Day 14: Great Bend to McPherson, Kansas 67 miles. Flat as a Pancake

Cold.  Wet.  Windy.  Scary.  

That about says it all for today's ride.  

We started on the road a bit later as a big thunderstorm had rolled through Great Bend around 6 this morning.  The forecast for today had been for sun in the morning and a noontime thunderstorm at our arrival city, followed by sun in the afternoon.  What we experienced was nothing like that.

We left our hotel about 7:45 this morning and, immediately, we could see another storm front barreling in from the west.  So the ride out of Great Bend became a bit of a race against the rain.

For many of us, that lasted only about seven miles.  The farther we got away from Great Bend, the darker the skies got.  With the first drops of rain, we figured that this would be a wet day.  Little did we know it would get far worse.  Almost on cue at the seven mile mark, lightning started flashing all around us.  Immediately, the two support vans pulled up and picked up most of the riders.  Some riders ignored the call to stop riding and kept going onto the next town, Ellinwood, where they found cover.  The rest of us dropped our bikes by the side of the road and climbed into one of the two vans.  From there, we watched the light show of lightning bolts all around us.  That lasted about half an hour.  Oddly enough, the storm front came from the west, but the winds were coming strongly from the south.  None of us could figure that out.

The one picture I took all day.  The first storm had passed through and, approaching Ellinwood, it was just a light drizzle.  The wheat shocks caught my eye, hence the photo.

According to the radar, the heavy storm cell was moving swiftly west to east, so after a time, it was deemed safe enough for us to return to the road.  We were cautioned, however, that if we saw more lightning or felt uncomfortable riding on the road, we were to find safe shelter.  That could be a barn, someone's home (with permission!), or any other place for protection.

Early on, the ride after our break was actually pretty comfortable.  We rode through a light rain into the town of Ellinwood.  The temperature was in the high 60's and, yes, I was soaking wet, but my body felt warm from the constant motion.  All that, however, quickly changed.

Remember, we were riding through the Kansas countryside.  Basically flat with an occasional roller (a rise of about 50-100 feet followed by a similar descent).  We were riding through farmlands with the odd grain elevator or barn.  No major structures.  No major cities.  Not a lot of places to gain shelter.  

And that's about the time that the storms reappeared.  The storm cells that were supposed to head east had reformed from the south and lightning was firing all around me.  I was about ten minutes behind most of the group, but when I saw two lightning bolts strike ahead of me on both my left and right, I knew it was time to find cover.  The nearest shelter was a barn about half a mile down the road.  As I rode to the small lane that included a house and that barn, I saw no cars in the house driveway, so I just proceeded directly to the barn.  It was a huge, open structure that housed two large combines and other smaller assorted tractors.  The winds were whipping up in their intensity, but I found a spot tucked right up against one of the combines that provided protection from the wind.  I was soaked and cold.  But out of the way of the lightning.

About half an hour later, the skies looked a bit clearer, so I ventured out from the barn.  It was still raining, albeit lighter now.  The skies looked a bit lighter as well, so I guessed it was okay to proceed.  Wrong!  Four miles down the road, the lightning was back.  So I found a new shelter in the form of an abandoned building with a large porch.  There I waited for another half an hour.

I would repeat this twice more before the skies truly relaxed and cleared any further electrical discharges.  The rest of the ride into McPherson was uneventful.  But this was the most exhausting and scariest ride I've ever ridden; not from the distance but rather from the constant looking up at the skies for more lightning.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be better.  We're heading to Abilene and the Eisenhower Presidential Libary/Museum.