Today’s Highlights:
We completed our second back-to-back century of our cross-country tour today. The first one was back in Utah entering Salt Lake City. After yesterday’s 120 miles, we cycled 103 today. We also left the great state of Colorado and entered Kansas. And, we are now on Central Standard Time.
The morning started with a big challenge. We had a strong headwind, and the stretch of US 50 that we were on had very rough pavement. Cycling against a headwind requires constant pressure on the pedals and usually a stronger grip on the bars. The rough pavement sends a lot of vibration to your feet and hands and seat! That was the situation for over thirty miles and almost three hours. It was quite tiring and a bit painful on some body parts.
We had our first rest stop at mile 32. A half mile later, we reached the Kansas border and Central time zone. At that point our luck changed. As if we were being welcomed to Kansas with a gift, the wind shifted just enough to tap us on the back of our right shoulder (from the SW as we traveled east). Dave and I cruised for fifteen miles into Syracuse KS at 20 mph, up from our 13 mph average during the first third of the ride. And, the road surface was also smoother. What a relief! The wind continued in our favor until we turned south one mile before the hotel.
The final phase of our eastern Colorado route was sightly prettier than yesterday, but still somewhat desolate. We are still following the Arkansas River, and some farms near its banks looked productive. Most, however, seemed barren or abandoned. In Kansas, the land looks more productive and there are many more active farms per mile than there were from Pueblo to the state border. We crossed the Arkansas River a few times today, and it is surprising how little water flows in it. It should be getting bigger as it approaches the Mississippi, but apparently irrigation efforts use up most of the water along the way. The terrain has been extremely flat since Pueblo. About sixty miles into our ride today (30 miles into Kansas), we hit some nice rolling hills. With the tailwind, they were nice to cycle on, but most of all it was pleasing to see some variation in the landscape.
Another bit of luck we had today was an overcast sky. Although that made landscape photography less appealing, it gave us some welcome relief from the sun and heat. Our route has not had shade since we left the canyons about 250 miles ago. Still, it reached the mid-nineties by the end of our ride, and my bike computer again registered over 100 on the road. It was very hot for the last several hours of the ride.
When we reached the Comfort Inn in Garden City, the staff was especially friendly and accommodating. They had for us bottles of water on ice, fresh oranges cut up, cold wet face clothes, and fresh made popcorn. All were greatly appreciated.
My total elapsed time for the 103 miles today was only seven hours, and in that time I only had 45 minutes off the bike. Most of that stationary time was spent at the two rest stops. I made very few stops to take pictures today. Seven hours is not bad for a century. However, it felt much longer than that to me. Perhaps that was because of the lack a variation in the scenery and being more focused on the road ahead rather than the world around me. Hopefully, that will improve as we continue through the Midwest.
Pictures Of The Day:
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Statistics:
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