| Biking
with Bill |
|
JUNE 28 LET THE CORN BEGINThe ride today took us 104 miles from Lamar, Co to Garden City, KS ("It's worth the trip"--according to the sign as you enter town). This morning, having completed a long 125 mile ride yesterday and contemplating another "century" ride today, we were mostly concerned with the WEATHER. Arriving too early for breakfast in the motel, the manager let me watch The Weather Channel on his office TV. I didn't like what I saw. It had rained in the night and it was a miserable gray sky greeting us this morning. The forecast said rain likely, but more importantly--WINDS--NE at 7 to 10 mph. Bad News!
The wind was in our face all day, and for all 104 miles that took about 9 hours to complete.The wind drains you of energy, slows you considerably and works on your psyche. We did pace lines again, which helped, but in the end you just have to keep pedaling. Hard work. The good news is we completed back-to-back century rides. We crossed into Kansas--our 5th state, and are now on central time.
We are becoming very familiar with the cattle industry: its feed yards, its cattle trucks, its odors, its packing plants etc. We also saw miles and miles of corn fields, hay fields, wheat fields--some even with operating oil or gas rigs. We passed by the former Camp Amache, a retention camp for Japanese-Americans during WWII. Lunch was in the town of Syracuse, KS, filled with grain silos and a subway sandwich shop. At a pizza shop in town some of our boys were interviewed by the local newspaper about our cross country trip. They gave her information about this website, we will see what happens. Today is Mason's 29th birthday. We arrived together at the motel in Garden City to signs, and a cake and brownies sent by his family.
After dinner we had a party with most of our gang attending in the small saloon attached to the Day's Inn. His parents had also set up a bar tab--Great Gift! After smoothing things over with the locals, he played on the juke box--over and over again-- the song, "Dust In The Wind" by Kansas. Perfect! - Bill
|
|
Contact Bill now at bill@bikingwithbill.org |
Journal Entry Home