Another great ride today!
Not only that, but another blog post beginning with a sentence fragment!
The weather seems to be getting progressively hotter and hotter. Lately however, it seems that both the heat and the winds mercifully don't really pick up until after 1 to 2 PM. That gives us an obvious goal. We like to push the ride pace, at least a little bit, in order to try to arrive at the destination by 1 PM or so. So far, that has been working out.
We did 83 miles today. We left Liberal, Kansas, at the usual time of 7:15 AM this morning. We went northeast, on US 54, initially. The start of the ride today was great, as it was pleasantly cool, but not cold. I wondered what the temperature was, and I knew that Doug has a high-tech bike computer. Taking a chance that it might show the ambient temp, I asked him as we were riding. He happily told me that he did have the temp, and it was 19 degrees!
Gotta love those British!
The pace was fast, but comfortable. I felt really pretty good. We had our only SAG at 38.6 miles out, that in a town called Meade. The Dalton Gang Hideout and Museum is there. That actually was the SAG location. I am learning to get in and out of the SAGs quickly. I just pull up, drink and eat a bit extra, refill my bottles, and don't linger to talk a lot with the other riders. I try not to rush, exactly, but I try not to waste any time on these longer days, especially with the heat and the winds approaching.
At about 50 miles out, I had yet another flat tire! The culprit was easily identified, and it was the same thing that seems to be still happening to many of us. It was a tiny wire, embedded in the tire, puncturing the tube. These are small and malleable wires, probably one-half to one centimeter long, of a diameter probably similar to a 25 gauge needle. These wires really aren't all that terribly sharp, but they surely do like to embed in our tires. I am told that these are wire pieces that are shed from the steel-belted radial tires of the larger trucks. Whatever. It is annoying. Oh well. I am getting well practiced at tire changing.
With the tire fixed, I was soon back on the road. At roughly 60 miles out, the route changed to US 283 north. The winds were directly from the south all day. Turning from a northeast to a north direction then resulted in an absolutely perfect result. The resultant "favorable headwind" enabled me to do the last 20 miles at 20 to 24 mph easily. I made it to Dodge City at 12:35 PM. That felt good.
The best thing about "favorable headwinds" is not so much their facilitation of speed, but their remarkable silence. It is so pleasant to have a nice wind at your back and get the result of a wonderfully quiet ride, not just a fast one.
Dodge City surely seems to celebrate its Wild West heritage. There is a huge and impressive, larger than life, statue of Wyatt Earp in the center of the historic downtown area. There is also a Boot Hill cemetery and museum.
Michel and I walked around in that historic downtown area a bit. We were impressed with how seemingly deserted the area seemed. For an early to mid Friday afternoon, we were impressed at how few people were out and about.
Regardless, we had fun.
Tomorrow we have another longish day. We go to Great Bend, Kansas, tomorrow, that at a distance of 86 miles. Hopefully the winds and the roads will be kind.
It occurred to me that today is exactly three weeks since the day that Lauren graduated at U of Minnesota. That was such an incredible thrill for me. I had such a great time. Somehow however, that time seems to have been almost a million years, and a million miles, in the past. Difficult to grasp.
Anyway, more tomorrow!
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