Fri Aug 22nd, Scott City, KS -> Eads, CO (106 miles)

breakfast : imitation grape nuts with milk
lunch : chef salad aka cheese + ham + wilted lettuce. good honey mustard though
100 mile snack : beef stick (aaron), 5 starburst superball (gmo)
dinner : don't get me started

the first 25 miles we fought a pretty bad headwind so we stopped for an hour at the gas station in leoti. we met Kevin there, the local youth pastor, who bought us coffee and rockstar. very nice guy who has done bike kansas and wants to go cross country one day. picture coming asap.

Kevin, a Kansas youth pastor, bought us drinks at the gas station.
Heck of a nice guy.

After leaving Leoti, the wind lessened a little, or at least gusted from a variety of directions so we started to speed up. The last 10 miles before we hit Tribune were actually fairly calm weather. Since it was the last stop before 58 miles of no services, we took a lunch break. Sure enough, the wind was back when we started biking again. After only a few miles though it started to shift from the South West to the North and ever so slightly East. In other words, we picked up a small tailwind. We were cruising along pretty nicely when we encountered Sheridan Lake. The auto shop that sold sodas was no longer selling sodas but a brand new gas station had appeared in its place. We ran inside and grabbed a few drinks - Gatorade, v8 fusion, and of course, rockstar. Upon leaving we started discussing how we should make a commercial for rockstar. Almost the instant we left the gas station we were racing along at 20-25 mph and kept the pace for about half an hour. Yep, tailwind + downhill can't run forever. Still, it was nice to see what a few hundred feed could do for the trip. In the Appalachians 200 feet of vertical descent is wasted on your brake pads, but this was so gradual we rode it for just over 10 miles before we had to climb back. Oh, we actually gained about 1300 feet in elevation today - at 4200 or so right now, which is the highest so far.

Grain Elevator + House of Guy Who Runs It
= A Western Kansas Town

After the only diner in town screwed up our order we were so tired and upset that we decided to get a room at the econo lodge rather than pitch our tents in the dark. Not sure how dinner managed to take 2 hrs, but we want to make up the time somehow.

Fellow touring cyclist.
His wife was too exhausted to talk,
so they declined our offer to join us for dinner.
Or maybe we smelled bad. Can it be both?