Day 13, Friday, September 20

What a difference the wind can make. Today was the first day in about five where the wind wasn't an issue. Since New Mexico, we've either had really strong tail winds, side winds, or head winds. Today for the most part we had a gentle breeze blowing at our backs. Without the need for the shelter of other cyclists, I spent most of the day riding on my own. It was nice to take a break from constantly trying to match someone else's pace. Tomorrow should be more of the same, since we'll be doing a lot of climbing and should be less affected by the wind no matter what it is doing.

I told Susan today that she and Lon should invent a PAC Tour board game, kind of like Monopoly, but instead of accumulating houses and hotels, people could accumulate down hills, tail winds, tandem drafts, and calories from their sport drink of choice. And instead of landing in jail, people could blow out their knees and spend a turn in the van. That's kind of what back-to-back cycling feels like, one random toss of the dice or draw of the cards and the day could swing quickly between good or bad.

Phil stopped to help me fix a flat and gave me tips for riding in the heavy traffic ("I ride as far to the left as possible to avoid riding over debris and getting flats. I figure I can take my chances with the cars since I have life insurance.")

The landscape now feels like a typical landscape in upstate New York -- except flatter -- or Illinois -- except hillier. There's lush trees and fields and the constant hum of insects. Oklahoma is not at all what I expected. I pictured it to be more like a giant, open field of dirt, blowing away. Maybe I got that from reading Grapes of Wrath or something. Being reminded of both upstate New York and Illinois, I was wondering if the landscape would change at all between here and South Carolina. I bet it will look different in places, especially since I think we have both the Ozarks and the Appalachians to cross. Plus, I was wondering if we would start to see any fall colors before the trip is over, but we may be too far south for that. I was seeing more of a change of seasons in California before I left than I have on the trip.

I feel that since the days are now getting easier and I've fallen into a rhythm, I have less to say in the evenings. I guess that's a good thing. It isn't any fun being stressed out when I'm riding just trying to keep ahead of the van. As long as I'm on the subject of not having much to say, I got my fourth flat of the trip today. Phil from Florida stopped to help me fix it and found three wires in my tire. The wires come from tread on truck tires that blow up. A lot of time cyclist have trouble finding all of the wires or have trouble pulling them out all the way and end up getting repeated flats until they replace the tire. I know three people on the trip so far who have gotten five flat tires in one day just because they couldn't get the wires out.