I was
woken by a storm at 5am. Later, at breakfast, an elderly farmer said, as they always do,
'We need the rain'. I set off later than usual, at about 7:30am, a
few drops of rain still falling. Within an hour it cleared away.
Yesterday
evening I thought of riding a double stage again today, if I wasn't too stiff from the last one, since the forecast
was for an easterly wind, but when I checked this morning only cross
winds were expected. I therefore set my sights on the usual next stop, Tribune, 75 km
away. I broke the journey halfway at Leoti for second breakfast. A little
later, I passed from the Central to the Mountain time zone, putting
me 16 instead of 15 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard time.
As I
rode, I couldn't help noticing that I had a tailwind. At Tribune I
had lunch. The woman who served me said she thought rain storms were
coming from the west and I should check the weather if I was thinking
of going on. I got out my computer and checked. The forecast for the
next six hours was for partly cloudy skies and winds from the NNE or
NE. That was just what I wanted. Because of the clock change, it was
early. I couldn't face just checking into the motel at Tribune and
wasting the favourable wind. I got back on my bike.
It was
another 93 km to Eads with one service stop along the way, where
there was also the possibility of sleeping in a church-provided lodging for cyclists, should the weather turn bad or I run out of
energy. After Tribune the traffic dwindled almost to nothing. Could
that have been due to its being Saturday afternoon?
Jameson and Laurel, eastbound |
I cycled
out of Kansas and into Colorado, my sixth state. At the state line, I
met Jameson and Laurel, cyclists heading east. Later, I met British
cyclist John, also heading east. The ground cover changed to a grass
better suited to low rainfall. At Sheridan Lake, I had a snack and a
drink, then pressed on to Eads.
John from Heathrow, eastbound |
The
total distance I cycled today was 167 km. Thus I have completed back
to back imperial centuries: more than a hundred miles on successive
days, riding a fully-loaded touring bike on a slight uphill gradient,
albeit with wind assistance. Had the wind been from the west, it
would have taken me four days to cover the distance I have come today
and yesterday. My average speed today was 21.8 km/h with the afternoon being faster than the morning.
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