Hank – We left Garden City with a northwesterly wind rolling tumbleweeds across the road. The were bouncing like beach balls. The wind was slightly to our backs. Once the road turned southeast the wind pushed us like nobody’s business. I was in my top gear pedaling easy and we were doing around 20 mph. It was nice.

The road turned east and the winds increased in strength. We both had to lean to the left to stay upright. With the frame bag on my bike acting like a wind block I was having all kinds of fun keeping the bike straight. I got blown off the road once. I kept pedaling and fought to get back on. We stopped in Ingalls to eat at the cafe there. We stayed for a couple of hours waiting for the worst of tbe wind to pass. The forecast called for slightly decreasing winds after 2:00.

When we left the wind did seem to have lessened. But the remaining 28 miles were still a struggle because the drop was from 25 to 20 mph and the gusts from 40 down to 30.

We finally got to Dodge City and still had 3.5 miles to go to Warren and Lindy’s house, our Warmshowers hosts. Google maps said the route was mostly flat. The hill we were looking at made that an easy BS call. To make matters worse it was into the wind. Two miles later we turned east and had a bit of relief.

Lindy and Warren welcomed us, showed us to our room, and Kathy and I quickly got cleaned up for dinner. Lindy made a wonderful dinner. We got to meet their friends, Denise and Luke, who came over for dinner and hung out with us a while.

After Denise and Luke left we chatted into the evening with Warren and Lindy’s while we waited for our laundry to finish. Warren and Lindy are very generous people and their conversations are always interesting. They’ve been hosting for about five years now. Some of their relatives still think they’re crazy to allow strangers stay in their house.

Kathy – The winds made 46 miles of our 53 mile ride today pretty difficult. We only had seven miles where we had a totally awesome tailwind. The sun was shining and the temps were in the low 70’s. I counted 44 tumbleweeds roll by in front of us. 💨💨💨. We both really struggled to keep our bikes upright during the 46 miles of side and/or headwinds. The sustained winds were 25-30 mph and the gust were 35-40 mph. I was thankful we took a meal break and the winds decreased a little, not much but definitely more manageable. We slugged along for 26 more miles and arrived in Dodge City, Kansas. The last few miles were pretty dreadful going uphill on heavy bicycles with headwinds around 30 mph. Needless to say both Hank and I were thrilled to arrive at our Warm Showers host home of Warren and Lindy.

Warren and Lindy are super nice people. Lindy made a fabulous dinner. Their friends Denise and Luke joined us. The dinner conversations and laughter never stopped. Everyone made us feel so welcome and comfortable. All four of these people are really wonderful. We are so thankful for Warren and Lindy opening up their home to us as well as so many other cyclists. There are some really outstanding people in Dodge City, if you are ever in the neighborhood be sure to stop and meet some. We were lucky to meet four great ones tonight. Thankful the tough days ride is over. Grateful and happy for the new friendships we made today.

A couple of notes…

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