Wichita, KS

Today was a mentally demoralizing day on the bike, battling against a strong head wind for 70 miles only to be racked before the rack point in order to make it to our lunch friendship visit.

The day started off early as we left from Pratt to embark on what should have been a relatively easy 85 mile day. Right as we left we felt a strong head wind and immediately knew we were in for a long day. I also swept, AGAIN today and was in a pace line of three which made battling the tough head wind much more difficult. We pushed each other and actually caught the pace line in front of and rode within eyesight of them all day.

To make matters worse there were only three vehicles in rotation which meant that cyclist could only be spaced 30 miles apart which seems like a lot but on a day like today where groups were traveling at very different speeds it was tough to keep things flowing.

It was getting close to rack point and we were about 10 miles away when we were finally racked at 75 miles. It was unfortunate to not get to ride the whole way, but when you're a sweep things are out of your control and you really just have to go with the flow of things, it's somewhat liberating.

Close, but still got racked Bummer!!!

We arrived at the YMCA where we showered and unloaded our bikes. The team headed across the street to Homestyle Buffet where we met Arrowhead West of Wichita and had a delicious lunch with them. I've been trying to eat more reasonably since my body is becoming accustomed to riding everyday and not burning as much, but it's tough when you go to an all you can eat buffet. After lunch we went back to the Y and played games and enjoyed another incredible visit with Arrowhead West. I snagged some more blurry shots of us playing games, I met an amazing woman Carla who was a ton of fun to hang out with and was a natural at basketball.

Lunch at Homestyle Buffet

Playing Games


Carla shootn' hoops

Jeremy, our PM with a Patricia

Jeremy presenting a grant check to Arrowhead West

We stayed at the Fairfield Marriott and each of had our own bed which was a first for the trip and really helped me catch up on some needed sleep. Dinner was provided by the family of two Pi Alpha's and we had endless pizza from a sports bar attached to an awesome bowling alley. Everyone bowled a game of cosmic bowling and then headed back to our hotel for a team meeting before being dismissed for the evening. We caught a 10:15 showing of the new Harry Potter, "The Half-Blood Prince" which was a very expensive nap for me, it's tough to stay awake after riding for 6 hours a day and being awake for 20 hours; the parts I saw I liked a lot though.

I managed to find several articles in the news about previous cities we've been in.

Here's an article from Dodge City with Eric Galdo

and another from the Pratt Tribune