Dust in the Wind

I knew that when I wrote about the wind yesterday that it was bound to get worse. Today it was all about the wind: 15-25 from the south, with higher gusts. Even though we "only" did 74 miles today, I feel like I've been wrestling a bear all day.

No kidding!

Before we get to that, last night after our fine dinner at the Frosty Creme we decided to check out the high school football game just around the block in Dighton. The Hornets play in the smallest division, 8-versus-8, on an 80-yard field. It's a good thing it's 8v8, because there are only 10 players on the roster! On one play the place kicker kicked the ball, ran down to cover the return guy, stripped the ball, and ran it in for a touchdown. A gold star for that play, and... BOOM! Whenever Dighton scores, they shoot off fireworks! We also watched the halftime show, complete with marching band (18 musicians) and dancers (8 of them). Not exactly the mega-production of Texas 6A, but in a way not really different.

The Dighton Marching Hornets, performing "Phantom of the Opera"

Back to the ride. The first issue with the wind is that it makes drafting difficult. The guy in front ("pulling") has to keep to the left so the guy in the back can ride right off his hip to the right. But the gusts would blow the puller right, so the drafter has to be ever-vigilant to avoid being swept into. The second issue is that whenever a truck would come by from the opposite direction, we'd get smacked by the blast of his bow wave moving to the right across the highway. It's also a lot of work to make the bike go. My PowerTap hub reports that today was my highest average power output of the whole trip so far.

The other challenge of today was that the route was arrow straight, due west, all day, through the barren western Kansas prairie. Just us, flat prairie, and wind. It makes it hard mentally because there is so little variety to break up the monotony. One thing I found that helped is that we took turns taking exactly 3-mile pulls, like clockwork. So for example, on the first 24-mile segment to Scott City, instead of thinking of 24 miles, I could think of it being just 4 pulls each. The other thing that helped was to focus on stuff in the distance rather than the odometer. The lines of sight are so long that if you pick out something in the distance, such as grain tower, when you eventually get there you've chalked up 5 or even 10 miles.

How far to the grain tower?

Four miles!

Today we crossed into the mountain time zone(!). Early tomorrow we will be in Colorado, yet we are still just short of halfway. The USA is a big place!

Our accomodation tonight is a little cottage in Tribue, KS, that a lady rents out for $80. We went to the grocery store and bought a steak and sixpack, so soon we will be enjoying a bit of home grillin', Kansas style.

74 miles today, in the crosswinds. We have been steadily climbing, now at 3350' above sea level. Tomorrow: Colorado!

The Wichita County Courthose in Leoti, a perfect lunch spot