Wow….what a day….
Up at 4:50 am this morning. A cool 61 degrees and cloudy. Don’t really need a map today…doesn’t matter if I do 50 miles or 100 miles it’s straight West on hwy 96…can’t get lost. On the road at 5:20 am.
Hit Scott City at about 7am 24 Miles in. A great morning….no wind yet. I averaged nearly 16mph here. Looked for a restaurant in town for breakfast but didn’t see anything. Stopped at the Dollar General Store and had two slices of breakfast pizza and a V8. Didn’t stay long…wanted to take advantage of the no wind conditions while I could.
Cranking this morning….9:20am and rolled in to Leoti with 49 miles down. Stopped at a gas station for a Diet Coke and sneakers bar. Quick stop then back on the bike to take advantage of this tail wind that has stared—maybe 3-4 mph—before it stops or shifts.
10:30 entered mountain time zone…I guess that makes it 9:30 am and I am 60 miles in….man what a difference a day makes. The wind is starting to pick up and shift to coming out of the south, but it was a great tail wind all morning so no complaints here.
It’s 10:30 am—again :-)—and I’m in Tribune. 71 miles down and I’m here in time for a second breakfast. Not sure how far I’ll go today but this is shaping up to be a monster mileage day. I’m feeling like Lance Armstrong minus the blood doping—unless you consider orange juice, Diet Coke, gas station breakfast pizza and V8 juice doping, then I’m guilty! 🙂
Crossed into Colorado about noon at 87 miles in. Glad to be out of Kansas but everything still looks like Kansas 🙂
Seeing Massive grain silos all day….could see the one in Sheridan Lake with FarmCo Inc on it for at least 20 miles out.
In Sheridan Lake at 1:30….101 miles for the day so far. Got a turkey sub, ice tea, V8, Diet Coke and bag of Funyuns at Hawks Nest Convenience Store. Thought this was going to be a bigger town, but not much here. Going to eat, relax a bit then move on to next town.
About 5 miles out from Sheridan Lake I see a huge thunderstorm with dark cloud formation in the northwest—right where I was headed. A couple miles later I see serious lightening and start hearing thunder—looked like it may be 20 or so miles away but I was going to run into it, or it me. I was in the middle of nowhere so had to make a decision—7 miles back to Sheridan, which I knew I couldn’t make in time, wait for the storm to hit me, or ride into it.
I look on my map and see where a stream crosses the road about 3-4 miles ahead, so I figure there must be a bridge. So I peddle like crazy and sure enough a road bridge and railroad bridge—the train tracks have been running parallel to the road nearly all day. So, I head for the train track bridge about 75 yards from the road. I didn’t think to just leave my bike near the road…I took it with me, over barbed wire, cactus, knee high tumble weeds, you name it, it was there.
Have you ever been in a situation where you start something and think….this was a bad idea? But, you are half way into it so what the heck, may as well keep going. Well, that was me. I should have just left my bike by the road instead of taking it with me under the bridge. I bought top of the line touring tires for this bike before I left for this trip so kept thinking maybe they will be able to take this and I won’t get a flat.
Well, it was a huge thunderstorm complete with thunder, lightening, rain, and hail. When it was over I rolled my bike back through the cacti, tumble weeds, and managed to miss the barbed wire this time, but when I got back on the road I had not one, but two, flat tires. Over 2,000 miles without a flat and now I have two—dang it.
So I pull over by the creek and fix both flats, but on the bright side it wasn’t a total loss because I had planned to rotate my tires somewhere in Colorado anyway….just not at this particular time after riding 110+ miles.
Why rotate the tires? Since the rear wheel is taking the brunt of the load that tire has worn so that it has a flat spot on the outside vs the rounded shape the front tire still has….in short, it’s wearing out faster than the front tire. I’ve attached a picture of the two tires side by side—see if you can tell the rear tire from the front tire.
After I fixed the flats then I made it to Eads and am staying at the Cobblestone Inn and Suites. Rob is here along with his college friend, Don, who drove down from Denver to meet him. Don brought steaks for us to grill and we, or at least I, have had way to many beers tonight….that’s why I “forgot” to post this update until the following morning 🙂 I’ve only drank maybe 2 beers this while trip, but it was a long day so had 3 or 4 tonight 🙂
A monster day with 126.7 miles, survived a thunderstorm complete with rain, thunder, lightening, hail, and not one, but two flat tires, and still had time to make a video of the sunrise and take several photos….a great day of cycling. Feeling strong and good.
