We are back on the bikes. We flew into Wichita this morning and headed out after picking up the bikes in Newton KS. We got a lae start (2:00 pm) so we did not make a lot of miles today. We finished in El Dorado KS, whose motto interestingly enough is 'the art of fine living,' somewhat surprising in rural Kansas!
The geography of the area has started to change as we move further east. When we were in Leoti and Wichita, the dominant feature of the landscape was the big grain elevators, everything else was flat. That has now given way to the beginning of a more rolling landscape, as we get closer to Missouri. We actually had our first hill to ride down! There are many more trees and rivers. We started to see sandstone rock outcroppings, something we last saw in Colorado. We look forward to seeing more as we get closer to Missouri.
A word in closing on the winds. Most people will tell you if you are going across the country to ride west to east, to get the benefit of the prevailing winds. That makes sense. After all, we have all flown over the US several times, and it of course is a lot shorter going east than heading west. For whatever reason, we have had the opposite wind pattern for most of our journey. For example, today we had wind from the SE at 15 to 20 mph, which is a pretty big headwind. When we picked up the bikes, the lady told us the with wind was 60 mph three days ago! Unfortunately the forecast is for more of the same, winds from the SE at 15 plus mph. So we will batten down the hatches and push on as we go east!
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