May 4 -- Liberal KS to Dodge City KS

Today started off early -- load at 6:20 then we walked our bikes to the Pancake House down the road a block. After breakfast we started out in a dense fog. Even though I wore my light jacket, I was somewhat cold, but not overly so. The temperature was in the low 50's. The real issue was that the fog was so dense that moisture collected on your glasses and made it more difficult to see. The fog lifted, or blew away, just prior to our arrival at the fist and only SAG stop -- 38 miles at the Dalton Gang Hideout in Meade KS.

It always amazes me how much Americans (and I don't like to generalize like this) glorify some of their worst crooks -- Dillinger, the Dalton Gang, Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde -- it makes me wonder what people will think of their modern-day equivalents many years hence -- perhaps it all depends on whether or not a movie is made about their life and times -- movies are often kind to such figures and the audience identifies with the crook.

Kansas was obviously a hot-bed of activity in Western History. Today's destination is Dodge City -- remember Marshall Dillon (Gunsmoke) -- a fictional character -- but other characters did exist -- Wyatt Earp; Bat Masterson -- and their life and times are all covered in the Boot Hill Museum which a number of us visited after our riding day was over.

Back to today's ride -- after the SAG stop, we had 20 more miles to go eastward on 54 before we headed north to Dodge City on 283. The wind was from the South, which made drafting difficult on 54 -- there were 5 of us in the group and the wind was strong enough that one riding on the right could pull 2 more behind and to the left. That meant that a group of 5 essentially had 2 pullers -- position 1 and 4. On a lonely road positions 4 and 5 could draft from 1,2 and 3 -- but this was a reasonably busy road and we were limited by the width of the shoulder, minus the width of the rumble strips. The road up until the SAG stop was also fairly rough, which slows you down. We were able to maintain a speed of 18-19 on the rougher stuff, speeding up to 20-21 on the smoother shoulder after the SAG stop and then after we turned north, with the wind at our back, we were really cooking.

From the turn onwards we were motoring along at 26-30, with brief bursts as we got closer to the end closer to 35. The road was mostly flat so slight uphill or downhill affected our speed as well. I'm probably the weakest in the group and could only do pulls at 26-28 for a mile or so while others could maintain 28-30 for at least a couple of miles. I was able to keep up with the 30-33 speeds in a drafting position and hit 35 mph at one point catching up to the group as I moved from position 1 to position 5 and missed the back position by a few feet.

All of this was done in fun the last few miles -- people seeing how fast we could move the group along -- we knew we were close to the end and didn't mind being burned out.

Scenery ? -- endless fields. The tallest buildings in these towns are the grain elevators and the water towers -- which you can see for many miles -- eg. we could see the Dodge City water tower from 6 miles out. You can see tall structures / mountains further in the desert, but on the Plains -- if it exists you can see it. There is no geography in the way.

We were the first group in -- I think that we left around 7a.m. and we got in at 11:55 -- doing 84 miles in elapsed time of 4:55; average speed 18.4 and rolling time of 4:32. It was a blast. Me, Geoff, Jerry, Ken & Logan.

Tomorrow, however, might well be a different matter. It looks like we'll have crosswinds or headwinds in the 25-30 range -- that could be a killer day even though we have another short mileage day. We'll take each day as it comes.

Once into the motel we found that our rooms were ready but did not have our luggage yet. We had seen Barb pass us, so I called her cell phone and luckily she was only a few minutes away -- having stopped to grocery shop on the way. Barb has grocery shopping every day to keep up with our food consumption at SAG stops -- she maintains an amazing array of foods -- both snacks like bars and cookies as well as fresh food -- meats, cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, fruit, bread etc. etc. for lunches. It is very well done.

So -- after Barb arrived we unloaded and then 4 of us set off for the Boot Hill Museum. It was a mile or so down the road but we walked, so that we did not have to worry about security for the bikes. Along the way we stopped at a Dairy Queen and had milkshakes, blizzards or whatever. We are eating machines -- don't forget that we had breakfast at 6:30; lunch at 9:30 ... and there's more to come.

The museum was quite interesting, celebrating the old west, lots of original stuff -- artifacts of varioius sorts, lots of guns -- a picture below of the Long Branch Saloon where we stopped for a beer. Oh -- we also took some pictures on the way into town -- you'll see one below.

After the Boot Hill Museum we walked another 1/2 mile to the CowTown restaurant and had a second lunch. We will be going out to dinner at 6 pm -- remember that I said that we were eating machines ... and it looks like our briefing for tomorrow is at 7:30 pm tonight -- I don't know why at this point, unless it's simply because the breakfast will be split up between those of us who eat at the motel vs those who go out for breakfast at a local eatery. It's actually good that we have that option -- we don't get it very often on this ride.

That's all that I can think of at this point -- see the couple of pictures below. You will notice that I'm getting people to take pictures of me -- I want to actually be in this ride, not just have pictures of other people and things -- which is my normal style !