GreatPlains2012

Day 7

Tuesday, 19 Jun 2012
Dodge City, KS to Great Bend, KS
93.3 miles, 6h31m, 14.3 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h50m, Max speed: 29.1mph
Total Climbing: 907ft, Max elevation: 2597ft
Total mileage: 468.4

A really windy day. Mostly tailwinds and crossing tailwinds. Some really brutal crosswinds. And it was all downhill but I didn't know it.

For the first hour or so I was passing through the Spearsville Wind Farm. Looks like they're expanding.

Someday I want to do a ride with no wind turbines...someday.

I'm still on the Santa Fe Trail. And these rocks are all over the place.

Kinsley styles itself "Midway, USA" because it's halfway between San Francisco and New York.

The picnic tables are made of concrete so they don't blow away.

North of Kinsley I turned onto US 183, where for 11 glorious miles I traveled due north,
with a ridiculous 30mph tailwind. I could maintain 19mph without pedaling.

I had to turn due east to get to Fort Larned. That was pretty painful.
KS156 has no shoulder and a 65mph speed limit. It was a lot of work just to hold the bike on the road.

I spent an hour at the Fort. The purpose of the fort was to guard the Santa Fe Trail. It's been really well restored.

Almost all of the buildings are open.

The walls are covered with graffiti of varying ages.

It was five more miles of crosswinds before I reached Larned. I bought a sandwich at a store and ate it in the local park. It was a nice park. Had fountains you can run through and everything. No one was there but me.

Back on the road. The last Santa Fe Trail thing of the day was Pawnee Rock.
Sounds pretty cool.

Kind of disappointing in real life.

But the view is...okay.

Possibly the only business in Pawnee Rock is P. Lee's Antiques & Memories.

Then it was a quick run into Great Bend and the Best Western.

Tomorrow is a shorter day into McPherson. The wind will probably not be favorable.

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