Thursday. With hot and wind forecast we left before sun up for the 80 mile ride to leoti, Kansas our last stop before Colorado. The first break came at 32 miles. That portion wind was favorable. The next 24 miles was almost directly into the wind but came with a great deli lunch in scott city. The last 24 miles had mixed winds hot sun and big grain trucks. The winter wheat harvest is very serious business out here(see picture). This was probably the longest day on the road time wise. Seven hours in the saddle plus two hours of break and refueling time got us to leoti at 3:00pm Cammie’s step mom drove her rv from las cruces, new mexico and provided us with a very tasty Mexican dinner. We’re have a layover until Saturday morning so it’s the typical relax, get laundry done, stretch the muscles, relax, eat, nap, etc. since the beginning of the ride in Virginia we’ve had an ongoing debate about the virtues of riding this route westbound versus eastbound. There is a commonly held belief that the prevailing winds are west to east which motivates many to travel easterly. I think the misconception arises from the fact that the jet streams are west to east, but we’re not riding at 35,000 feet. So far we have have no definitive prevailing wind. Traveling westbound there’s an argument that the scenery builds to a climax in the rockies. This makes sense to me having driven through most of that area. We have come to a consensus that westbound as we are doing is simply safer and there for best. Most of our riding is done in the morning with the sun at our back so we are much more visible to the drivers whizzing by. We never have cars behind us fighting a low angle sun in their face. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.