Day 53, tribune, Kansas to eads, colorado.

The sunset after the storm. The clouds were dark over head. There were lightning off the the north, and there was this clear area in the middle, like the eye or something.

This is actually a later shot that I lightened so you could see more detail.

A close up shot. If you look closely, it looks like the sun is illuminating the under side of the cloud layer. Pretty cool.

Eastern Colorado looks just like western Kansas, maybe even flatter.

This hawk was the only thing we saw all day that got us excited.

A typical farm on the plain. There were dozens of them spread out through out the area. You can actually see them, and towns far off in the distance since there are no trees except where there are people living.

The only cover I could find for taking a break was behind this train parked by the side of the road.

Colorado. It means: The Color Red, describing the color of the Colorado river when the settlers first saw her.

You gotta watch out for these things. They are way bigger than you, and if they turn that thing on, it'll rip you up to shreads.

I laid my camera down across the road so no one would run it over. Bad idea, bad shot. But here we are entering Colorado.

Meet Chris from Germany on the left, and Chase on the right from Texas. We meet these two west bounders along with a couple of Englishmen today. We were all headed the same way.

The only real difference I saw as we left Kansas was that as soon as we entered Colorado. We saw flowers on the side of the road again. The last two days we saw nothing.


Chase and Lisa as we were entering the town of Sheridan Lake. I didn't see a lake, but I did see a large dried salt bed.


Day 53, Tribune, Kaunas to Eads, Colorado. “A Day Of Blessings” 59.16 miles

The wind switch during the night. Today’s ride put us into a moderate 15 mile an hour south-west head wind that lasted about 98% of the way. The tail wind of the last two days are now a thing of the past…………………….. We left the Trail’s End Motel at 8:00AM. We stopped at Judy’s Dinner for breakfast. This was also where we had dinner last night. For breakfast, I went for the breakfast buffet, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t leaving the place hungry.
Once on the road, we kept a steady pace spinning so as not to exert too much energy. For those of you who aren’t cycle savvy, spinning refers to a technique used when conserving energy is more important than speed. You use a lower gear that is easier to pedal, thus conserving energy. Our average speed, about 9 miles an hour.
This part of Kansas lacks any kind of character for photography purposes. The land escape is lifeless, dry, flat, windy, and dull in color. I had to force myself to take pictures. If it were a film camera, I don’t think I would have taken any. Cost too much for developing.
How ever, there is a silver lining in every dark cloud. The Lord is always there weather we know it or not. He Does little things that if you are not paying attention, you wouldn’t even notice. There were a number of times today when I was pretty bored. At these times, my mind tends to wander, I think about home, the beach, fishing, all kinds of stuff. But you can only escape the present situation to a point. Then reality brings you right back when say, a large truck blazing down the highway, wiz passes you and creates a huge air wave that blows you right in the face. But today was different. There were not that many big trucks like yesterday. In fact, the ones that we did encounter, either slowed as they passed, or gave us wide birth. Another thing that happened was the temperature. It did get well over a hundred today, but during the worst times, I noticed thin clouds that rolled across the sky. These clouds were almost un noticeable, because you could still see your shadow, but they were there, a number of times. Then there was that hawk on the telephone pole. I didn’t even notice it there till Lisa pointed him out. I stopped, was able to get out my camera, and he never flew away. Usually when you stop, those things are gone. Also, in terrain this flat, you don’t usually encounter down hills. But today we did. At least two fairly long down hills that came as a welcome treat, allowing an escape from the head wind. Because we are gaining altitude at such a gradual rate, we don’t really notice it. In 60 miles, we gained about 400 feet. So any kind of down hill is really noticeable.
We met a few west bound riders today. Five of them to be exact. And no east bounders. I only had the chance to talk with Chase from Texas, and Chris from Germany. I Think the other three were from Australia…………………………. It was a long day, hard at times, but I feel good, I think if I had to, I could have gone on another twenty or so miles. But I’m glad we didn’t have too.
We rolled into Eads at 3:30 this afternoon. And about a half hour after we checked in, we got hit by a dust storm immediately followed by a thunder storm. How lucky was that. Or was it luck at all? I think The Lord planned it that way.

We will have a rest day tomorrow. It’s the 4th of July, and we want to stay off the road. Aloha everybody. We miss you all. Ted.