Herington to Osage City, KS

63.5 miles. Kansas is one of those places (like Wyoming) where the locals say they don't notice when the wind is blowing; they notice when it stops blowing. Today was one of those 'don't notice' days as we had strong cross winds for most of the day. The winds slowed our pace and pushed the tandem around a bit, which made Penny very nervous despite my efforts to assure her that everything was under control (which was true, I've certainly steered in worse conditions). The route was again very beautiful - rolling countryside, green fields and cows everywhere. But it was tough to enjoy as we were mainly hunkered down to minimize our profile in the wind. We stopped for lunch in a convenience store* in Council Grove, where another customer told us he thought "it was GETTING a little windy out there". This massive understatement reminded me of our recent (non-bike) trip to Minnesota in January when the clerk at our hotel said "it was getting a little chilly out there" (it was 6 below at the time). The route was also quite hilly, which actually helped break up the pounding we were taking from the wind.

Things got a little rough just before the 40 mile point, when we were traversing a series of fairly long and steep hills. As we crested another rise the wind dislodged the timing chain on the tandem and we had to pull over for a roadside repair. This involves some fairly minor tweaks but the wind made it hard to do anything well. And by that point Penny had stomach cramps and a look that said "I'm all done." A rural mail carrier pulled up and rolled down the window of his pickup to yell over the howling blast "are we having fun yet?" I thought there might be a federal crime committed right there in front of me as...let's just say that Penny didn't see the humor in it. But to her credit, she climbed back on the bike and we continued on. Within a few more miles a string of high clouds blew in and - to our surprise - the wind died down considerably. We truly enjoyed the last 1/3 of the ride... honest!

*Alert readers of this blog will detect a theme: we like to stop at c-stores in small towns. They generally have booths to sit down in, they don't care if you want to bring in your own food and the clerks are very friendly and helpful. Also, in many cases, the c-store is the only retail business open (on at least 3 days of this trip thus far a lone c-store was the only retail business open for over 60 miles).