Tough Times

Rolling "Hills" with bluestem grasses where they did cattle drives

Smart cows - it was darned hot (96+)

A hill in Kansas

Mini oil rig, another common sight in E. Ks

I expected Kansas to be easy. Flat, breezy, sunny with the occasional tornado, and easy. For the past two days, I've been pedaling at least as hard as I was in the Blue Ridges and only having slightly better speeds. The prairies are lovely - lush green, spots of trees and scrub, sapphire blue lakes (and muddy creeks). Eastern Kansas does have some gentle changes in terrain (not exactly true hills, but it isn't truly flat either). Most of the area is dedicated to cows and corn, and most of what we've been passing has just been fenced-in grasslands. The problem comes when you add heat (our days start before 7:00 with temperatures in the high 70s), humidity (never below 70%), and the wind. Oh the wind. Though the weather channel usually claims something around 15 with gusts up to 23mph, this wind feels insane. There are a few different feelings you get riding in such constant, blustery wind. The one that predominated the day yesterday was that of the wind wrapping around everything. I could feel the eddies being created on the right side of my body, and it felt like I had some kind of clothing on my lower legs while pedaling. After a bit, I couldn't tell which direction the wind was blowing without looking at the grass because it was pushing on every available piece of skin. Today, the wind made it feel like there was some wall pressing against my side or lead bricks connected to the sheltered half of my body. The wind controls speed too, of course. There was definitely a threshold (even in a headwind) around 7-8mph that the wind wouldn't let me drop below and wouldn't let me get far beyond. Yesterday, we did 65 miles from Chanute to Eureka, and none of that was with a tailwind. Today we did 35 miles (20 off route) in to El Dorado, and all of it was with a headwind. 50 miles over the past two days have been on a major US highway (only one beep), and the pressure fronts coming off the passing traffic are crazy tough to deal with. I'm already leaning with most of my weight in to the wind, and I get pushed a few feet one way or another whenever something passes moderately close to me. Wahoo. Most of my focus has been on staying upright the past couple of days. Beyond that, I keep my head down and keep pedaling. Since I've been staying in survival-mode, I haven't paid too much attention to the surroundings. Dad's at about the same point, though he's also been dealing with hamstring cramps. Tomorrow we'll continue off-route through the northern part of Wichita and go back toward route and Hutchinson. It will be yet another long ride, but Kansas it all about convincing yourself to keep turning the wheels. There isn't much to stop you, but there's certainly enough from the sun and wind to discourage ya. Speaking of sun, over the past couple of days, I've managed to get quite nasty sunburns. I've been applying/reapplying sunscreen like mad, but I don't think the spray stuff we've been using works to well. We're switching over to the other form my mom brought now that I have a thin line of 3rd degree on my leg (ouch). The high mileage days also have my saddle sores in horrible shape. Anti-monkey-butting frequently; hope it helps.