Sunday, June 8, 2008

Day 44


Slept in to 7, we must have been tired from battling mosquitos the night before. 10 miles to breakfast in in the town of Nickerson. Headwinds all the way of course. Strange weather in this part of the country. The forcast for today is winds from the south in the morning shifting toward the west by mid day and ending the day blowing from the the northwest. Winds make it difficult to predict where we will end up
each day.

The first couple of days in Kansas was the high plains with horizon visible all around. Lately it has been gently rolling hills with lots of trees and low places with rivers or wet areas. It has been mostly amber wheat fields though as we head east more and more knee high corn is appearing. I've been surprised by how green and developed everything is.

Another storm sprint took place this afternoon. A large band of dark clouds began to cover the sky from the SW horizon to the NE horizon. These SE to NE storms fronts slide toward the east.
This front grew and darkened as it gained on us for for the last 3 hours this afternoon. Big dark black clouds with lightening kept us peddling hard.
Actually it was so big that both Hugh and I kept an eye on the storm in our rear view mirrors and watched for culverts in case we needed a place to hide from the storm. The storm was almost on as as we approach El Dorado our destination for for the night. I sprinted ahead and stopped at a motel to wait for Hugh. Devin came up a moment later and told me Hugh had a flat. And then the sky opened up.
I checked in and a few minutes later a bedraggled Hugh shows up. A pickup driver had pitty on him and gave him a lift to the motel. The TV has been issuing severe storm and flood warnings. 70% chance of rain tomorrow.

We were looking forward to having a beer with our sardine and salami sandwiches though this is still Kansas and the minimart guy said there was no beer sales on Sunday.

44/97/14.5/3290

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pete and Hugh,

So glad you could make it past my birth city...now you see why I enjoy the weather in California so much.

Charlotte says keep an eye on those black clouds and the calm before the storm...maybe she knows something about Kansas weather too.

We hope there are free public pools in Missouri as well. Talk to you later...we are going to check out pennyfarthing.

Tom & Charlotte

Anonymous said...

I remember trying to tell people about the thunder storms where I grew up. You can't describe them really, they are just something that needs to be experienced. Be careful and we will be worrying about you for the next few days as the reports of tornadoes in that part of the country have been plentiful.

Love ya'

Clark and Jesse

Anonymous said...

Hey Pete and Hugh...Nice white shirts..Cute picture of the cows..Hey you guys are getting there..How many more miles to go?..What a bummer about the lack of beer on Sunday..oh well..See you in about 3 weeks...xoxo..Tonya.