The first 20 or so miles were a bit of a surprise. The roads out of Abilene were gentle rollers with a touch of a tail wind. This soon changed as the humidity increased and winds turned to what can only be termed as nasty. It was tough going to our first SAG at about mile 30 but we celebrated our halfway point on the tour there.
We were urged to head out quickly as winds were picking up and rain was to follow soon. We seemed to race the winds and rain clouds like Elmira Gulch in The Wizard of Oz. It did rain lightly but cleared slowly around mile 50. It remained oppressively humid. The climbs got steeper and longer as it got gradually hotter. The landscape was great as we moved into the flint hills. Many cattle along the route of green rolling hills. Some would run with us.
The 17 year Cicadas are awake. What a racket. It was eerie rolling past stands of trees and hearing the steel scraping noise swell and receded as we passed grove after grove. It was unearthly. What also started getting my attention was the number of bicycle sculptures(?) along the route. Twister bikes in trees, bikes that looked they were being eaten by some mechanical dinosaur. It was weird. Started me thinking of the totems from The Blair Witch Project.
The final weirdness was the White Bike at an intersection. I was told it was a memorial to someone who died from a bike accident at that spot. Creeped me out. Partly due to sweating profusely in the 90 degree heat, the noise from the Cicadas, and being tired. Luckily, we stopped for ice cream and pie with only 14 miles to the Hotel. Best apple dumpling I've had. We sat and ate our snacks while the ladies club played dominos, and some old men sat on the other side of the hall reading their paper.
Nice break. Still a long day.
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