Century Ride
Day 13 - Lamar, CO to Garden City, KS (106 Miles and 700 feet of climbing)
Today, we rode our longest ride at over 100 miles, otherwise known as a century ride. We are all starting to find our mojo and put behind the bug bites, aches and pains that had bothered us during the first week. The weather was beautiful. Temperatures ranged between 65 and 85 degrees with a cloud cover most of the day blocking out the sun. This was the first day the temperature did not go above 90. Interestingly, I just received an Emergency Alert for severe thunderstorms for the next 2 hours. Luckily, we are safe and sound in the hotel.
Shannon started the day as usual and rode a strong 51 miles. She was not planning to ride so far, but we called Robin and adjusted our meeting point, because she was feeling good. We had a tail/cross wind, which helped us maintain a good speed. Along the way, there was not much to see other than farms and grain silos. The land and riding were as flat as a pancake. We saw a lot of huge grasshoppers on the road; they were at least 3-4 inches. We passed into Kansas, which is our fourth state of the trip. We met up with Robin on Main St in Syracuse, KS, refreshed our water bottles and ate some snacks.
Robin and I had different experience in the last half of the ride. The wind changed, and we had a 5-13mph head/cross wind the entire 55 miles. We knew this would be the case based on the forecast, but it was still depressing when we hit it. We wanted to make the century mark, but did not know if it would be possible, so we met Shannon in Lakin, KS at a convenience store. After a 48 ounces of Coke and Hostess Chocolate donuts, we were on our way convinced that we could make it to Garden City. Along the way, we crossed into the Central Time Zone. Another hour of sleep lost. One more stop to refill our bottles and we were just 15 miles from our destination. The last 5 miles were tough as we were tired and out of energy, but we pushed through and met Shannon at the hotel.
Tomorrow, we are taking a day off to rest our weary legs and do some chores. We have ridden 8 days since our last rest day. Besides, it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, and we would like to avoid riding in the rain as much as possible.
