Day 23 -- Lamar, CO to Garden City, KS

Miles: 103.98
Total Miles: 1694.96
Time: 6:25
Average Speed: 16.2 mph
Max Speed: 25.3 mph
Flats Today: 1
Total Flats: 9
Elevation Gain: 836 ft
Weather: Head winds all day around 90 degrees

Well, today was difficult. We had head winds from the start, and they only got stronger. I'm too much of a wimp to not complain about the head winds. Since we went 121 miles yesterday against the wind, and 104 miles today against the wind, we are both pooped. These head winds are tearing me apart. I can't take them anymore... but I might have to since there will probably be more tomorrow. In addition, there was nothing to look at except fields of wheat and corn. It was an extremely hard day, but looking back, I enjoyed it. We got to see bigger fields of wheat and corn than what Puthoff has. You have nothing on these farmers out in Kansas... we see either a horizon of wheat, corn, or on occasion, a horizon of cattle. We woke up at 5:15, ate breakfast at 6:00, and loaded at 7:00. Fran wasn't late today, so I think he caught our hint from yesterday. We were one of the first ones out today, and we were going smoothly for about 15 miles before things started to go downhill. Larry, one of the guys we were riding with today, had a flat at mile 15, so we helped him change it, then got going again. Once we got on our bikes, we realized that the wind had really picked up. From then on out, it was tough. We dragged on for about 10 more miles before we came upon a town with a very peculiar name. The name reminded me of something or someone back home, but I just couldn't remember... maybe I'll think of it when I get back to work. Congratulations Holly, it's good to know our accountant is famous.

After the town of Holly, we rode another 10 miles to the first sag stop. We were only 33 miles in, and we were already tired. We ate a bunch of food, then we headed out onto the road again. Only about a mile after the sag stop, we arrived in Kansas... Now the scenery's going to get really boring. We took some pictures by the sign, then we moved on. It was a long ride into the head winds for about 30 miles before we came upon anything. At one point I just got tired of riding in a pace line since we've been riding in them for almost the entire trip. We pushed against the wind for a long time before we came upon the sign that told us we were switching from mountain to central time. We took some pictures since there was nothing else, then we moved on. Our phones actually didn't changed time until about 10 miles past the sign. Wade tried jumping back and forth from one side of the sign to the other, but he didn't have any success... We found later that our phones wouldn't change until we got connection from a tower in the central time zone.

We rode about 10 miles past the sign, then we saw the second sag stop. We were all getting excited to get to the sag when out of nowhere we heard a "bang," It sounded like a shotgun, but it was my tire. I blew a huge hole in my tube and all the way through my tire. I don't know how it happened, but I'm glad that it happened only about 100 feet from the sag stop. While I was at the sag I got one of their extra tires and tubes, put those on my wheel, ate a bunch of food, then headed out again. We rode another 30 miles against strong head winds into the hotel, got in the pool, took a shower, then went to eat at a buffet. What a day, but at least tomorrow is only 51 miles instead of another century. By the way, we just did 3 centuries in 4 days... We are exhausted.