Day 23, Monday, June 27, 2005

Lamar, CO to Garden City, KS

(590 feet of climbing)
104 miles, 14.9mph, 6hr 54min 35sec
Max speed 26mph

Up at 4:45, 5:30 buffet breakfast at our hotel the Best Western Cow Palace: scrambled eggs, hash browns, pancakes, fresh fruit, juice and coffee, 6:30 load luggage. 6:45 on the road.

Today was another century (104 miles), so we are up and out early. We traveled on RT 50 all day and passed into Kansas 34 miles out. Most of the Colorado roads were 'chip seal' - ugh! and so far the roads in Kansas are smooth. There wasn't much for photo opps today. I got to SAG 1 today at 8:45, 33 miles in 2 hours - not too bad, left at 9:00.

We are heading almost due East and we had a SSE wind at 20 - 30 mph. That translates to an 'almost' head wind. Sometimes the wind would shift slightly to the east so at times we did encounter head winds. The temperature rose to 102F by noontime and we kinda slowly "wilted" as the day went on, our energy being sapped from us. This was especially true by the time we reached SAG 2, 78 miles out at a Dairy Queen. This is where I had lunch and a DQ.

As the afternoon progressed, the clouds began to accumulate and darken, but the weather (rain and hail) we had yesterday did not develop today. YEAH! I was in the saddle today for 7 hours and several cyclists were more than that.

I arrived at our hotel - Best Value Inn - at 3:30 (now 4:30 Central time). When I entered the hotel lobby I was hot, sweaty and tired. What do I see? Is it a marriage? Over beside the check in counter is ice water, orange juice and cookies. WOW! This doesn't happen very often. The owners here were so kind to set this up. It was so appreciated by us. Many thanks to Nilesh and Meeta Kapadia, owners of Best Value Inn in Garden City, Kansas.

We had route RAP at 5:15 and then went to dinner at Golden Corral. The food was there and I stuffed myself. I'm drinking huge amounts of water and Pepsi.

Tomorrow will be a short 51 mile ride to Dodge City.

breakfast at Best Western Cow Palace

not much here!

SAG 1 at rest stop

Another new state

Lunch SAG 2, Christine, Georgia, SandiBeach

irrigating a cornfield

What a pleasant surprise at Best Value Inn

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