Day 27 Mountain Time

My tactics have been spot on, the day after my last post I flew 130 miles with one heck of a tail wind. One segment that day was 58 miles without any sevices or stops passing therought the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, this segment I did in 2.5 hours in a rainstorm. When it comes to a situation like that however, there are really two options one can choose from, hunker down and wait for better weather, or RIDE LIKE HELL. I chose the later.
As I have move furthur west, the climate has become drier, moving less from corn and more into wheat and finally into dryland cattle range. The human population has become more and more sparse as well, sometimes traveling many miles without seeing any houses or people. The scale of the farming has increased congruently. While in Easter Kansas, there was little irrigation Western Kansas has many center pivots the largest I saw had 15 segment! In addition the size of the combines and tractors have increased. I have now entered Colorado and mountain time, but besides the road signs theres not a whole lot of destinction between the western Kansas and Eastern Colorado biological continum.
One thing that did strike me about Kansas was the amount of oil wells. Aparently oil is a bigger source of revenue than argiculte in the state. Oil wells speckle the landscape some turning some not and some starting to turn all-of-the-sudden (why, I don't know). The oil is pumped to a cluster of tanks and various states of direpair in the near vacinity with a spill burm of sand around their base, but it is obviouse its just for looks.
I spent at least an hour today riding along at 17mph and making phone calls to pass the time as the road pans strait out in front of me at a very slight incline. Bugs also have become quite a nuisance, I am covered head to toe in black gnats which stick to my skin because of the sweat and sunscreen. Once the gnats have started then the ladybugs arrive hoping for a meal.
I have begun to realize that people are not as friendly as they once were. While the older population will still ask you where your going out of the blue the conversation usually ends there. The yonger folk, won't talk to you at all, and if prompted to star a conversation will not reciprocate.
Tomorrow I hope to be in Pueblo Co., the largest city I will hit on the entire route. Its prettymuch the last stop before getting into the hills of the Rockies, which will be a fantastic change after the continual plains. I'm about half way done with the trip as of today so I estimate my return at about July 24... we'll see...