Counting Crows had it wrong

I'm not to concerned about my running career taking off here.It's amazing how much even a four minute run feels tedious. And yet a 4000 mile drive is curiously riveting.I left New Hampshire on January 2. The weather has been so nice that I just drove through my first puddle, 3385 miles after departure. Ely, Nevada debuted those wet roads. (Yes, good memory if you're reminding me that it rained some in Asheville but I wasn't driving with my bike hitched up behind my car as I am now, back on this coast to coast tour.) I groaned about how bleak Kansas was, a state I saw in its entirety on Monday. I stand by those words, so I'm sorry if I offended your state. I do know there's more to it than the vast swaths of hundreds of miles of consecutive, stark nothingness, but those other parts are way back east and I long ago forgot about them. Eastern Colorado is equally (un)engrossing so don't think I'm just ragging on Kansas.(Man, that Ted. What a jerk! No no, I just find a lack of anything dull. I don't like plain shredded wheat either.)I've never driven west past Glenwood Springs, CO so it's been wild to not only do that, but then take on western Colorado, all of Utah, and then into Nevada. Highway 50 is called the Loneliest Road in America -- seriously, look it up. IT may be lonely but it's certainly not boring. The geography the entire time since departing Nederland this morning at the wee hour of 5am has been breathtaking. Well, it's not REALLY breathtaking, as in, I get asphyxiated looking at it, but most of this drive is above 6,000 feet so I would say that there is heavier breathing than at sea level, ergo "breathtaking".All of the pictures you see are of Highway 50, ranging from that long and lonesome highway, west of Omaha above, to this craggy feature......to this panoramic vista... ... to this long long downhill drag stretching where I can literally see 20 miles of road in the distance... The end of this trip is actually somewhat in sight which is a touch bittersweet. I'm putting in this mega day today, Ned to Tahoe in order to be able to ski tomorrow which will mark the second time in three days, also the second time in 10 years, then carrying on to San Francisco by Friday evening. And whats the rush of getting there, besides to call it home? That's right, for The Coast Ride spanning from San Francisco to Santa Barbara Saturday morning through Monday with a huge group of cool folks, and I'll be riding with the inGamba gang.Well here's a genius idea to the Californian followers of #TKAtoZ, I definitely encourage you to join the Coast Ride itself, but then on Tuesday upon arrival to Santa Barbara, a place I've spent many months of my training, racing previous lifetime, let's do one final pop-up ride from Handlebar. Owned and operated by two of the finest people in the biz, Aaron and Kim are selfless friends of mine with an amazing coffee shop. Say, meet at 9am and we'll ride shortly after that? Yes, see you then!