Day 5--Tailwinds to Kansas!

Fierce thunderstorms last night pelted the hotel.  I was on the top floor and it sounded like the hail was going to come clear through the roof. But the passing of the storm brought a welcome change for today.  The wind was at our backs!  In a way it was a shame that we had such a nice day on such a short day—just under 40 miles.  US54 had smooth, wide shoulders (except in one short construction zone in northern Oklahoma) and with the tailwind everyone was in Liberal, Kansas by noon. For me this is the third new state (I already had Texas),and since the group left Los Angeles, this morning was the sixth state line that they have all crossed.

 

Today’s ride was through typical Great Plains geography—occasional small towns, grain elevators, wide open skies, relatively flat roads and for the third straight day the Union Pacific Railroad ran parallel to the highway.

Twenty miles into the ride, we had our first sag stop (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, sag stands for “supplies and gear.”  Although maybe the g should stand for “grub”.  Today’s stop was set up outside the Chamber of Commerce in the suggestively named Oklahoma town of “Hooker.”  When I asked the lady from the C of C if the town got it’s name from a particular “industry”, she laughed and said that it was actually named for a Civil War general named Joseph Hooker.  However the Chamber was not reluctant to capitalize on its name with a range of T-Shirts, postcards, etc. that reference the more commonly thought of definition for the town name!

Not far from Liberal was the Welcome to Kansas sign. Since I rode most of today’s ride solo, I let my bicycle pose as the photo prop for the welcome sign picture.

With such great riding conditions, and such a short ride, we arrived before lunch and before the rooms at the hotel were ready.  After going over to the Subway, one member of our group who I rode with the last two days on the paceline, Rod, said that just down the street from the hotel was one of Liberal’s attractions—Dorothy’s house from the Wizard ofOz.  For those of you who don’t know, although I knew my wife as Dot, her given name was Dorothy. 

How could I not go visit Dorothy’s house?  Especially on the morning after her beloved Washington Capitals evened up their Stanley Cup Final playoff series with the Vegas Knights at one game apiece.  If you need a little more background on the significance of that playoff  to my ride, see the 2^nd post in this blog entitled, "Do Cycling and the Stanley Cup Mix?"

The data  and "video" from today’s ride are at:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1608848179

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2742002165

https://www.relive.cc/view/1608848179

For those of you who have posted comments.  I was unable to respond to them until today (technical glitch).  But now I have done so under your comments, so go on back and see my snappy repartee (yeah, right!) where you commented.   Hopefully I'll be able to do that going forward.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have favorable tailwinds again for our 83 mile ride to Dodge City, Kansas.  Right now I’m dealing with a saddle sore issue.  I’ll see how it is in the morning and hope to be able to ride.  I don’t want to have to pass up a day with good tailwinds!

Bruce