Today was an odd day. On an off day there’s usually laundry and lots of sleep. We did the sleeping in thing, and then Chad and I went to IHOP for breakfast. The hostess/server there took 3-4 minutes to even appear, and then was the most surly person I’ve seen in months. Rather than endure…

Today was an 81 mile ride to Emporia, Kansas, the self-proclaimed gravel cycling capital of the world. There’s a big series of gravel rides this weekend, some of which require several years trying through a lottery system to enter. We’ll be here for a rest day tomorrow but gone by the weekend. We rode through…

Today was a shorter day, 64 miles due east across Kansas. Again the weather was good with mostly crosswinds and temperatures not too hot. We passed the small town of Chase, the town of Lyons (pronounced Lions), and wound up in McPherson. McPherson and neighboring Conway are actually home to huge underground petroleum product storage…

Kansas was quiet today. We had an 87 mile ride to Great Bend with mostly crosswinds, cool weather, and no rain. We passed the park above, which is midway between New York and San Francisco. It’s not quite our halfway point, which is still 3 days away. The park also has a small museum with…

Today was an 84 mile ride from Liberal to Dodge City, Kansas. The forecast last night was for thunderstorms all morning, and the sky this morning said “Take warning.” The storms never materialized and we wound up having a great ride with stiff crosswinds which turned into a strong tailwind for the last 20 miles.…

Welcome to Kansas. Today was a short 42 mile ride from Guymon, OK to Liberal, Kansas. The high school team here are the Redskins. Liberal? Indeed not! Last night we had a ferocious thunderstorm in Guymon, and today we skirted more storms to our south and east. Alas, tomorrow they should catch up with us.…

Today was an easy 73 mile downhill cruise from Dalhart, Texas to Guymon, Oklahoma. The day started cool with a heavy fog/light drizzle that persisted through most of the ride. It never got hot, it never quite rained, and the wind was never an issue. The horizon is a long way off in this part…

Today was mostly a quiet day travelling Northeast on US 54 to Dalhart, Texas. We’ll be riding on this arrow straight road for the next 3 days. We were able to skirt the morning rains but we could not avoid the steady northeast wind. We were riding from left to right. Because of the wind…

Today we had a beautiful 109 mile ride through remote New Mexico from Las Vegas to Tucumcari. We were told it was named “The Loneliest Highway in America” but actual documentation of this is sparse. It’s a very quiet road with endless views. No rain, no hail, no flats, and no oppressive heat. All this…