Day 23, 104 miles, Garden City, KS. Matt’s Birthday!

Today my youngest child, Matt, is no longer a teenager. Congratulations, Matt for making it to 20. Matt is working this summer as an EMT for a transport company and in his first paid capacity as a Stage Manager.

The ride in brief: Everyone found today to be very difficult. The wind was behind us for the first 70 miles and then got ugly in our face as the day got hotter. We crossed into Eastern Kansas, which not surprisingly, looks a lot like Western Colorado. I crossed the little piss stream that is the Arkansas River. She looked spent, but I noticed that the levies were about 100 yards apart. She must get seasonal furry. The historical marker says that there have been battles over the water for hundreds of years, with at least five Indian tribes claiming Arkansas water as their own. We were on US-50 yesterday, and were on it all day today. It parallels the Santa Fe trail, and in parts, runs the exact same route. Off to the side of the road, there is a section where the rut marks from the wagons are still visible.

We went to the Golden Corral for dinner and will have breakfast there tomorrow. Then I went to the Target across the parking lot. Not that I really needed anything, I just wanted to be a normal person doing a normal thing. I bought a new pair of cargo shorts, a wicking tea shirt, and another pair of sun glasses, all if which, if not needed, were at least things that I could use.

Tomorrow we’re riding to Dodge City. At route rap, Andy told us about all the fun things we can do there. He also went over the procedure to follow if a tornado hits. Everyone had the same question, “But what do we do with out bikes?” (no joke)

Statistics: 103 miles @ 14.3 mph. 7,000 calories expended, 673 feet of climb : - ) current elevation = 2,690.