Move along now, nothing to see here – Day 27

Date: Thursday 2nd September   

Route: Eads, Colorado – Leoti, Kansas

Distance:   77 miles

Total climb: 802 ft

Net climb: -859 ft

Today we awoke to see dust being whipped around the car park outside our room and trees bending in the strong breeze. The winds we had been promised were here and a large breakfast was needed.

We popped over the road to a diner for oatmeal and a full cooked breakfast, observing the ‘hunters’ attired in khaki and listening to the ladies critiquing their husbands’ haircuts in the booth behind us (a functional cut like mine has to be the way forward, if only for the hot conditions). With bikes, minds and bodies tuned for the road, we launched into battle with the wind.

After fighting through more flatlands with slow progress, we stopped for lunch at Sheridan Lake.  The gas station there provided a good break spot, albeit every other customer opted to remind us how difficult it must be on bikes in today’s conditions. Our options for the day were to chase a target of 120+ miles or go for a finish in Leoti, making 77 miles for the day.  Given the weather, we conceded that the latter was more realistic.

We hopped over the border from Colorado into Kansas and through a section described by the map as having “very limited services on route next 58 miles”. We arrived in Leoti before dark and checked into the Hi Plains Motel, heading over to the service station for a pizza supper – everything else in Leoti shuts at 8pm.

More progress made, more farmland and grain elevators seen and more headwind battles won would be a short summary for today.  We are clearly now in both the Corn Belt and the Bible Belt.

Final bullet points:

Colorado has been a good and varied state – despite some remote areas, there has almost always been a nearby mountain stream or river to provide a fall back option for water. My initial experience of Kansas suggests such a fall back for the next few hundred miles may not be available – it is time to carry more provisions (and I’m not talking about chocolate brownies and CSBs).

We seem to be out of bear country now. I’m disappointed not to have seen one in the wild and don’t know whether we’ll be anywhere near them again on this trip. I’ve just the snakes to worry about for now.

Given the flat nature of our current location, we have been entertaining ourselves with distance-guessing games.  Yesterday’s was based around how many miles away a railway carriage was.  Today’s is around how far away a grain tower is. It’s crazy over here.

We continue to be hugely grateful for the communications from all and the sponsorship we have received. When you are sitting alone in the saddle for 2 hour stints, with nothing new to look at and a fierce headwind, such generosity lifts the mood. The plan has always been to convey that this challenge is tough, without sounding like we are whining (we keep that between ourselves and our regular impressions of famous ‘adventurers’) – I can assure you that whilst it is fun, it is hard going and so the odd motivator certainly helps.

FP