Dodge City KS to Ulysses Kansas
The wind finally won today and beat us into submission. We knew it was going to be a difficult day when we saw the weather report. South winds at 25-35 mph with higher gusts were predicted. There was also a threat of thunderstorm’s, hail and tornado's.
Our plan was to ride to Johnson City Kansas about 105 miles from Dodge City to a motel we had booked the day before.
The steady 30+ mph wind had us riding with our bikes leaned to one side like we were making a turn. When a large truck would fly by we would loose the wind momentarily and the bikes would right themselves only to get blown over a second later as the truck passed. This scenario played out over and over again. Occasionally two trucks would pass and you would get a “double whammy”. Wow… that would get you attention quick.
Along our route we came across a large wind-generating farm. It consisted of 170 wind turbines each standing 30 stories high from the ground to the tip pf the blade. They were lined up in rows planted in the wheat fields. The turbines only turning 28 rpm produce 112 megawatts of power enough electricity to power 37,000 homes.
It was oblivious why they picked this area for the turbines. The wind normally blows through there like a hurricane. The local’s say no matter where you go in Kansas it is windy much of the time. With no tree cover or hills the wind is free to terrorize the innocent cyclist.
We also passed huge cattle feed farms were thousands of head of cattle are eating all the feed and grain they want…. For a while anyway……
The road we traveled was without services of any kind most of the day. No gas stations, convenience stores…nothing. Just vast fields of grain as far as the eye can see in any direction. You can ride for 20 miles and not even pass a farmhouse.
The roads are straight, flat and end at the horizon. If you look down and pedal for an hour then look up it seems you have gone nowhere…the view is the same.
Again keeping enough fluids on the bike became a problem. Ken ended up needing to stop at a farm and asking to have his water bottles re-filled. Tim ran out of water a while later and rode quite a ways before his thirst could be quenched.
As we approached Ulysses Kansas the winds started to increase. Now blowing near 40 mph riding became treacherous. One big gust took both Ken and Tim right off the road into the grass. This was the wake-up call. It had become too windy to cycle safely. The idea is to actually make it to California without band-aids.
Joe had already pulled his bike to the side of the road and watched Tim and Ken fight the wind on their way up to him. We decided it had become too dangerous to continue. According to the weather radios have, the tornado threat was just behind us moving east not a problem. But the highest winds were still just ahead of us in the next county.
Our first thought was to find a place to hunker down in Ulysses for a while to see if it would calm down enough to continue. Less than a quarter mile up the road was a clean and relatively new looking motel.
We decided to cancel our Johnson City reservation 20 miles away and stay there. That ended up being the correct choice because even at 8PM the wind was still howling at 30 to 40mph.
Today the wind won the battle. Tomorrows forecast is not any better and possibly worse. The wind direction will be west (in our face) and still 25-30 mph. It is not going to be a pretty sight.
The wind finally won today and beat us into submission. We knew it was going to be a difficult day when we saw the weather report. South winds at 25-35 mph with higher gusts were predicted. There was also a threat of thunderstorm’s, hail and tornado's.
Our plan was to ride to Johnson City Kansas about 105 miles from Dodge City to a motel we had booked the day before.
The steady 30+ mph wind had us riding with our bikes leaned to one side like we were making a turn. When a large truck would fly by we would loose the wind momentarily and the bikes would right themselves only to get blown over a second later as the truck passed. This scenario played out over and over again. Occasionally two trucks would pass and you would get a “double whammy”. Wow… that would get you attention quick.
Along our route we came across a large wind-generating farm. It consisted of 170 wind turbines each standing 30 stories high from the ground to the tip pf the blade. They were lined up in rows planted in the wheat fields. The turbines only turning 28 rpm produce 112 megawatts of power enough electricity to power 37,000 homes.
It was oblivious why they picked this area for the turbines. The wind normally blows through there like a hurricane. The local’s say no matter where you go in Kansas it is windy much of the time. With no tree cover or hills the wind is free to terrorize the innocent cyclist.
We also passed huge cattle feed farms were thousands of head of cattle are eating all the feed and grain they want…. For a while anyway……
The road we traveled was without services of any kind most of the day. No gas stations, convenience stores…nothing. Just vast fields of grain as far as the eye can see in any direction. You can ride for 20 miles and not even pass a farmhouse.
The roads are straight, flat and end at the horizon. If you look down and pedal for an hour then look up it seems you have gone nowhere…the view is the same.
Again keeping enough fluids on the bike became a problem. Ken ended up needing to stop at a farm and asking to have his water bottles re-filled. Tim ran out of water a while later and rode quite a ways before his thirst could be quenched.
As we approached Ulysses Kansas the winds started to increase. Now blowing near 40 mph riding became treacherous. One big gust took both Ken and Tim right off the road into the grass. This was the wake-up call. It had become too windy to cycle safely. The idea is to actually make it to California without band-aids.
Joe had already pulled his bike to the side of the road and watched Tim and Ken fight the wind on their way up to him. We decided it had become too dangerous to continue. According to the weather radios have, the tornado threat was just behind us moving east not a problem. But the highest winds were still just ahead of us in the next county.
Our first thought was to find a place to hunker down in Ulysses for a while to see if it would calm down enough to continue. Less than a quarter mile up the road was a clean and relatively new looking motel.
We decided to cancel our Johnson City reservation 20 miles away and stay there. That ended up being the correct choice because even at 8PM the wind was still howling at 30 to 40mph.
Today the wind won the battle. Tomorrows forecast is not any better and possibly worse. The wind direction will be west (in our face) and still 25-30 mph. It is not going to be a pretty sight.
3 comments:
The photo in this days report is a great view of what we see most of the day!
Where do you hide when it gets nasty?? Ideas anyone?
Ken should be able to use his H&M skills to figure out were to HIDE!
And Stevie my boy what skill would that be?? Hmmmmm It is coming to me....Ahhhhh..... could it be the thing we did day after day for Pappa??? DIG A HOLE!
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