Today’s ride certainly had an “old west” theme to it. After leaving Liberal (were there ANY
Liberals in the old west? Or the new west for that matter?), we headed east for 30 miles. The views looked like what you think of when you think of Kansas. Farmland. Some rolling hills.
I watched for a few minutes while a
crop duster flew his plane back and forth over a farm on the other side of Highway 54 (we’ve
been riding US54 now since Tucumcari in New Mexico).
There was a roadside marker about an Indian ambush of some surveyors in the 1870's.
Then our first sag stop in Meade, Kansas brought us to the Dalton Gang hideout. Certainly the Dalton gang could not have kept
a low profile with all the cyclists that were hanging around there today!
After heading east and having to contend with a pretty strong crosswind from the south, we turned at Mineola, Kansas. Now instead of a crosswind, we had 20 miles of straight tail
wind as we pedaled up US283 toward that famous town of Dodge City. Our hotel was located off of Wyatt Earp
Boulevard. Before we got there off to
the right was the Boot Hill Museum, the rehabbed old western street scene
featuring among other buildings, the Long Branch Saloon! There’s also an old steam engine to
commemorate Dodge City’s railroad heritage.
And of course you are probably familiar with the old saying “Get theheck
out of Dodge.” Well the city has twisted
that around a bit and when we checked into the hotel we got a bag of Dodge City
promotion items that carry the slogan “Get the heck out of into Dodge.” There’s so much western motif that even the
room numbers in the hotel look like something out of the old west.
Today was a tough 81 mile ride, except for those last
glorious 20 miles. The first 30 miles
weren’t bad; the next 30 had the crosswind; the last 20 had the tailwind; and
it was almost 100 degrees! It’s going to
be hot again tomorrow when we have another 80+ to Great Bend, Kansas.
Here’s today’s data.
See you tomorrow night. If
tomorrow’s post doesn’t appear until Sunday evening, you’ll know my writing was
preempted by watching Game3 of the Stanley Cup Finals!
Let’s Go Caps!
Bruce
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