Hey Dorthey!!! We're in Kansas!

We have said "so long" to the mountain states and moved on to the great plains!  I'm wondering if the Kansas tourism board made sure there was wheat planted next to the "Welcome to Kansas" sign.

We have put in some long days to get here and we have had to adjust our daily routine to account for the hotter, windier weather.

After spending the night in the church parking lot in Rush, CO, Beth and I left the RV at about 6:15 on our way to Eads, CO via Kit Carson.  By leaving early, we got in about 50 miles before the temperatures and winds picked up.  After we leave, Nicholas sleeps a while longer, does his cross-country training run and then catches up to us about 3 hours later.

Nicholas finished up the day with me and got the better end of the deal.  The first 57 miles had a lot of rough, cracked pavement which is pretty hard riding on the tandem.  When we hit US 287 at the 57 mile mark, it was a nearly new concrete pavement with a big wide shoulder .... and a tail wind for the last 20 miles south to Eads. By leaving early we had completed the 94 miles by 1:30 in the afternoon which was nice since it was already 96 degrees with a good wind from the east.

When we got to Eads we found the sign for the half-way point of the Trans-America Bike Route.  In general we are following the Trans-America route, but have deviated several times to get to places like Helena, MT; Topeka, KS; Jefferson City, MO; Nashville, TN (do you see a theme here?)... And Beth and I both wanted to finish at Kitty Hawk, NC (not a state capital).  So when I was planning the route, the Trans-America route was just a starting point.

Today, Beth and I got another early start on our way to Scott City, KS.  Right as we rolled into Tribune, KS at mile 57, Nicolas pulled up behind us in the RV... perfect timing.  I finished up the day solo and actually enjoyed riding through the Kansas farm country.  There is a lot of wheat harvesting in progress in this area of western Kansas.  The wind was down to only 4-6 miles/hour, but of course it was almost straight out of the east and in my face the last 50 miles.  Still no good tail wind to blow us across Kansas and looking at the weather forecast, there may not be one for the next several days... only head or cross winds.  Here is the track for today at 104 miles.

I have sometimes wondered what happens to those giant hay bales if they sit around too long.  Today, I saw a big operation that uses a front end loader to dump them into a machine that grinds them up into fodder and shoots it into a semi-trailer.  Maybe they haul it over to one of several of the huge feed lots that I passed a few miles down the road... now that was a sweet smell when it was already in the mid-90's.

Tomorrow is another long day... my 3rd century in 5 days with a planned 119 miles into Great Bend, KS.  This will is the longest ride planned on the trip... by a couple of miles.  The next leg into Herington, KS is only planned at 116 miles.  At the current rate, I may make 2000 miles of riding in the month of June.

The wide open spaces of Kansas... and this section at least had nice pavement.