Today was tough to say the least. We ended up biking only 35 miles, though it felt like much, much more. The winds in Kansas can be fierce since there are not a whole lot of trees, buildings, hills, or anything really, to block them.

During the first half of our day from Eureka to Rosalia, we were exposed to a strong crosswind (about 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph). By the time we reached Rosalia, we were feeling exhausted and defeated, not to mention cold. We luckily found a little restaurant to take refuge in called Old Hat. The owner lady was very sweet and allowed us to stay as long as we wished. We took off our shoes to thaw out our toes and ordered hot chocolate. Eventually we ordered a pizza and played the board game version of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"

As we were finishing our game, another biker walked into the restaurant. His name was Skylar and he was traveling by himself from San Francisco to Springfield, Missouri. Like Rebekah, he'll be starting grad school soon, so he decided to do his first biking tour. Unlike us though, he bikes about 100 miles everyday. Needless to say, he was making very good time.

Finally, we decided that we better get moving. So we left the little restaurant in Rosalia and headed north (right into the strong winds) toward Cassoday. We had to bike 17 miles into the winds, but took turns leading so that we could draft off each other. Luckily, the road was not busy at all. 

When we reached Cassoday, we headed over to the Methodist church. The lady at the restaurant told us that they let bikers sleep in the basement. We thought this sounded appealing with the strong winds and rather chilly temperatures (lows in the upper 30s/high 40s). When we finally got a hold of someone, they informed us that the church no longer hosts people and told us to check out the lodge. When we found the lodge, it was closed along with everything else in Cassoday. The one and only cafe was out of business as well as the only souvenir shop. There was a post office that appeared to be in business, but it was closed for the day. 

According to our trans-Am map, we were allowed to camp at the city park. We decided to set up our tents at the first park we found, Prairie Park. It wasn't much more than a small patch of grass and a single water spicket. We strategically placed our tents behind some sheds to avoid the worst of the winds. We took a little stroll to the only convenient store up the road and saw the other city park where we were supposed to camp. We opted to stay where we were. Since there were no restaurants in tiny Cassoday, we took out the stove and cooked one of our instant pasta meals. It was quite tasty!

After dinner, we were all ready for bed. The winds had worn us out. We all read a little bit of our books and zonked out when our eyelids when no longer stay open.