Day 29: Into the Desert (Leoti, KS to Haswell, CO)

Total mileage: 82

As promised, we made omelets (aka scrambled eggs with veggies) for our Warmshowers hosts in the morning. It's always fun to get the chance to cook, especially with the use of someone else's fridge! We got a bit of a late start because of it, arriving in Tribune around noon (even after riding into a new time zone).

A gastropub in Tribune, KS? We weren't surprised it had closed.

We stocked up on groceries for lunch at the little (and unfortunately very expensive) grocery store there. Then we set out to tackle another long stretch of road with limited services (aka "desert").

15 miles into our ride and we were in Colorado! Wooo new state! And new region! We're finally starting to feel like we're kind of far from home (or NC, at least).

The desert turned out to not be so deserted after all: when we stopped on the side of the road to fix a bike seat, we were immediately beset by swarms of biting flies. They had been a nuisance for several days, but we had never experienced so many at once! Needless to say, we didn't stop for long.

When we stopped in Sheridan Lake to find a spot for lunch, the flies had gotten even worse! We knew we couldn't eat outside. We also knew there was a church nearby that was friendly to cyclists, but we didn't know where it was! Alix stopped to check the map for the address and was immediately pursued by the carniverous flies. She urged Sonja to save herself, so Sonja rode in circles and then scouted out the correct street, which turned out to be just a block away.

When we arrived at the church, we parked out bikes and sprinted toward the building in desperation. (Seriously.) Thankfully the door was unlocked! Inside, we found a lovely new church building with a kitchen and dining area we could use for lunch. It was a peaceful place to stop and a perfect refuge from the flies. We left a thank you note expressing our gratitude.

Our evening ride to Eads was surprisingly enjoyable. Just as we were getting fed up with the same old scenery, things started to change. New shrubs began to sprout up along the side of the highway, the trees began to look different, bumps began to pop up on the horizon, and *gasp*occasionally there were turns in the road!

To our alarm, the grocery store in Eads turned out to be closed on Sundays. The options at the gas station weren't good, so we sat outside of it, hoping to catch a ride to civilization further west. While we waited, we learned how dry the area had been for the past decade and how hard it was to live there. We also chatted with a woman who had moved from Leoti to Denver, and tasked about how the city was exciting, but coming home always felt like "getting a hug." Aw.

Our plan didn't quite work, but eventually we hitched a ride with a family going toward the city park in Haswell (the place we had planned to camp that night). We ended up eating many handfuls/spoonfuls of peanuts and raisins (and mustard and the last of the peanut butter) for dinner, some cashews for dessert, and setting up camp early. The sunset was definitely the highlight of dinner.

A nice feature of flat expanses: nothing seriously obscures sunrises/sunsets 

While we were there, we met the mayor of the town (pop: 62), who was walking with her daughters through the park. She kindly offered us help if we ran into any trouble that night.

We almost did need her help, since a massive storm blew in just as we were setting up our tent! Luckily, our tent is awesome (thank you, John N.) and it didn't last that long, so we were fine. The thunder never got too close, though the rain was quite intense (hah) for a little bit. While we were brushing our teeth in the tent, though, another cyclist arrived and asked if we knew of somewhere she could seek shelter. The wind was blowing hard at that point, and she didn't seem comfortable setting up her tent with a storm approaching. We directed her to the mayor's house and assume she found a safe place to stay! We wish we could've talked more with her because we haven't seen many solo female cyclists.