Given that we've been sleeping later each morning, I set an alarm on my Ipod touch for 6:00 AM. I awoke to the tunes I have programmed so I guess it was a good thing. Same routine, get dressed, load the bikes. get hotel breakfast and leave. And it goes according to plan and we are out the parking lot at exactly 7:00 AM.
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| Day 8 Track Hutchinson KS to Amarillo, TX |
It is very cloudy and VERY windy. We got onto KS-61 for a 52 mile leg southwesterly and the wind is definitely going to be a factor today. We can see how it is dropping our gas mileage by at least 10 MPG or more and we expect it to only get worse as the day goes on. Then we turn directly west and the wind is now blowing 25+ MPH directly out of the south, hitting us directly on the sides and it makes for very difficult riding. The bikes are leaned over into the wind and your neck strains with the wind. When trucks pass in the opposite lane, you tend to get sucked towards the centerline and then back again. We have to endure this for another 50 miles or so before we tun NNW which puts the wind more to our backs and lessens the impact greatly. We continue like this until we get into Dodge City for our first waypoint of the day. By the time we arrive there we are both complaining of sore necks.
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| Dodge City, KS |
After the post office, we're in need of a break so we find a very conveniently located Daylight Donut shop just a block down the road. We're finding these all over the place and we really like the donuts! We don't dally too long though and then we're off towards our end goal of the day Amarillo, TX. ON the way though we are going to be running a gauntlet of storms and dealing with that wind I mentioned. The good news is our first leg out of town is directly south and head long into the wind. This continues to hurt our gas mileage, but it is much easier to ride in. Eventually though we do have to tun south westerly and we again are contending with the wind. In addition to that I can see the tell tale signs of a super cell developing out ahead of us and can only hope that we manage to run our from under it before it lets loose. It is tough and go but we manage to get to Liberal KS where we decide to stop for an early lunch because further down our route there is very little to count on for food. We find a nice little cafe and get a really satisfying lunch. I had a post roast dinner with carrots and green beans, while Larry had a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes and carrots. All that for like $12.00!
We get back on the bikes and the state border is just a few more miles. Since we weren't too happy with the previous photos of the Oklahoma border, we decide to try this one and it works out much better.
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| Better shot of Oklahoma Border sign |
From here we have the Oklahoma panhandle to cross and its relatively short - about 35 miles. The rain and clouds continue to dog us, but almost as soon as we cross the Texas border things start improving. We still have the wind, but with the hillier terrain of Texas, coupled with the fact that we are mostly running directly into it its far less a factor than this morning. Plus the clouds have now parted and given way to sunny skies!
This does mean that for the first time in two days we will see the temps rise close to or over 90 but we're hydrating well and it isn't any real problem. From the Border to Amarillo, its 131 miles for us and with the raised speed limits in TX we make that in 2 and a half hours. We do have to slow down through a dozen or so towns along the way, and we have to stop for gas in Spearman TX due to the reduced MPG's from the wind. Then we also take a little bypass on some twisty roads around Borger TX so that's why it took as long as it did.Oh yeah, one more photo stop too.
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| Amarillo TX |
This gets us into our hotel a little earlier than usual, so we take advantage of it by doing some laundry and working on our routes for the next few days. I also manage to get caught up on the blog!
Stats for the day: 381.4 miles in 8:13 elapsed time, 6:25 saddle time.
