Today we got our asses kicked by Oklahoma.
We set out at 8:00 am (the change to Central time made it so sunrise was an hour later than we'd gotten used to), and right away, the crosswinds hit us. And they were relentless, all day long over the flat plains. We heard the wind was at 15 knots with gusts up to 20 knots, but it felt more like 30. I (Nancy) couldn't reach for my water bottle at times because the wind was so strong, I needed both hands to hang on to my handlebars. The roads were really crappy-- the worst so far, and over the whole 125 miles, so that it felt like we were actually getting our butts (and other regions) kicked with every pedal stroke. It took us 6 hours to do the same distance we did yesterday in 3 hours before lunch (70 miles)-- and we still had another 55 to go!
Ed at sunriseThe worst for me was that because the roads and shoulders were so bad, Ed and I couldn't safely draft off each other (or rather, me off of him). I don't say this often, but today I wished I was big and fat. Even another 40 or 50 lbs would do, just enough to give me more mass to battle the wind with. Because I couldn't hide behind Ed, and because I'm lighter, I got tossed around by the wind like a rag doll all day. I feel like I'm about 75 tonight. We skipped dinner and ordered pizza instead, just to avoid having to walk anywhere.
We're sick of Oklahoma. Are we there yet?
We forgot to mention that we unfortunately lost 2 guests earlier this week. A doctor from Madison hurt her knee in the first week, and she and her husband decided that it was best to go back home and get it checked out rather than try to force it. Our group is now down to 21 guests.
