July 23, 2014
Day 55 - Great Bend to Ellsworth: Sorry, No - we did NOT order the up hills into the 30 mph Headwinds...it must have been those other folks!
Well, I guess you can tell by the subtitle what kind of a day we had. Who knew? We were looking forward to a nice little 40 mile ride. End early and feel like we had a day off from these 60-milers. But NO -Mother Nature had something to say to us. It's not over yet, is what I think she was saying, don't get comfortable.
When we opened the door to the outside we had a feeling something was up. It was so humid you could feel the air and it didn't feel like it cooled down at all during the night. We headed east on 56/156 Hwy and there was already a little headwind....before sunrise. We were optimistic and thought once we turned onto 156 east the wind would turn and it would be ok. Not what happened.
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When we turned onto 156 not only did we still have a headwind. It was blasting and proceeded to do so for the next forty miles. We had gusts up to 30 mph and it was an uphill grind the entire way. It was like climbing a ladder....we would go up see the crest hope for a down but it would be flat for awhile then climb another level. They were not rollers just plain up. I am sure if there wasn't a blasting headwind we might not have even noticed the incline.
The saving grace was that it stayed cloudy and overcast and that cooled it down. It must have rained early in the morning as the ground was wet. The humidity lowered and it was not bad at all. For a few hours I was in a very good mood. Thankful for the cooler temp because of the wind but after awhile that mood started to change. It is interesting how your mood can change during the day. I was feeling so happy and excited about the end nearing and then I was feeling like it would never end. We were working so hard just to move forward. It ended up taking six hours to go 43 miles. ; (
Somewhere around thirty miles the sun came out and it didn't get as hot as yesterday. Thank you! We made it to our motel and dumped the bikes and walked to the mini mart and bought so much food and drinks the lady thought we were nuts. Jack told her we had a note from our doctor that said we could eat like this. She wasn't the laughing kind...just raised her eyebrow and kept ringing. It was snacks, breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.
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That's all I can think of...we have a longer 64'ish mile ride tomorrow. We are hoping that because we turn a little north east that we will at least get a sidewind instead. We are also leaving an hour earlier. So, it's nearly bedtime now. Good Night!
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 2,195 miles (3,533 km)
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