Post 21, Monday 18 July, from Riverside, Wyoming

Hi all

A whole week without a Post. But a very full and happy week it has been.

On Monday afternoon I took a shuttle minibus from Breckenridge (leaving my bike and panniers in my B&B) down to Denver International Airport. 'Twas very strange to be going so fast, on an Interstate, and in a minibus where no-one spoke to each other. I am more and more convinced that cycling speed is the best for seeing the scenery and surroundings. And waiting for Julia and Ben at DIA felt bizarre too - all those busy-looking and travel-worn people pouring off their flights!

Anyway, J & B arrived safely and seemed remarkably fresh after a long journey. We set off next morning for the Rocky Mountain National Park, and had two nights/three amazing days there. We drove the spectacular 'Trail Ridge Road' - the highest continuous paved road in the US, topping 12,200ft. The first day we were up there it was raining, and the mountains looked wild and majestic. On the second day we had a great hike in sunshine above the tree line in the tundra. In the Park we saw lots of wild life - elk, moose (huge beasts, they are), deer, marmot, prairie dogs, one snake.

Julia and Ben at Bear Lake Rocky Mountain National Park

Grand Lake, where we stayed two nights

Grand Lake was a lovely place to stay. I asked our motel manager about winter there. The Lake is frozen 7 months of the year, up to 6ft thick! And this year they have had much more snow than usual, 500 inches instead of the usual 300. (I can't get my head around 500 inches - I think it's about 12 metres!) They had snow as late as June in Colorado.....




One consequence of all the snow this winter and spring is the rivers are incredibly full, making some of the valley floors very marshy. And the wildflowers are amazingly beautiful. (I wish I knew their names; one, though, is delightfully called "Indian Paintbrush".)

So many wild flowers

With Julia -best cycling buddy

Dillon Lake

The Blue River near Dillon Lake

We were back in Breckenridge on Thursday evening, and on Friday I was on the bike again, 58 miles to Kremmling, then on Saturday 78 miles (plus 3000ft of climbing over Willow Creek Pass) to Walden.

Taken by my support crew, Julia and Ben

Relaxing in the Walden motel hot tub after a hard day's ride

I confess I found both days hard, especially the second; perhaps the body had enjoyed too much the four days of rest!






I met lots of leisure cyclists out on Saturday, on the approach to Willow Creek Pass. One told me he was training for 'the Copper Triangle', a day ride (we would call it a 'sportive') of 80 miles, with over 7500 feet of climbing. It's on 6 August. Any takers? - Andy, Giles, Ed?

But yesterday was much better (body beaten into submission again??) and I found I could cycle properly.

Green valleys and hills

The scenery these last few days has been incredibly beautiful. Between Breckenridge and Kremmling there were a number of lakes. Walden is in North Park, geographically similar to South Park which so captivated me south of Fairplay.


It's a huge, mountain-ringed basin, maybe 30 miles in diameter, with lush green pasture. But - and it was a big 'but' - unlike South Park, North Park was swarming with mosquitoes. Every time I stopped to take a photo (too often!) I was mobbed, and they even stayed on the back of my cycling shorts and bit me as I was riding. Not kind. (Happily I left them behind yesterday when I left the N Park area...)

Byers Gorge

Now in Wyoming, state no 7! It is just as beautiful as lovely Colorado, though I am slowly dropping altitude (7300ft here in Riverside) so snow is rarer on the mountains.

State No.7

2nd crossing of the Continental Divide

A wide and empty view in Wyoming

I worry that I am becoming blase about the breathtaking and awesome beauty all around me. But I do still say "wow" pretty often - and get the camera out! Then the dilemma is, do I stay and savour it all, or do I cycle on, knowing there is yet more amazing scenery to see round the next curve or over the next ridge?

It does feel, though, like frontier country. And I am reminded - and surprised - from time to time, that guns are part of life here. A few evenings ago a notice outside a bar said "No firearms". And yesterday as I approached Riverside, a group were practising with their rifles on a range close to the road; their shots reverberated loudly and, to me, frighteningly....

Meeting up with the support crew

Today we are staying in Riverside for Julia's and Ben's last day with me. They head back to Denver tomorrow, and the UK on Wednesday. Their visit to join me has been just wonderful...

To close, a few more enchanting names, of ranches this time: "Drowsy Water Ranch", "Quaking Creek Ranch", and "Ginger Quill Ranch".

And for the railway enthusiasts.... I saw a freight (coal?) train with five locomotives at the front, and two at the back! Necessary, I suppose, for the gradients around here.

Best wishes to all of you wonderful supporters,

Ken

Post 21, Sunday 10 July, from Breckenridge, Colorado

Dear all

I am starting this sitting outside a public "laundromat" - it must be decades since I last used one....

Breckenridge is a vibrant ski resort but busy too in the summer. The owner of the B&B where I am staying tells me the resident population is 3,000, but in the ski season it swells to 30,000. No wonder it has a prosperous and kempt air (and has masses of - not-cheap - restaurants).

Smart streets and Restaurants

Yesterday's ride, from Guffey to Fairplay, was the most unbelievable day of cycling. I can't imagine it being any better..... Stunningly, breathtakingly awesome scenery.

Snow on the high mountains

That said, though, I met a young TransAm rider - Angus, from San Antonio, Texas - going east, and shared with him my delight at the sheer beauty of it all. He told me it get's even better as I head further north. Hard to believe - can perfection be improved upon?  (Incidentally, he is passionate about cycling, and told me he just wants to carry on riding; perhaps S America next... He is 20, less than a third my age, and may he fulfil his dreams!)

The wide Platte valley

Looking down the South Platte valley

The long and winding road

How can I describe the beauty of yesterday?  For most of the day I was above 9,000 feet, crossing the broad basin of the South Platte River.  It is perhaps 10 to 20 miles wide, with mountains all around, and the highest ones streaked with snow.

Could cycling get better than this

This is ranching country, and close to the river there was lush pasture, with cattle, horses, and - twice - buffalo (I had been hoping at some stage to see these ponderous ungainly beasts).  And beyond the pastureland the grass stretched away, short and brown-dry, to the (180 degree or more) panorama of mountains in the distance.

Cycling progress was slow, though - there were just too many photos needing to be taken..... (On which note, an apology; I discovered a zoom facility on my blackberry, but as my Art Editors back in the UK were quick to tell me, the picture quality with the zoom is seriously degraded. Lesson learnt.)  It was slow also because of the relative lack of oxygen at that altitude, and even at the moderate gradients I was puffing. Absurdly, the Jerry Lee Lewis rock number "Breathless" started spinning round my head....

A rest after a big climb

Fairplay, where I stayed last night, started life as a mining town, but has survived boom and bust and continues to prosper.  I stayed in the Fairplay Hotel, I think the first hotel proper - i.e. with a dining room that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner - I have been in the whole trip.  (It was a huge contrast with the very basic log cabin I stayed in in Guffey the night before, which had no electricity or running water, and had an outside privy!) 

The cabin which was my home in Guffey

One attraction in Fairplay is an area depicting a reconstructed western mining town, formed a few decades ago by renovating some existing buildings and transplanting others.  They call it 'South Park City' and it was fascinating to wander round...  One fact I picked up was that during the town's peak prosperity, no fewer than three narrow gauge railway lines - operated by different companies - served the town and its mines.

A reminder of what Fairplay was about

South Park City, Fairplay

Today's cycling lacked yesterday's stupendous beauty, partly because there were no similar vistas and partly because it was more cloudy.  But it was memorable for the physical challenge of climbing to 11,500 feet, to cross the Hoosier Pass.  The gradient was never more than 6%, but the sheer length of the climb - 12 miles, and 1,500 feet altitude gain - plus my Jerry Lee Lewis-style breathlessness, kept my climbing speed at 5 mph or less!  But there was a good sense of achievement when I got to the top.  And when I told the gentleman who kindly took my photo there that I was ultimately bound for Seattle, his immediate response was, "Holy Cow!".  So that made me feel even better....

11,500 feet up!

 The reward for the climb was a ten-mile, 2,000 feet, descent to Breckenridge.  (But I am glad I had the sense to put on for it several extra layers of clothing.... one can get very cold very quickly descending at altitude.)

Now I have the luxury of four days of not cycling, because I am leaving my bike here to go to meet Julia and Ben who arrive at Denver International Airport tomorrow, and then with a hire car we will have a few days in the Rocky Mountain National Park before coming back here on Thursday.  I will resume my ride on Friday, and for the next three days they will follow me like a support vehicle (but no, I will not get them to carry my panniers for me!), and we will spend the afternoons and evenings together before they fly back to England on the following Tuesday. 

Just two more notable names for the collection, both because they stretch my imagination.  Yesterday, towering above me to the east, was "Thirty Nine Mile Mountain".  And today I saw on a map the forbidding-sounding "Never Summer Wilderness".  Both encapsulate for me the sheer grand scale of these mountains.

So, I now sign off for a few days, but will come back to you all before the end of this coming week.

With deep appreciation for the interest you all show in my "loopy adventure",

Best wishes, Ken

Post 20, 8 July, from Guffey, Colorado

Hi all

As I left Pueblo yesterday morning I went through real suburbs - it took 5 miles to get fully out of town. Momentarily, as I passed some shops, I thought that Colorado had embraced cricket (and the Test Match Special theme was on my brain for several miles....). Sadly not.

As it turned out Pueblo was not - as I termed it - the 'gateway to the Rockies', as after Pueblo there is quite a wide plain before Canon (pronounced 'canyon') City (where I stayed last night). But there was a little climb 7 miles out of Pueblo, and since I hadn't encountered any proper ascents since 22 June, I was puffed at the top! But there was a cyclist coming down, who shouted across to me, "You hang tough!" - a good motto for all the climbing that lay - and lies -ahead.

Colorado was first opened up by the white man for beaver fur. But in the 19th century it was the prospect of gold and silver which lured people. I passed yesterday an information site about mining in that part; the area became known as "Hardscrabble". How descriptive!

I mentioned that to a cafe owner today, and his comment was, "The guy who sold the miner his pick-axe made more money than he did!". That said, there were strikes of both gold and silver there in the very late 19th century, leading to boom towns like Querida and Rosita - which then died as quickly as they boomed.

More curious names for the collection from a small town called Florence, just outside Canyon City. I passed a business advertising "Bearly used and new tires"; now I know there are bears hereabouts, but that seemed ridiculous. And there was a store calling itself "Diamond and Rust Antiques" - curious! And by far the least attractive street name I have ever seen, anywhere, was "Cyanide Lane"....

A world away from the Praries!

 I gave myself a touristical treat in Canon City. Just to the west of it there is a deep and narrow gorge called "Royal Gorge", through which the Arkansas River pours. At its highest the Gorge is 1000 ft deep, and at its narrowest, only 30 ft wide.....

In the 19th century, when the railroads were pushing westwards, the Gorge was the shortest - but technically very very difficult - way west. Two competing companies wanted to build through the Gorge, and there are stories of crazy mutual sabotage. Litigation eventually gave the victory to one of the two, and the line was completed. Passenger and freight services used it until relatively recently, then it closed, but a private company has started running tourist trips through the Gorge. I splurged, and loved it - an hour out and an hour back. Across the highest part of the Gorge there is a suspension bridge (which rather dwarfs the Clifton one in Bristol!). And as we came downstream we watched two kayakers - I was open-mouthed at what they went down.

So today I have entered the Rockies proper. And, even though I was expecting them to be grand, they are truly 'awesome' (a hugely over-used word here). When I had climbed up to a glorious view of range upon range of mountains receding into the distance, I involuntarily exclaimed, "Wow!"

A rest after a big climb!

 It's tough cycling though. Although the gradients are not as steep as the Appalachians (or even the Ozarks), the climbs are much much longer. Today I finished 3200 feet higher than I started, in just 32 miles - and am now at 8600. But the grandeur of the scenery does seem to give me extra energy. And with the altitude it is much cooler than the Prairies of course, especially first thing in the morning.

Receding lines of mountains

 Several eastbound cyclists have said that for several weeks I am going to be in incredible surroundings. On the experience of today, I can believe it. What a fortunate fellow I am.....

As well as undertaking this trip for the sheer enjoyment it is bringing, might I, very gently, remind readers that I am also doing it to raise sponsorship for The Stroke Association. I know lots of supporters have given, very generously, but if anyone had the intention of donating but it has so far gone out of mind, I really do hope to reach the target of £4000.....

More from Breckenridge in a couple of days, by which time I will be past the highest point on the route, the Hoosier Pass, at 11,500 feet.

All best wishes, and so many thanks for your support,

Ken

Post 19, Wednesday 6 July, from Pueblo, Colorado

Hi all

A rest day today, in Pueblo, which with a population of 19,000 is the largest place I have been in since Owensboro way back in Kentucky, and a huge culture shock after the tiny places, whose population is measured in the hundreds, I have been staying in across Kansas and eastern Colorado.  (The reason for another rest day, only four days after my last one, is that there are great bike shops here, and I need to get mine checked over and have a new chain and rear wheel sprocket, ready for the mountains ahead.)

Pueblo is also a gateway to the Rockies.  It certainly seemed strange to see encounter some slight hills yesterday, for the first time (if you exclude the slight depressions and elevations across the prairies) since my last day in Missouri on 22 June, 12 riding days and 600 miles ago!

Another change has been to hear and see freight trains again.  Although my route across W Kansas and E Colorado for the last few days has followed a railroad (mostly about 25 yards away!) its use, for carrying grain, seems to be only sporadic.  But yesterday that line joined one which tracks from the coalmines of Wyoming down to Texas, and in just an hour or two I saw three trains.  I loved hearing that whistle again!  There are no passenger services on this line though.....

The day before yesterday, from Eads to Ordway was the most empty and desolate yet.  The emptiness was majestic.  The land was I guess too arid and infertile for agriculture, so the vegetation was dry and short prairie grass, effectively semi-desert. 

Tough country for cattle

There were a very few cattle dotted across the empty landscape (one lady I talked to yesterday, who with her husband runs what she called a 'small' ranch of 2200 acres, told me it takes three acres to support a cow and its calf; I wonder what the average ratio is in Britain?).  But I also saw some deer (bounding so gracefully across the road jsut ahead of me) and antelope (much smaller) - so in the vast flat expanse of nothingness I could almost fancy I was in the Serengeti in Tanzania.

To give a sense of the emptiness, the route from Eads (population 750) to Ordway took me through Haswell (pop 84), then Sugar City (pop 279), a distance of 50 miles.  And in all that distance there was no sign, either on my map or on the horizon, of any habitation either north or south for perhaps 40 or 50 miles.  I wonder what the population density figures are?

So you can understand why I felt very small, very insignificant, and a little vulnerable.  (That sense was deepened because that day was 4th of July, and there were very few cars or trucks on the road - perhaps one every two miles in either direction!) 

It was reassuring that there were other cyclists on the same route going the same way.  I have been linking in with a supported Adventure Cycling group, with 8 riders and two leaders, and also two other (independent) westbound TransAm cyclists called Sandy and Leo (from Pennsylvania).  We have eaten together during the evenings, and it has been good to have company and also to know that should anything untoward happen to me, there were others around and the AC support vehicle if things got really bad.  I was sad to say goodbye to the AC group on Monday evening, and to Sandy and Leo yesterday.

Adventure Cycling group after 4th July dinner

 I have to make a special mention of one of the group - Candy from Vancouver, Canada.  I am guessing that her age is over 70, but she is a real inspiration.  She told me that she is a 'hiker' not a 'biker', but a friend of hers, more than ten years ago, had cycled across Canada from ocean to ocean, and she had filed away in her mind an intention to do something like that one day.  This year she couldn't find an organised group cycling across Canada, but she hooked up with Adventure Cycling to go across the States instead, and here she is cycling across the country - claiming not to know on a bike the difference between the 'steering wheel' (sic) and the back wheel!  And last year or the year before she hiked up Kilimanjaro.....  What an incredible lady!

Now my thoughts turn to climbing in the Rockies during the next few days.  Come Sunday I will cross the highest point of my route, the Hoosier Pass at 11,500 feet.  (I am glad that Kansas and eastern Colorado have sloped imperceptibly upwards, so that Pueblo is at neartly 5,000 feet, so I am not starting at sea level!)  Then on Monday I leave the bike for a few days in Breckenridge, and get down to Denver International Airport to meet Julia and Ben.  That will be a great reunion!  After the three of us visit the Rocky Mountain National Park I shall resume the cycling on Friday next week, with them meeting up with me at my stopping points each afternoon, till they have to fly back to England on the 19th.  And by then, all being well, I shall feel that I am getting reasonably close to the West Coast and seeing Janet again, on 12 August!

Empty and wide Colorado horizon

But there are just a few more pedal-turns to make till then, and a few feet of altitude to climb.......

All best wishes to you all, Ken

Post 18, Sunday 3 July, from Eads, Colorado

Colorado, State 6.

Well, now in Colorado! But I was sad to leave Kansas, which has treated me well.

Of the nine days of cycling in the State, I had headwinds for only three, so I can't complain. And, although Kansas is famous for thunderstorms that blow up from nowhere (and even tornadoes), the only storm was last evening, which I watched from the safety of my hotel room.

Kansas storm, brewing up!

The colours of the landscape, especially in early morning when the sun is low, have been almost unbelievable, all under the enormous wide Kansas sky.

Wonderful early morning colours.

There was no obvious frontier to mark the 'State Line' between Kansas and Colorado, and indeed the terrain is very much the same.

Today's ride was through yet emptier countryside; in fact, one stretch where the vegetation was only green sage-brush and short grass, was one of the most featureless landscapes I have seen anywhere. I had gone up a slight elevation, and could see perhaps 30 miles across the open plains, and there was just nothing, nothing, on the wide horizon....

Picking up the observations I made last time about the Indian Wars, today I crossed Big Sandy Creek, close to the site of an appalling massacre (the Sand Creek Massacre) of a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment in 1864 by US soldiers. The US commanding officer was subsequently condemned by the Army. (The bloody story, slightly fictionalised, was made into the film "Soldier Blue", in 1970.)

I am impressed with the speed with which things happen here. Less than 24 hours after I (slightly) complained in my last Blog Post about the absence of renewable energy, I saw a large wind farm yesterday!

The first wind farm I've seen.

Indeed everything seems large here on the Great Plains, except the tiny towns linked by the railroad.

Scott City decorated for 4th July

Outside Scott City, yesterday I passed several enormous holding areas for cattle, where I believe they are fattened up before going to market; the holding areas must have been half a mile square. And today the wheat fields I have passed must I guess be measured not by the acre but by the square mile. (One which was ready for harvest I measured as more than a mile long.)

Names... "White Woman Creek" is a river close to Tribune, where I stayed last night; presumably it was Native Americans who gave it that name. I wonder what story lies behind it?

Curious, I wonder why...

A couple of times today I have seen a road sign restricting the operations of snow ploughs - in the middle of nowhere! There must be a reason, but it escapes me.....

Nature notes. One never knows whether a warning is exaggerated... I had propped my bike against the signboard of a workplace just off the main highway yesterday, and the driver of a pick-up truck kindly stopped to say, "Watch for rattlers there! This area is bad for them....". (Whether or nor exaggerated, I did heed it!)

So, these are very happy days. The cycling has been good, encounters with others stimulating, and my "loopy adventure" continues to exceed expectations.

Rare photo of me, taken by passing cyclists on a tandem!

The day after tomorrow I should get my first glimpse of the Rockies. Then a rest day - to get the bike checked over - in Pueblo on Wednesday, and on Friday I will start serious climbing in the mountains.

Next Post from Pueblo. And till then, my thanks as always for your interest and support.

All best wishes, Ken

Post 17: 1 July, from Scott City, Kansas

Well, I do still love Kansas..... (but note the slight hesitation).

So, so empty

My affection, though, has been tested the last couple of riding days, because the wind turned against me.  Tuesday was wonderful for cycling, with an east wind pushing me along, but Wednesday and yesterday it had turned to blowing strongly (the TV Weather Channel said at speeds around 25-30mph) from the SW.

Have I said in earlier Posts that this ride isn't truly a physical challenge?  Well, perhaps I was getting complacent, because I have found the last two days tough going.  On Wednesday the wind was in my face for 45 miles, yesterday for 53, and yesterday my average speed was below 10 mph, the lowest yet on the whole trip. But when it's like that, you just concentrate on getting to the next landmark, whether it be a tree, a shed, a silo, and then to the next one, and slowly, ever so slowly, the miles pass and you do get to your destination!

It has also been hot (even "hotter than hot"!).  On Wednesday when I arrived at my motel (later than usual, at 4 pm) I was told it was 107F (42C) in the shade;  in the full sun my bike computer was reading 46C!  Yesterday it was 108F when I got here at 2 pm.  But it hasn't been humid, and the forecast for the next few days is slightly cooler.  And you can imagine how much I am enjoying a lazy rest day today. 

This far west in Kansas it really is flat, dinner-plate flat.  The terrain is a mixture of prairie grassland, huge wheat fields (with the harvest now pretty much complete), and a few (also huge) fields of growing corn, which is a lovely dark green colour.  Combine harvesters are being moved around the land, on the backs of big trucks, and when they pass you the wind turbulence certainly shifts you and your bike.  Even larger truck loads are gigantic tube structures, which I think are sections of wind turbines;  they must be at least 35 yards long, and 6-8 yards wide, so they take up a huge amount of road.  At least they are preceded by pick-up trucks warning that an "oversize load" is coming, so I know to pull right off onto the verge.

Oversize load!

As I have said before, the grain silos stand out on the horizon, visible for miles.  They are sited on the railroad, and I have been hoping - in vain - to see a train moving romantically across the prairie. Some folk say Kansas is boring to cycle through;  I disagree.  There is always something to look at and think about.  It might be a homestead miles from anywhere - what is life like for the folk who live there?;  perhaps a lone tree - how was it seeded there?

Another charming mailbox!

Most days I encounter some TransAm cyclists going east.  The convention is always to stop and chat, compare notes, etc, and sometimes photograph each other.  My spirits are always lifted when I meet such cyclists coming from the Pacific;  if they have come all this way, then it makes me believe it is really possible for me to get all the way there.  And in fact I have now completed more than 2100 miles (and climbed nearly 89,000 feet, almost three 'everests'!), so both in miles and in cycling days (and maybe in climbing too) I reckon I am past halfway.  Encouraging!

It was wonderful, a few nights ago in Sterling, to stay in a B&B with Hank and Nancy.  FIne though the motels are where I stay most nights, there is something special about being welcomed into a home.  And of course one can learn so much from ones hosts.  Hank and I talked about the sense of real and recent history one has in this part of Kansas. His and Nancy's home was built in 1889, just five years after the 'city' was incorporated.  (I must explain that 'city' doesn't necessarily denote a large population as it would in Britain; I have been through 'cities' with populations as low as 500.)  At that time Sterling was very much a frontier town, and relationships with the Indian tribes around were very uneasy.  Hank told me that the first owner of the house, who headed the 'national militia' locally, used the top floor windows as look-outs across the prairie to get early signs of danger.  (As I say, these events were relatively recent, only twice my lifetime ago!)

In those years two cultures were colliding, in sometimes violent wars:  the westward movement of traders and pioneer settlers in their wagon trains, in huge numbers threatening the lands and way of life of the tribes that had roamed the open plains for generations.  The Santa Fe Trail, connecting St Louis (Missouri) with Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico), was a prime route west.  (Traces of it remain, and I am told you can in a few places still see the ruts made by the countless wagon wheels that rolled over it....)

The cemetery at Fort Larned

Various forts were built to secure the Trail and protect traders and settlers, and one was just outside Larned, first established in 1859.  I visited it on Wednesday as I passed.  It has been superbly restored, and is now a National Historic Site.  Much larger than I expected it to be, it has nine stone buildings, providing accommodation for 100-200 men, some married quarters, even a school, all grouped around a huge parade ground.  It was only used for 20 years, for in that period various treaties had been negotiated between the government agencies and the Indians whereby they agreed to move south-westwards;  so Fort Larned fairly quickly was left behind the front line, and decommissioned.

A few of the buildings at Fort Larned

I know that my acquaintance with this epoch of American history is incredibly superficial, but it does make me wonder whether more accommodation could not have been reached with the Native Americans, so that more of their way of life could continue, and even flourish?  (For example, it took as little as 30 years for the huge herds of buffalo that roamed these plains to be virtually wiped out, by hunters like 'Buffalo Bill' who traded their skins.  I have read that it was the extermination of the buffalo that ended the Native American way of life here, far more than the Indian Wars, because they depended hugely on the giant beasts for food, skins, everything.)

Even more recent in Kansas' history were the 'Dust Bowl' years during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Drought and wind blew off the top soil, with the process exacerbated by the extent to which turf sods had been cut and dried to make bricks (for 'sod houses'), making huge dust storms;  street lights were needed in the towns at midday, and at times visibility was affected as far east as Washington DC.  An already difficult economic situation was rendered impossible for thousands of people on these plains - as chronicled in Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath" and some of Woody Guthrie's folk songs.

One other reflection I have mused on is the absence of renewable energy use here.  There seems to be enough wind in Kansas to provide large quantities electricity, through wind turbines (when the wind in my face is getting me down, I think there might be enough electricity for the whole world!).  And what about harnessing the sun's energy for solar heating or for photo-voltaic electricity generation?  I guess the mindset here is that the country has masses of oil and masses of coal, and doesn't need renewables like we do in Europe.....

Little to contribute this time to 'Nature Notes".  I haven't seen a wild mammal, or a turtle, for days, not even as roadkill.  There are a few birds to be seen, though even they are few and far between now.  A couple of days ago, though, I did see two more aerial combats, with a small bird (about the size of an English blackbird) really attacking a big bird of prey (a buzzard or something).  On the first occasion the small fellow seemed literally to be flying into the predator, and after several such hits the larger one flew off, beaten.  But the second encounter I watched seemd to end with the smaller bird going to the ground;  I didn't see it fly up, so maybe the predator had wounded it with its talons.

Fewer habitations in these parts mean fewer names to take note of..... Walking out yesterday evening to find a meal, though, I felt very put off by an eating house called "Roadkill Cafe".  Ugh....

One more place to stay in Kansas, tomorrow night, then I reach Colorado, State no 6!  Three days to a large town called Pueblo, where I shall get my bike overhauled.  Then I turn northwards and climb into the Rockies - and on 11 July Julia and Ben arrive in Denver, which I am so looking forward to!

Thanks, all of you, as always for your interest, support, and encouragement.

All best wishes, Ken