Day 33, Dighton to Eads, 129 miles (Yowza!)

Matt woke at the usual time so we slowly got into character. One nice exception to the norm was that as we were camped a few yards from the Kwik Mart (gas station)- I ambled over for some amber gold (at this time of the day, coffee.) Normally Matt is a tea-man but since we've been State-side, he's taken a liking to the 'lotsa cream, lotsa sugar' approach to java. So now he understands my predatory search for a cup when our location permits.

Caffeinated and enjoying the cool morning, we dismantled our camp beneath the city park shelter. It had been a windy nights' sleep (that is to say, we woke several times to the tent thrashing around us violenntly.) As such, the morning was windy – but as luck would have it, the wind was behind us! These were the conditions we had only dared dream about until now; flat terrain and tail wind. We set sail in high spirits (mainly due to the coffee). For the few hours these conditions held, we were easily able to get 30+ miles in the bank. After a road-side (literally) refuel, the wind had become more of a cross-wind. Still, we were now powered by PBJ bagels, and encouraged by our earlier Plains-Sailing.

Today was a day of unusual highway sightings; we were on one road all day (highway 96). We felt like 'The Borrowers', dwarfed by 'Oversize Loaded' trucks which trawled respectively; epic wind turbine blades; complete pre-fab houses and a cryptically collossal yellow digger bucket. Each of these was preceded and followed by an escort truck which beeped its' horn and flashed an 'Oversize Load' sign (read; any minute now, your bike will be blasted onto the shoulder in my mighty wake.)

Kansas is famous for its' huge sky, punctuated by massive grain silos of a scale only the bread-basket of America could achieve. These monuments of industrial agriculture stand like great pyramids over the flat expanse of farmland. Before leaving our favourite State so far, we were finally treated to a sprawling field of vibrant sunflowers. By fluke, my ipod shuffle corresponded with 'Walking on Sunshine' (Hits of the 80's, I know – shameful.)

At the 70 mile mark (by now 2pm sharpish) we rolled into the quaint Kansan town of Tribune. But wait, there's more; between Scott City and Tribune we had entered Mountain Time – one hour cash-back! So it was actually only 1pm. Plenty of time for more food and more mileage. We sat enjoying our picnic tortillas as country music blared from strategically positioned speakers around the town centre. Refuelled, we set out back onto the Highway 96, as it crept uphill towards Colorado. After 15 miles, Matt was climbing the Welcome to Colorado signage. On que, the landscape changed from agriculture to open grassland plains.

By now we were running on reserve, but spurred on by a new State and scenery. While still relatively flat, we met some undulations in the road – a novelty after a few days in Kansas. Finally, we reached the tiny town of Eads. We met the sheriff on his evening prowl, who directed us to the tiny town park and rest room. No shower or pool but no worries after 129 miles on the road (smashing our own previous record). A wash basin, Budweiser and tinned-picnic party left us two happy campers. Destination: Sleepytown; population: Us.