America By Bicycle: Dighton to leoti.. To Horace.

Strangest day so far.

We woke up in the Heritage motel in Deighton and rode over to the only place to eat for 30 miles. It happened to be a kwikstop. After having our delicious gas station breakfast, we filled up our bottles (and two extras in case we ran out) and hit the road.

There was a slight headwind and we were going so slow. It's like climbing a hill that never ends with no downhill.

Even though the landscape was so beautiful and varied..

We had to play lots of games to keep us occupied. Our favorite was called "guess the distance to that grain elevator"

12 miles away?

8 miles?

We made it.

We passed these more frequently than anything else.

We saw 6 trees all day. They were sad trees.

I ran over a live snake a few miles east of Scott City. It was 4 or 5 feet long and NOT happy about being ran over. Scott city is gigantic. There were at least two gas stations AND a restaurant.. Our standards have changed dramatically. The population of Scott city is 3700. Most towns we bike through have about 40 people. We decided if it has it's own gas station, it's a city.

After lunch, we ran into a group of cyclists. They were the first we've seen who were also heading west. They agreed that headwinds are horrible and were done for the day. We were very tempted to stop with them but pressed on anyway. We realized that we had passed them in Missouri when we got off the Katy trail. They are averaging a little less mileage than us but are done so much earlier every day! We hope to see them again later in our trip.

On the far side of town, Allie was following just slightly to close and clipped my back wheel. Her wheel turned sharply and she flipped over the handlebars and rolled a few times before coming to rest at the bottom of this hill/ditch on the side of the road. Her handlebars had jammed under her top tube and her brake cable came undone. Someone passing saw her spectacular fall and stopped to make sure we was okay. She was. Must be all that gymnastics training.

A tumble weed hit Allies bike so we saved it and brought it to Leoti. We wonder how far it has travelled.

We had spoken with a warm showers host and planned to stay with them in Leoti. They said they'd be home around 930 because they were driving back from Montana. They said the back door was probably open and if it wasn't the key was in the red cooler. We got there and it was a little different from what we expected..

We called them and they said don't min the construction and we could just find a spot to sleep on the floor. The only open floor space would have been under the kitchen table and by the fridge. We took a shower and cooked dinner(after cleaning up their kitchen). Then we found these.

A huge hunting rifle and a shotgun. In plain view about 4 feet from the door.

Too many weird things. We decided to leave. I called the only motel in town(and for 26 miles). The person answered and told me the rate was 65. I asked if he had any discounts for AAA/poor student/charity bike ride. He said he was offended and that if we had stayed with him we would've had hot water and that it would be better if we stayed somewhere else. And them hung up. WHERE ARE WE.

So, we decided to start biking again and go 27 miles more to the next place to stay. The wind had died which was amazing. The sun was starting to set but we averaged 17 miles per hour. However, in the twilight, ALL the bugs came out. We were covered with them. Sticking to our arms legs and face. Crawling in our jerseys flying up our nose. But it was pretty.