Day 25: In the Middle

Dodge City to Great Bend, KS
Miles:  85  Climb:  590
Total Miles:  1,809

We left the hotel early, earlier than usual this morning due to the threat of thunderstorms in the afternoon.  Our route for the past few days has been southeast.  Today we headed northeast and were blessed with with a strong tail wind, the first good tail wind we've had since Day 6.  Spirits were buoyed and we rode fast, talking about how we deserved this wind to our backs after repeated days of headwind.  The first SAG stop was at mile 36, at a park which claims to be in the middle of the US, equidistance between San Francisco and New York.  There was a small museum and a recreated sod house.  I spent quite a bit of time there, so the rest of my group headed on without me.

After the SAG stop I rode the rest of the day alone, and I really enjoyed it.  I trained alone riding the country roads around Ann Arbor, so today was like a training day.  I had a lot of time to do some good thinking.  I did a lot of good thinking.  My pace was steady.  I was relaxed in the saddle.  I was in a zone. There is nothing more satisfying than to find your "zone" in an endurance sport.

The scenery was very flat and I could see the huge grain elevators ahead from miles away.  I rode from elevator to elevator thinking about my childhood, my parents and my family.  The villages I rode through (Wright, Spearville, Offerle, Kinsley, Garfield) exist only because of the grain elevators that are there.  I wondered as I rode through those tiny towns what impression the Europeans in our group were getting from this trip across America.  They certainly are not seeing the typical tourist spots in the US.  They are seeing places and lifestyles that many Americans have not seen.

Because of the early start and the steady pace, I got to the hotel early.  I washed out my kit in the sink, as I normally do, but today, instead of hanging my clothes over the air conditioner to dry I took advantage of a little tree outside my hotel window.  It made a good clothesline and I thought it was a fitting end to the day.

The thunderstorm never materialized, but the forecast is for rain in the morning. Temperatures are more moderate, in the high eighties.  We will delay our start if it is storming because tomorrow is a short day, just 65 miles.