Lebanon, MO to Cuba, MO - 92 miles

We woke up to a continuation of yesterday's dreary weather of rain and cold temperatures. It was about 40 degrees and steadily drizzling. I had on a long sleeve polypro long sleeve undershirt, a jersey, winter gloves, and my Gore-tex rain jacket. Shorts, leg warmers, and booties on the lower half. I was pretty comfortable. Under arm vents in my jacket allowed me to cool off when chugging up hills.

We started out going up and down rollers. We were riding alongside I-44 on parts of what used to be the famous route 66. Signs marked this, calling it "historic route 66". I'm pretty sure this is the road people took to go out west earlier in the last century. I was riding alone for the most part, group riding in hills is not easy due to the constant changing of pace, different climbing abilities, descent rates, etc. The first stop was quick. The next stop was after a nice downhill in the town of Newberg, where the center of town activity seemed to revolve around the local pool hall. Some curious kids watched us and posed across the street while us bicyclists drank tasty hot chocolate.

We climbed out of Newberg, passing through the town of Doolittle. Some of the houses along the roads are pretty run down and strewn with garbage and miscellaneous (lawn) furniture. Lots of lazy dogs, then a white standard poodle decided to chase us. His underbelly and front were filthy dirt brown from his tireless chases of all the passing bicyclists. A poodle chasing me for some reason did not strike the same level of fear into me as a Doberman would. I then got another flat. Phil "Moody Blues" from Florida stopped to help.

Rode up to lunch after passing through the college town of Rolla. Lunch was tomato soup, macaroni and cheese, and hot dogs. Pecan pie for dessert. There was an authentic two-seater outhouse in the back from where lunch was set up.

More rollers into the end of this short day. Had some time to catch up on my laundry, have a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes, three egg omelette, toast, and hash browns. Today's high temperature was only in the mid 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's. We are really having some screwy weather. But tomorrow sounds like excellent riding weather. Tomorrow will be our shortest day at only 81 miles. We will reach our final destination of Charleston, SC in nine more days.

Pittsburgh, KS to Lebanon, MO - 141 miles

Today we finally left Kansas. We still had a crosswind, but the terrain was rolling hills so the wind was not as much of a factor as when you are out in the middle of an open field with nothing stopping the wind for 200 miles except you. We entered Missouri early in the morning and we promptly got dumped on by steady showers. Grim riding up to the first rest stop in a cemetery.

We started out with a group leaving the first stop. Met up briefly with a local ride wearing no rain gear. Not sure what he made of us, but everyone on this ride is a decent rider, and we are all getting stronger every day. We may have intimidated him because he turned off he road.

We got strung out after the rollers started up. Up and down. Oftentimes you could see them one after another ahead of you like a roller coaster track. They are nice going down and if you hit it just right you can coast up part way the muscle over them. The rain made things a bit dicey - blinding raindrops at 40mph, slippery yellow paint lines, pickup trucks, bumpy roads; these add terror to the thrill of descending.

Lunch was hot pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs. Two different types of brownies and much needed hot chocolate. Rode through a town and saw the tractor fair going on. All your latest models and a limeade stand too!

Up and down more. Grinded up some longer hills. The rain had stopped for now. My big Gore-tex jacket was doing a good job keeping me warm. You could not stop long though, a chill would set in quick. Got my second flat of they day. Wet conditions always cause more flats due to more crap sticking to the tires. Filled up on snacks some more at the last rest stop. Back onto historic Rt. 66 for a bit then the rain kicked in again.

Today was not too bad even though the rain made things unpleasant. The scenery was good - lots of cows, horses, chickens, fields, streams, etc. More dogs although none seemed very harmful. We passed through about a half dozen trash burning smoke clouds -yeech.
Despite the bad weather the crew was extra nice to ward off our blues. Kansas has gotten to some people, and this rain is not helping. I don't think these long distances are helping either. But hey we all signed up fully expecting this. Tomorrow is a shorter day - 95 miles or so. More rain forecasted for morning.

Winfield, KS to Pittsburgh, KS - 152 miles

More Kansas today! Ughhh! I'm sick of this state. Started out as the last person to leave with Nigel. We caught up to Brian at the first stop. The weather today was in the low 60's, overcast and misty. Again the wind was blowing from the northeast, making riding perfectly miserable once more.
We rolled through one little town after another. Oftentimes a water tower was all there was to mark its place. Sometimes there was a closed gas station in town. You wonder how anyone could live here. What is there to do? The scenery has improved from previous days. They seem to have heard of trees in this part of Kansas, unlike the western part where you could look all around you for miles and not see a single tree. Added to the trees were some cows, horses, goats, creeks, ponds, and some rolling hills. At one point five horses were running in a field alongside us. That was neat.

We picked up Pat, Denise, and Mike as we rode to lunch. Lunch was noodles and hot soup, and a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. Off into the misty road. My yellow tinted sunglasses were getting too fogged up to use. We hit some nice rollers and I went off on my own plowing through them. Stopped again at next stop for some delicious chocolate brownies. Brian's wife was in town so he sped up to get home. One last stop where we had some gorp with M&M's. A local told us about a college football game in town as we rode into Pittsburgh. Got in around 6pm.

Today was a long day. The wind was obnoxious as usual. I liked the cooler temperatures. It tried to rain on us several times but did not fully open up. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain for sure. Plus another vicious crosswind. Plus 140 miles. Plus 6000 feet of climbing. Plus Lon said it is the toughest day of the tour. More details tomorrow.

Pratt, KS to Winfield, KS - 129 miles

Today continued our brutal foray into a crosswind. The wind had shifted slightly, however, and was a direct south wind instead of a southeast wind like yesterday. Nigel and I pretty much stayed together all day. At the first rest stop, Terri was playing Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska to get us in the mood for the monotonous grain silos, endless milo, corn, cotton, and sunflower fields. There were actually quite a few more trees today, which helped in sections to cut the wind down and add variety to the scenery.

At the second stop before lunch we picked up Clifford who hugged our wheels for the rest of the day. Lunch was chicken salad and chocolate Zingers. The fast guys who don't stop long left before we did. Nigel had some business to take care of in the woods, and then we pulled into the last rest stop. Refill of water bottles, some Fresca, and cookies.

We turned directly into the wind for the fifth time of the day. Crawled along to Winfield. Nice big town, what you would think of if someone said "Midwestern town" - Main Street, movie theater, furniture shops, etc.

The wind mentally taxed me again today, especially the headwind sections. One of them was on freshly paved, oily black asphalt. Gravel clinked against our bicycles, the heat rose from the fresh road, and the wind battered us like Ping Pong balls. Quite unpleasant. The road crew just shook their heads as we moved in slow motion past them.

Tomorrow we go into Missouri. We will start to get more rolling hills which will break up the riding.
This flat stuff is better than hills, but it is b-o-r-i-n-g.

Ulysses, KS to Pratt, KS - 151 miles

One person - six foot four British wonderman Nigel made today easier. He insisted on pulling Brian, Keith and I along through a brutal 30-40mph southern crosswind. We took turns sitting on his left side in echelon formation for most of the day. He says it is just as much work switching around in a pace line, and he likes to use his aero bars. Hey I won't argue.

Before this train started, however, on our way out of town at least four people were taken out by some nasty railroad tracks. Nobody was hurt, but a few wheels were put out of true (and egos bruised).

At the first stop we got a good group picture with some sunflowers in the background. After the stop the road was lined with people with disassembled tires and tubes. Little prickly burrs called goat heads had stuck into several people's tires to flatten them.

Nigel continued to power away pulling us along through this brutal flag stiffening wind. We passed some cattle feeding lots and we got about a mile of foul smelling cow shit dust in our faces. Semis plowed along the road passing us. We pulled off onto a less traveled road, which eased our nerves. More wide-open fields of milo and corn, and hardly any trees to break the wind. Lunch was grilled cheddar cheese, tomato, and red onion sandwiches. Yodels and brownies for dessert.

We muscled along through the wind. At one point in the town of Ford we met the wind head on and crawled along at barely 12 mph. Just horrible. Then a few more rest stops and we got back with an hour of sunlight to spare. A lot of people had to get sagged forward (rode in the support van) to make it back in time. Got a good group picture at the end of the ride.

This was probably one of the most difficult and mentally taxing days so far. The wind is extremely demoralizing when it is continually whistling through your ears, helmet and tossing you front wheel around. Several times we bumped elbows due to the jostling by the wind. When will this wind be at our backs? I thought a tailwind, bicycling east, and Kansas went together. Hopefully tomorrow.

La Junta, CO to Ulysses, KS - 162 miles

Today was the longest official day of the whole tour at 162 miles. We had a brisk North wind to contend with from the start. All flags were stiff as boards pointing straight across our path. We would have to contend with this nasty crosswind for most of the day.

In order to deal with it, we started out with a large group and rode a rotating pace line. Riders rode through on the right side, and then eased off when they pulled over to the left. This became very efficient, and the first 86 miles up to lunch melted away. Our core group was Nigel, Brian, Keith, yellow Spinergy Bob, Dave, Les, Steven, and I. After lunch, we had the wind at our backs for 35 miles. Keith blasted part of this section out and did not drop under 27mph. We regrouped at a rest stop, then continued to blast out the rest at similar speeds with a double pace line. We then turned into the wind again and started another rotating pace line, and did it riding echelon as well. Steve sprinted for the Kansas state line, but there was no welcome sign! We stopped at the last stop and refueled again. Excellent white macadamia chocolate chip cookies were available and eaten in quantity.

The last twenty miles were on a pretty busy road so we all rode in at our own pace. The on bike average for the day was 19.6mph. It was great to ride with such a strong experienced group of riders. Our teamwork made the day much more bearable than imagined.

Kansas is flat and there are lots of cornfields. We some cattle, and at one point, we saw a collection of llamas! Lots of farm machinery in the fields. There are still lots of small undulations in the roads as we dip down to creeks and gulleys. We are going to have to be very creative about sightseeing.
We had dinner at a museum sponsored by the town. The local residents were very nice and the food was excellent, plus the museum was pretty fancy. Dairy Queen topped the night off.

More of Kansas for the next couple of days. Another big day tomorrow with 150 miles.

Alamosa, CO to La Junta, CO - 146 miles

We were the last people to leave today at 7:15. There is supposed to be a staggered start with the slow people leaving first, then the fast riders. Some riders leave before everyone else though and are fairly fast riders. They don't stop long at stops either. Anyway, Nigel, Keith, Brian, and I started a good pace line as we rode into the blinding yellow morning sun. It was also quite nippy out; everyone was bundled up really good. We got a good rhythm going, we passed a lot of people, then Wes and Terri joined us. We got to the first stop at 30 miles. Lon was taking everyone's picture with our bicycles. Another picture of me in my bug-eye sunglasses.

We started our ascent over the 9400-foot La Veta pass. There was a good tailwind and I big-ringed it with a 53x23. Took some pictures at the summit sign. Nigel, my fellow fearless downhiller, went ahead of me, and I was right behind him. We whistled down the mountain. We both topped out at 50mph several times. Brown fields surrounded us. A fierce tailwind pushed us along at speeds between 25-40mph. We would descend over 3000 feet by the time we got to lunch. This section we did in record time.

Had a sandwich, potato chips, and a Chocolate Suzy-Q for lunch. We got another pace line going again. We picked up Spencer for a bit. Up and down through endless empty fields of brown grass. There were occasional scattered boulders and trees. A sign had warned of 72 miles without services, this was no joke.

We reassembled at the next rest stop and did not stay long. The wind began to turn on us. The next stop was at the top of a hill by a microwave radio tower. Refill of water bottles, watermelon, some Pringles and we are off again. We are taking strong pulls at the front to make this day over already. We start to enter some fields, and more populated area. The town line is declared as the sprint. Wes, Mr. 56 tooth front chaining, takes off with Brian and me in pursuit. We catch him, they draft me down a small hill, and then they both take off up it, leaving me behind. I watch Wes win the sprint up ahead. We need more of this to break things up. I just need to make sure the next town line is not at the top of a hill.

Tomorrow is our longest day at 161 miles as we go to Kansas. Hopefully the wind will be at our backs.