When we started at the crack of daylight from Yolanda and Bill’s lovely home, it was so cold we had to put on gloves and toe warmers. By 3:40 pm, it had gotten up to 100 degrees. Fortunately, Sandra didn’t tell us until later. We cooked in Kansas. I thought I had finished with desert temperatures a while ago. I guess the cool Colorado mountains spoiled me. In a similar way, after traversing Cuchara Pass, I thought I had finished climbing, but the downhill toward Trinidad from there had at least three steep (as in 9%) climbs.
Brenda and I rode 116 miles today with Sandra sagging for her first time. For the first 100 miles, the shoulder was not wide enough for Brenda and me to ride side by side to pass the miles away with conversation.The final miles of the ride were on Route 400, a major trucking route through Kansas. However, it had very wide smooth shoulders and Brenda and I were able to talk our way to the end. It was Brenda’s first ride ever of over 100 miles. Congratulations, Brenda! Congratulations to Sandra, too, for her excellent first time ever sagging!
Today’s ride went through politically correct Gray County Wind Farm near Montezuma and a not politically correct field of metal sculptures in Mullinville KS. To be politically correct, I did not include photos of the politically incorrect metal sculptures.
Ride details
Start location: Ulysses KS
End location: Greensburg KS
Distance: 116 miles
Cumulative distance: 1476.9 miles
Elevation gain: 872.7 feet
Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/718363431
It was hot in Fort Scott today, too! Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you out! ~TS30 🙂
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Thank you, Kristi! I’ll let you know.
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Great teamwork out there today!
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No kidding! Someone got good training!
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Nice ride! But now I wanna know what was so un-pc about the sculptors you didn’t take pictures of …. 😆
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Look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XrcuZuSJi4
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Hard to imagine cold weather
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Hard to believe the range of temperature within a day!
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I’ve driven through Kansas many times… There is no doubt that having company to help pass the miles is a big benefit!
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Company evaporates the miles. I’ll be sad to leave friendly Kansas as I was sad to leave beautiful Colorado.
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It is so nice that you had company for all those miles at your start through Kansas even if you could not ride much of the way side by side. Just nice to know that someone is with you along for the ride. Fantastic miles yesterday! Congratulations!
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Amazing. See more in the post I just put up called “I Kan.”
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We saw all the windmill farms along the northern route when we drove it last year too on the way to Denver, All of them surprised me but great to see.
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Very encouraging to see so many wind farms. A little discouraging that many individual turbines were turned off. I heard the renewables are flooding the energy market and “the grid” has not yet learned how to cope with the uneven energy supply from renewables. We need some smart people thinking how to solve that good problem.
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That’s about 230 miles in 48 hours – you must be ahead of schedule. Happy to see the family support Now what about your birthday tomorrow?
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We are right on schedule. I’ll have a rest day in Wichita the day after my birthday and more celebrating than I could wish for on my birthday there. See my blog post called “I Kan” that I just posted!
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Hey! I grew up near Montezuma, Iowa, and rode from L.A. to Boston in 2008 with CrossRoads Cycling Adventures. On our xc route, Madrid, N.M. was an artsy community and had lots of sculptures along the highway. Best wishes for the remainder of your trip.
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Nice trip, Bob! I love the creativity and humor in the artsy communities. They give the places character.
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Congratulations Brenda and Sandra! Thanks for the update and wonderful pix!
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Each sag and co-cylist adds personality to the adventure.
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Love keeping up with your adventure!
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Loving it and so happy to share it!
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