It's All Downhill From Here...

That's what they kept telling us. However, it doesn't really feel like it when the wind is blowing straight in our faces. Our days on flat ground are taking longer than they did in the mountains. Maybe the worst is not behind us. Getting caught in the dark on the way to Ordway was no fun (but sleeping in a bar was) so we have been doing much better about leaving earlier. It was a rough start because we had to ride past the massive feed lot. The strong smell of animal waste is not ideal for early morning biking. Surprisingly, we made it through without loosing a single breakfast. We can't really say too much about our riding days lately. They have been pretty uneventful. Nick has continued to be a part of the pack, we fight the winds all day,  break for lunch at something that barely constitutes as a town, then make it to our destination. 

      From Ordway we made it to Eads where we reunited with Matt and Sara once again. They had arrived before us and kind of gave us the rundown on Eads. Everything was closed because it was passed 5 o' clock except for the gas station that had a vast selection of Doritos. They did have one Mexican Popsicle left, but the cashier named Susie had already dibs'd it for herself. We should have known before we tried to buy it because her name was early sharpied across the package. Eads did have free camping in the park which is always a plus.

        Leaving Eads, we got our earliest start yet. We were on the road by 8! This would give us plenty of time to do 60 miles and be done by the early afternoon right? Given the nature of the last few posts what do you really think? Correct, we were once again wrong. If we weren't really putting some force into our pedaling we weren't going over 6 mph. At least in the mountains you eventually get a free ride downhill for a few miles. The wind never stops! And we weren't even in Kansas yet.  To most accurately understand the pain we are going through, we highly suggest checking out our friend Jess's blog http://www.roadtorhode.com/blog and read the post Wind: 1 Jess: 0. It is worth your time and saves us time from having to explain it. Everybody wins! 

   Anyway, after our usual lunch stop we only had a few miles to the Kansas border. The thing is, a few miles doesn't really feel like a few miles in this wind. And it was also a moment of conflicting emotions. We had bagged another state, but Kansas couldn't look any different from what we had seen the past few days...and that was nothing to write home about. We are still staying positive because we have heard good experiences with Kansas towns. Only time will tell. Tribune was the first place we slept in Kansas and it did not disappoint. People were very friendly to cyclists and they had more free camping that even had FREE SHOWERS!  The 6 of us took over the grass again and laid our heads to rest as we said prayers to the wind gods of Kansas. Well I guess we didn't repent enough of our wind sins because the winds were already up to 10mph when we got up and they were only getting stronger. We may have done something right though because they did at least shift from southeast winds to directly out of the south which, did make it a little easier. This allowed us to make it to Scott City earlier than expected. We ended up getting to stay in a church, all six of us again plus 3 more cyclist who were already staying there. It's up and at em again to knock out some more of Kansas.

Kansas

It's a snaaaake!

Our growing family