Day 41: Scott City to Tribune, KS: Heat, Headwinds, and biting flies

June 20, 2006

Forecast was for 102 degrees and 25-35 mph winds from the SW today, so I planned to get up early and head out as soon as there was enough light to safely do so. I was in a hotel for the night, so packing was easy. But when I opened the door, I saw that the wind hadn't died down at all during the night. I couldn't believe it. 20+ mph winds and almost 80 degrees already at 6 a.m.

Nothing to do but put your head down and ride, though, so that's what I did. And the first half of the day was miserable as I worked to keep a 7-8 mph pace. Feedlot garbage blew over the road and all over me at one point. So it was a hot, poopy, gusty morning. Paradise.

Source of the poopy wind. Almost enough to turn me vegetarian

Met two pairs of eastbound riders before the halfway point and envied them their incredible tailwind. I don't think they wanted to share. Then some of the Adventure Cycling folks caught up with me at Leoti where I'd stopped to get lots more fluids and we commisserated about how much we were getting blown around by the trucks.

Eastbound Tazmanian couple. This was about their halfway point according to my computer.

When we left Leoti, the wind miraculously settled down to something manageable, but every time I stopped, biting flies attacked. It was still 99 degrees when I got to Tribune, and I'm very glad not to be doing more miles today even though it's fairly early in the day.

99 degrees when I got to Tribune. I think it got up to 103 or something later in the afternoon

After setting up camp, some of us decided that the best course of action was to swim, shower, and nap. So we did. I don't really swim, but everyone seems to write about the free pools of Kansas and this was my last night in Kansas, so I decided to go soak. Alvin impressed the local kids with his diving skills while Toni and I talked about how boys sometimes never grow up. But it was really cute watching the little guys try to imitate the big guy and even cuter seeing how much fun the big guy was having! The other funny thing that afternoon was watching Patrick put up his tent. Now, Patrick likes to stay in motels, so when he was struggling to put up the tent, I thought he was just out of practice. When I looked over about 10 minutes later to see him still struggling to get it set up, I figured something must be wrong. I guess his tent somehow shrunk on him and he couldn't get the poles in the sleeves correctly. But watching him struggle with it made for some good entertainment, although I must have missed the part when Tim used his superhuman strength to force the tent together.

Jacques studying his map and hoping his damaged rear wheel holds until Ordway...

Had a swim, a shower, and a nap. Life is good.

My nap followed a cold shower, but the tent was too stuffy so I moved outside into the breeze. Later in the afternoon, another solo rider came into camp. We figured out that it was the guy that Matt (see Newton/Larned entries) had ridden with for a while and had been trying to get away from because of his short fuse in dealing with his bike problems. This guy was headed for the same housing accommodation as I was in Ordway in two nights, which made me a little uncomfortable, but I figured I'd come up with some other plan (to be continued...).

checking out the old fair equipment near camp

I think this turtle is just fine in the kiddie pool

Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km)
Total: 2,138 miles (3,441 km)

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