Day 25 - Dodge City to Great Bend - 85 miles

Just gotta say those were the easiest 85 miles I've ever had on a bike!! We've been battling crosswinds and headwinds but today we really enjoyed a pure tailwind for most of the day. They are a rare and wonderful occurence! We started riding about 7:00 and it was still relatively cool. We had a little bit of cloud cover which helped us out a bit as well. We cycled away from town and out into more agricultural land. We passed a lot of huge wind mills which were interesting. And BIG. You can tell exactly why they have them here! The cycling was easy with the wind at my back. I could just put it in a big gear, keep a steady pace, and fly along. When I had it well and truly behind me, I was cruising along at 25+ mph on the flats, no downhill required. My maximum speed for the day was 33 mph. I could have easily gone faster if I'd had more gears but I maxed them out. It was crazy to be going that fast with such minimal effort. Fun too! 

Our first sag stop was in Kinsley at the Midway USA location. They had a small pioneer museum complete with a sod house. I've read about them but never seen one so that was pretty cool. They have a sign showing the mileage to New York and the mileage to San Francisco and it's the same for both. It's not actually the midpoint of our trip but we are getting close!

Out of that sag stop I actually left before the front runner pace line and I was booking along pretty good. When they eventually caught up with me, I tagged along on the back of the Norwegian couple riding with us and went along with them to the next sag stop hitting speeds from 28 - 30 mph. It's fun but requires more focus than riding by yourself. Fast way to put some miles behind you though!

We stopped in the town of Larned for our second break and heading out of town, I stopped one more time to put some faces with names at Ag Systems. I'd met Don Schoonover but not Kent or Deb so it was really fun to walk in and ask if they sold any bike tires. :) Meant to get a photo with them but then forgot. Had a fun time visiting with them though. I'm getting in so much work related time, maybe I can write this trip off...

It was still early in the day and we had only 24 miles left. At the rate we were going it would be just an hour ride as long as the wind held. It felt like it might be shifting a bit and as strong as it was, I did NOT want to be headed into it so we just headed straight on in to Great Bend, getting here not long after noon. After a shower we headed out for some food and I had my first malt in Kansas at Braum's. Tasty and highly recommended. I hear there are more of those along the way and I will continue to sample for quality control. I was also informed that my company (WISH) has sold a LOT of sprinklers to the Braums family and I do remember running a lot of sprinkler charts with that name on them. Maybe I can get some freebies. ;)

We had time to go to Walgreens, write some postcards, get caught up on blogs, etc. It could have been a much longer day had the wind been blowing from a different direction. Definitely feeling lucky today! We'll see what the wind hands us tomorrow.

Windmills outside of Wright

Mural in Offerle

Sod house!

Another view - they did have a wooden roof on this which would not have been authentic.

Some guy rode this bike to Kinsley from New York. Cyclists are a crazy lot!

Midway!

Stopping off in Larned

The corn is looking good!

So is the wheat! Even if the picture is slightly off kilter.

Wheat harvest is under way.

Proof of my 20.8 mph average for the day! As a frame of reference, most of my training rides I averaged 14-15 mph. Today was exceptional!

Mmmm. Cold creamy goodness. :)

And when I returned this was on my motel room door! What?? The Jones family in Great Bend, KS? And I missed them??? They are awesome. I moved the posters INSIDE my room where they are now bringing a smile to my face.

As is the fact that I am currently caught up on blogging!!!