>From: "Christine W" <christineweir@hotmail.com>
>Subject: hi from Dodge City, Kansas
>Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 10:27:57 PDT
>
>hi everyone
>
>Well, we escaped from the snow of New Mexico only to strike the winds of
>Kansas! Oh well, such is the way of the weather.
>
>We were in the Taos Hilton for another day after I last wrote. It remained
>freezing cold, snow showers, hail, thunder, the usual stuff. I mentioned to
>a lady that since there weren't any signs about bears in the camp ground
>that we stayed in further down the canyon, that there mustn't be any bears
>around that area. She said there are bears, mountain lions, wild dogs.
>Eeek, and I put the food panniers in my tent that night because it was
>raining. Actually we haven't seen many wild animals at all, just some elk
>and some antelope, a few dead skunks on the roadside, some ground squirrels
>and lots of beautiful birds.
>
>We were packing up when the camp caretaker arrived back and said that we
>wouldn't be able to cycle over the pass because it was still icy and a lot
>of snow at the top of the pass, plus there were severe winds in the valley
>we would be going through before the next pass. He offered us a ride, so he
>took us over the Palo Flechado pass (which we could have ridden over after
>all, it had cleared by then) and then to the top of the pass just past
>Eagles Nest. The valley between is known as Siberia and the wind sure was
>whistling through there and wouldn't have been very pleasant.
>
>The ride down from there was stunning, spectacular, amazing, words can't
>really describe it. It is the tail end of the Rockies and we had about an
>hour of downhill through changing scenery, past the Pallisades which are
>vertical cliffs, eventually getting out the bottom where the snow thinned
>out and we were then in green country. We stopped at a wee place called
>Cimarron and had lunch in the park, looked around a neat gallery, then
>carried on through Springer to Abbot. Well, it says Abbott on the map, and
>it is an intersection with some trees where we were going to camp in. There
>is also a house there, and Madi went to get some water and the lady kindly
>offered us camping on her section, there was plenty room and we got a good
>view of the top bits of the mountains behind us.
>
>The next day was a dream run - 111 miles, 178 km! Talk about wind, it was
>so strong it was hard to stand up in, and fortunately was a direct tail
>wind (we have paid for it ever since!). We crossed into Oklahoma, stopped
>for a photo at the sign on the border and Madi's bike got blown over even
>though she was holding it, and the sign was also all bent over. We dropped
>2000' that day, and hardly pedalled all afternoon, mostly travelling
>38-40km/hr. Camped in a strange place in Boise City called Waltons Agency,
>and the guy that directed us there said that the people might or might not
>come and get some payment from us (they didn't). There were no facilities
>there anyway, it was all locked up, and we soon found out that it is the
>main truck route to Denver, so all night there were trucks roaring past!
>
>Next day was very strong wind on the back quarter, and occasionally the
>road bent around and came on the front quarter. It was very hard going at
>times, even though it's mostly flat there are still undulations in the
>road, and by the time we got to Elkhart for a lunch stop and found some
>shelter behind the Pizza Hut, I was shot. The wind was very gusty and I
>ended up off the road about 3 times, plus the buffeting from the oncoming
>trucks pushed me around as well. I felt really battered and my emotions
>were right off the scale. However, 10 minutes with my head in my hands and
>I was ok and ready to eat. Fortunately it eased in the afternoon and we had
>a cruisy run into Hugoton, 120km (80 miles) for the day.
>
>Someone said that we could probably camp in the park, so we found the most
>inconspicuous place that we could, it was all open and a road on all 4
>sides. We set up camp and had some tea in the sunset, and then the
>floodlights came on, pointing right at our tents! Talk about public, and it
>was like daylight inside. I woke, ready to get up, checked the time and it
>was 2.30 a.m. so it was light enough to read for a while before getting a
>bit more sleep!
>
>Yesterday we made it to Dodge City, much to our surprise as the wind is
>still very strong, however we knocked off 145 km (90 miles) in spite of
>having some long stops and quite a lot of wind. At Copeland we stopped for
>lunch and were going to have it in an automatic teller bank building which
>is unattended, and Madi got talking to a lady who invited us into her
>hairdressing salon to have our lunch! A rain shower passed through and she
>said we could stay the night if we wanted, but we wanted to keep going. We
>raced the rain and Madi says she has never seen me pedal so fast! I'm not
>noted for speed, and I was standing up on the pedals to keep my speed up
>and to keep ahead of the dirty black cloud that was racing towards us. We
>could see rain showers all around us, and in the afternoon we had our own
>circle of blue sky to ride in, thank you weather goddess!
>
>The countryside around here is amazing, they call it flat, and it is when
>looking around the horizon, although the road still dips and rises and
>occasionally it even curves, that's really exciting when that happens. We
>are on Hwy 56 and it sometimes has a wide shoulder and sometimes not, and
>yesterday I could draft off Madi for a long time which really helps.
>
>There have been some devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma and SE Kansas,
>wiping out whole areas and 43 people dead. People have told us to shelter
>under a bridge or in a culvert if we see one coming from behind us, so it's
>serious stuff. We are travelling north east across Kansas and hopefully
>will not strike too much more of this strong wind. It's strong again today
>and we are going to head off after lunch just to get away from the city. It
>was nice to stay in a camp last night, showers, laundry, what a treat!
>
>We are heading towards Kansas City and will soon start heading more
>easterly.
>
>And, just for fun, as I was setting off to find the library this morning,
>my back tyre was flat. I fixed that (piece of glass) and there was another
>hole in it (thorn). Just when I was thinking how clean the roadsides are in
>Kansas, they are grass and they mow it!
>
>We passed a lot of cattle feeding units, thousands of cows in pens being
>force fed with grain to fatten them up for the steak eaters. They sure
>didn't look very happy. When we see cows in an open paddock we call out to
>them and often the whole herd will turn their heads towards us and watch us
>go past!
>
>Yesterday we had breakfast in a diner, that was fun, and so cheap! I had
>scrambled eggs on toast and some hot chocolate (yes, I'm drinking chocolate
>now) and it was only $2.10. We don't usually eat out because of the
>expense, usually cook up our own feasts on our campfire where we can light
>a fire, or eat sandwiches where we can't have a fire.
>
>Oh well, better get going as I'm only mean to be on this for 15 min and
>it's FREE!!! yayy, good old Dodge City library.
>
>Till next time
>Christine and Madi