Day 8. Larned, KS- Another Century!

East to Larned from Garden City departing around 8am and arriving in Larned at 5:15.  We had the blessing of tailwinds for about 80 of the miles for a nice change. We hadn't originally planned two 100+ mile days but we are learning on the road you take what the weather gives you and what your body and mind will bear.

About 15 miles to go until Larned. Taking a little break and charging up the furnace with Chex Mix!

Just 6 miles outside of Larned we found this really cool national park Ft. Larned.  We decided to explore. They happened to have a big historic gathering going on. 

Inside the visitors center we found this character, Mr. Gilpen from Boulder, about 5 miles from where we live. He is a dedicated historian and plays the role of the Union Calvary medic at the fort. The fort is just north of the Sante Fe Trail and was used to protect the settlers from the Indians around 1870. 

---

I told Angela that since she was a good girl today she could have a shake at Sonic, and it was 1/2 price after 8!!💲

She's soooo happy!!

Back on the road again!

A rest stop at the corner of KS156 and KS23, about 10am. We left Gardner City shortly after 8 this morning with 38 degrees, cloudy skies and NW winds which were cross winds for the first 12 miles. Then we turned E and the winds finally favored us. 

Angela trying to warm her toes. 😬
 

12:20 and we made it 57 miles to Jetmore, KS. Inside the "Hideout Bar" we're having cheeseburgers, onion rings, fried ocra and fried cheese. I'm having a coffee to try to warm up a bit. 

It's about 47 miles to Larned, KS, our goal for the day. Wish us luck. 

 

 

Day 7. Garden City-Cold, rainy and windy down day

The highlight of the day, the 4:45 showing of the Jungle Book, great movie!

Today we slept in, had breakfast, watched the wind blown rain through our windows, napped, read, soaked in the hot tub, enjoyed the Jungle book at the near by theater, ate dinner, packed and  then off to bed. The weather forecast for tomorrow is NW and WNW winds of 20 mph which may help to speed us to the east instead of slowing us for a change. And no rain, only cool and cloudy. We're excited about the prospects!!🚲
 

Day 6. Lamar. CO to Garden City, KS-A Big Day

We decided to push past Lakin, the 76 mi day we had planned on, due to the forecast of rain and temps less than 45 degrees for the next 48 hours. Garden City had many hotels and restaurants to choose from vs. camping in the city park in Lakin for 2 nights. That's what we're expecting to have to do the next 2 nights until this cold/wet weather blows through. 

Good bye Colorado!  See you in 8 weeks. 

Hello Kansas!

Syracuse, KS marked 47 miles behind us and a hot bowl of Mexican beef soup to warm us up around 11am. Still less than 50 degrees outside. 

This is the last 15 miles into Garden City.  The whole day has been on US 50. By this point the winds were pretty much E and in our face but luckily only between 10 & 15 mph. We were pretty tired but still feeling ok and energized by the fact that we were about to put this day in the books. 

Sabrina checked us in at the Clarion where we found an indoor pool and hot tub, a nice restaurant known for the best steaks in town!  Traveling globally with GE during my career gave me the opportunity to stay in some very nice hotels in exotic and interesting places but checking into the Clarion in Garden City after the +100 mile day, plus the small town hotels we have been staying at felt like a slice of heaven for us. We showered, had a nice dinner in the restaurant and then poured ourselves into bed to sleep as long as we wanted. Let it rain!!
 
 
 
 
 
 

8:30 breakfast break at Holly, CO

28 miles in just over 2 hrs on the road. Low 40's and moderate winds from the NNE. We're going to try to do 101 miles today to Garden City, KS due to the inclement weather expected tonight and tomorrow. Not looking like a pleasant camping experience in Lakin, our original plan.  We're feeling pretty good so far and keeping a decent pace. Time will tell if we can make it or not. 💪

 

Happy Birthday Angela

Jane, our host at the B&B got Angela this lovely chocolate birthday cake. We ordered pizza in, watched a movie and then headed to bed for our early start tomorrow. We're headed for Lakin, KS, 76 miles east with likely NE and E headwinds!  No lodging in Lakin so our plan was to sleep in the city park. With rain forecast for Thursday night and Friday we may have to re-think our plans.  Could be an interesting next couple of days but we had a nice rest in Lamar. 
 

Day 5. Enjoying a down day in Lamar, CO

We both had a great nights sleep last night which hasn't been the case so far.  Maybe it was all of the Chineese we had for dinner!?

Angela enjoying snuggling on the couch on a cool morning reading and keeping up with Facebook. Today is her day, it's her birthday!

Taking a late morning stroll down Main St.  You can see the Amtrak station in the background. We found out later in the day that the wind forecast for tomorrow is 15-20 mph from the east, the direction we have to head and the direction it has yet to blow from so far on our trip.  We joked about taking the Amtrak east to someplace where the wind doesn't blow so much. 👎 

Ironically it is strong and from the NW today which would have been nice for us tomorrow. Let's hope the forecast is wrong. 

Did you know coffee shops use CO2 cartridges?  Since my flat the first day I've been running lower pressure in my rear tire because my pump has limited capacity. I could use the CO2 cartridges I brought to get the pressure up and reduce my rolling resistance but one of the CO2 cartridge dispensers quit working and the other one I have only uses unthreaded cartridges. No bike shops within 120 miles so tapped into the Lamar network and found a HD bike pump at a place called Healthy Places, volunteers trying to promote healthy lifestyles like biking. Renee and Rachael at Healthy Places in turn called the local coffee shop, The Brew 2, where Rachael gave me one from the supply they use to dispense the whip cream. Unfortunately it's too short but in a pinch I can shove something in first to make it tall enough to be punctured by the valve top when screwed on. I got a nice latte too. 

While all of the small towns we've seen so far, and often rely on for support, are struggling, the people have been wonderful, extremely kind and helpful. 💪
 
 

Day 4. No angst from the wind

Kit Carson to Lamar, 6:20am start and arrive in Lamar, CO by 1pm. 

It was windy most of the night through the start of our ride, no morning calm that we were hoping for. Luckily the winds were SW or WSW and not horribly gusty so heading south, initially on US 287 was pretty nice.  We road about 20 miles without stopping until Eads where we nourished on chocolate milk for about 10 minutes at a gas station. Then we had 9 glorious miles heading east with a tail wind, riding 22mph with minimal effort. Then south on a county road into Lamar for a two night layover. 

Checking in to the 3rd St. Nest B&B where we found a very comfortable suite waiting for us.  Chinese for dinner and off to bed soon.  At this point we are happy and enjoying ourselves and we haven't spoken about divorce, marriage counseling or hurting each other at all. 😄
 

 
 

Wide open spaces between Kit Carson and Lamar

A county road heading south into Lamar. Only riding half the day on US 287, the rest on back roads. 

Our lunch spot for the day. We had a little picnic by this abandoned house and got shelter from the wind for 30 minutes.  We split a sub sandwich with BBQ chips and Gatorade. It hit the spot.

Panniers are great for hauling stuff on your bike but it's often hard to remember where you put stuff. We're getting a system down bit by bit. We'll be pros by the 50th day. 😎
 

Interesting what people do. I'm sure there's a story for this picture. 

Yea!!!  Arriving in Lamar before 1pm. Now to find our B&B for the next two nights.  Tomorrow is a big day-- It's Angela's birthday and we get to rest our tired legs and tender bottoms with a day off. 🍻
 
 
 
 

Day 3. Short-Cut to Lamar

We changed our plan from going south 76 mi to Ordway and then 80 mi east the next day to Lamar to heading southeast for 62 mi to Kit Carson and then south to Lamar for 57 miles. Besides saving us 37 miles for the 2 days we gambled that the headwinds would be better.  Well, at least we saved some miles!

Lunch break at 11:30 at the intersection of CO 94 and US 287 ( the middle of nowhere ). By this point in the day the wind was 15-20 mph and mostly 30 degrees off of our heading.

US 287 was a good road with nice breakdown lane, straight as an arrow. We actually dropped a net 1000 ft. in elevation today but due to the wind we never coasted. 

Arriving in Kit Carson, CO around 2:30.  Guests for the night at the Kit Carson Inn, the only lodging in town.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1If86oc1034FRQAw89gAQRyxvIKyXiwkmP

Early and nice morning!

6:30am and ready to go. Headed SE to Kit Carson today. Early start to hope to beat the winds. 
 

Breakfast in Hugo. Great riding so far, around 35 degrees with light winds. 
 

Day 2. What a difference a day can make!

Strasburg to Limon, CO

The weather and wind gods smiled on us today! 

Oops. Someone dropped their water bottle on this mostly barren stretch of Old US 40 that parallels I-70.  Great sunrise and blue skies heading southeast. 

We skirted I-70 on side roads most of the day. 

When the side roads that showed on my 2012 CO map turned to gravel and then a goat trail we contemplated riding on the interstate. Here Angela has found a way to hack on to the highway where the fence had a gap. We decided to backtrack a bit instead to Agate, one of the many small towns struggling and losing the battle to survive we've seen so far. 

About 8 miles after Agate on I-70, very little traffic, a wide and smooth breakdown lane and some halfway decent tailwinds. We actually had to climb back up to 5800 ft. elevation before decending down to 5200 in Limon. I thought we were heading to sea level!

Home away from home at the Safari Inn by 3pm. Now showers, rest, site see Limon and steaks at the Southside Restaurant across the street. 

Tomorrow could be a tough day heading 76 miles straight south to Ordway, CO. We're looking at a 6am start to try to beat any headwinds that often come strong from the south. Wish us luck. 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast break

8am, one hour into our day.  We shared a piece of peach pie we could t eat at dinner last night for breakfast with coffee at 6.

Now taking a little break for pretzels with peanut butter and Nutella. 

 Great morning so far, light winds mostly behind us so far. Enjoying it much. 
 

Day 1 The wind said IN YOUR FACE and it was.

At home before we leave for Strasburg

71 miles starting at 8am and arriving at 6:30. 7.5 hrs on the bikes. 

Hearty lunch at El Faso in Hudson after 30 mi. Nice day so far, cool an cloudy with fair winds. 

Uh oh. Brand new HD tube fails. After 40 mi heading east we turned into 20 to 30mph headwinds. Our speed dropped to 6mph average and we were working hard to do that. The flat actually was a nice break!!

This is the way we pump our tire, pump our tire, pump our tire....

 

We finally made it to the Strasburg Inn where The inn keeper Jim insisted in showing me his automobile and gas station collection. We made it to one of the two restaurants in town and stuffed ourselves, bed by 9. 
 
 
 

 

Last Preparations and Final Planning

We just got our bikes checked out by our local bike shop and everything looks solid to start on our long trip. I've been doing the maintenance and upgrades to touring needs myself but being fairly new at it I wanted a pro to check my work for piece of mind. Looks like I passed. 😄

We're reevaluating our route for the first two weeks through the great plains. You see the TransAmetica trail which we pick up in Ordway, CO plus the 3 days it takes us to get to Ordway from our house requires us to travel in some very, very sparsely populated areas through eastern CO and KS on some very lightly traveled back roads. If we jog our trip just a little south and ride on US 50 on or near the American Discovery/Sante Fe Trail we travel a slightly more populated route through towns like La Junta & Lamar, CO and Garden City & Dodge City, KS. This give us access to food and water during each day therefore needing to carry less.  The counterpoint is we'll have more traffic to deal with. Decisions, decisions....

Mentally we're moving through the process of a "romantic excitement and adventure" when the trip was far off to the fear and trepidation as the start day gets closer (What have we done??!!). We are now moving into a new stage of "lets just do this thing!"

Our first BikePacking overnighter

We wanted to have an overnight test ride with essentially all of the gear we're planning on taking on our Outer Banks trip. We chose Carter Lake which is about a 30 mile ride each way up into the foothills. Our rear panniers weighed about 40 lbs. and the front panniers are about 20 lbs. for a total added weight of between 60 to 70 lbs. per bike.



We had a postcard day on Monday and a beautiful night camping. I brought along charcoal and we grilled some steaks with instant mash potatoes plus a couple of beers I bought at the marina.

It's definitely a lot different riding with 60 lbs. on our bikes but we enjoyed the trip and we'll learn from it to make adjustments before we leave for the Outer Banks.

-Posted from Scott's iPhone

Location:Carter Lake, CO