WEEKS 7 and 8

Since this trip started a week has not always been a period of 7 days, hence week 7 has sort of been absorbed into weeks 6 and 8. Officially each week should start on a Sunday but as week 6 ended on a Thursday I will continue from there and try to get back in order now!
On Friday 23 rd July we left Pueblo to tackle the second part of our trip. We set out at first light, 5.45 am, and with a good tailwind, covered 50 miles by ten past ten! We checked into a very odd hotel in Ordway and just chilled out for the day. We imagined Saturday would be as easy but that was not to be!We had a gale force head wind all day long and it took us nine and a half hours to do 60 miles. Part of the route was very interesting though. We passed at least 20 miles of abandoned railway carriages, an endless stream.That day there was absolutely nothing for 58 miles and I find that very hard as there is no obvious way of mentally breaking up the journey. It really helps when you can break it up into ten or twenty mile sections and then tick them off as you go on.
On Sunday 25th we had a nasty little encounter with biting flies, they can really hurt and through your clothes too!The wind wasn't as bad and eventually we crossed into Kansas, our 6th state, and booked into the dirtiest Motel ever.I was afraid to switch on the ceiling fan as there was so much dirt and grime on it! We ventured to the nearby gas station to cheer ourselves up with a couple of cans of beer only to be told that its illegal in Kansas (or that county in Kansas) to sell alcohol on Sundays.What a disappointment! We just got back to the motel in time before the thunder storm. What a day.
We moved on into a new time zone next day, now only 6 hours behind the UK. The scenery in Kansas is so different to what we've seen up to now. Its flat as far as the eye can see. The farms are enormous and feedyards fill the air with dreadful smells.( the feedyards are places that produce battery cattle). We have never seen so much wheat, corn etc millions of acres of crops with marvellous water sprinklers keeping everything fresh and green. Also Kansas has many small oil wells which pump away continuously. These are usually in the middle of fields of crops or even right beside their owners houses. The heat and humidity here is making cycling very hard now. If it wasn't for the flat roads we would really struggle. The way to get round the heat is to start and finish as early as possible in the day. Right now its 4.20pm and the temperature outside is 102 degrees!!
We were lucky to find open air pools twice this week where it was so good to cool down after our ride. Unfortunately none today! It is now Friday 30 th and I will leave it here for now until I get to a library next week.