Day 18: Dighton, KS

Started out from Larned feeling pretty good about my legs and pace and whole situation in general. I was going to try and push it to Dighton for the night - about 100 miles away, but after that ride I'd be done with big riding days and be able to do days of 70,80,70 and then a morning 20 in Pueblo to finish out the trip - looking pretty good after I had just finished my fifth day of riding 95-100 miles and was going to do my 6th in a row. First stop was Rush Center about 35 miles away - traffic was not great for the first half, way too many cow trucks and man those things are carrying a lot of momentum - you get pushed or pulled away every time one of them passes you on either side, you basically just stop pedaling, put your head down and turn a little into the gust so that you don't get blown over each time this happen. Oh, and my rear view mirror is useless b/c of my panniers in back, so while I can usually hear the trucks coming up behind me, sometimes it's an upleasant surprise.

At Rush Center, which is a bit of an ironic name...not much going on there, I stopped to grab a bite, only to find there was no bite to be had - not even a gas station, but did find a vending machine with a Snickers and got some water. Only had another 12 miles to go to reach Alexander, the end of map 3 for my trip, and they were supposed to have a diner there. Did that, but of course they didn't have a diner, or at least it wasn't open. But pulled into the nearby rest stop and ran into another bike tour-er who was also going Westbound - my first one of the trip! Of course he was probably 50 years old and had a bunch of crap with him, so he went a little slower than me, but I sat and chatted with him for bit at the rest stop and went a little slower on my route to Ness City so we sat and had lunch together there too. He ended up staying there for the night, but I wanted to punch out another 30 miles so I said goodbye and pushed on to Dighton.

That was a tough 30 miles. Wind was in my face, must have been going 12-15 mph so I felt like I was going really really slow and working really hard. Ended up taking breaks at 9, 17, 23, and 27 miles along the way - something I don't usually like to do, but I had the time so I figured better to be patient than exhaust myself. Also went by George Washington Carver's homestead on the way- one of the few historical landmarks I've seen in Kansas where I knew what they were talking about. Rolled into Dighton and just in time - a big storm hit that night with lots of lighting and the power even went out at the place I was staying - glad I didn't camp that night.

Was happy to get in that last century ride of the trip and feeling pretty good about being able to finish on time without any trouble....