by a pickup that had his parents sitting in the back, myself and many others rode our bikes behind them with flags on our bikes handing out gold and silver beads to the many many people who lined the streets of Leadville this morning.

Riding down main street Leadville

Beautiful Day for a parade

Flags on our bikes

After the parade we all broke up and headed back at our base camps and drop some layers then meet up at the hostel for recovery ride lead by our friend Doc Wenmark. We had a large group today approx 15 riders, we all posed for a photo in the street out in front of the hostel. Once we were all ready Doc took us straight up the road from Hostel, we were going to ride the area behind town around mines and beautiful mountain views. Towards the end of the ride we rode thru a beautiful narrow trail lined by Aspens almost a tunnel of tree's. We flew back down the mountain to town and we to Cpl Palmers parents house where the showed his uniform, flag and shared some stories of the young man, it was so very nice of them to invite us in and share a small part of him with us. We also found out that our special memorial had taken 2nd place in the float contest, we let his parents keep the trophy. After we went our own separate ways, I headed back up to the hostel and had a snack, showered and went back down to the Boom Days, I walked around and checked out all the vendors and events, then met my friends Dale and Kelly at Tennessee Pass for dinner, they had arrived yesterday and it was great to see them both again. I hitched a ride up to the Hostel where we relaxed and now I'm ready to hit the sack! Tomorrow is another difficult ride, up and over Powerline, I'm feeling stronger every day, yet I'm tired and need a break but time is taper will soon be here, it will be our last hard ride before the race.