Lamar CO to Garden City KS 104 miles - 1,709 miles cum

Today we entered another state,Kansas and another time zone, central. We are getting close to the halfway point. It will be someplace in Kansas.
We had breakfast at the hotel at 6:00Am and loaded our luggage at 6:45Am and got on our way. There was a group of us riding together for the first 5 miles or so and then the hammers pulled away. Bruce, Meiri and I rode together for about 15 miles and then I threw my chain off. Ed came by while I was struggling to get it back on and said I wasn't using the right words! Pretty funny! I finally got rolling again and eventually caught up with Bruce and Meiri again. We got into the first Sag stop and luckily Sean the mechanic was there. He has been working on my shifting for a few days and I told him the chain came off again. He took a look at it and discovered the front derailleur was bent. He straightened as best he could so I could keep riding and promised to do a complete repair when I got in today. I was getting ready to leave when he looked my rear tire and noticed a bulge in the sidewall. The tire had a cut and was ready to blow. He put a new tire on the bike and finally I was ready. By now Meiri and I were pretty far behind.
We rode to the state line and Brian was there so we all took pictures. After 50 miles, it started to really get hot. We stopped in the town of Syracuse for a cold drink. As I took my sunglasses off, the lens popped out. The screw had come loose. The clerk inside said there was a drug store about three blocks down where I could buy a repair kit. We sat on a bench outside drinking our pop when one of the locals came out and asked what we were doing. After we told him, he said he had moved here from Las Vegas three years ago. He was the local plumber and seemed like a really nice guy. He jumped into his pickup truck and left while we jumped on our bikes and headed for the drug store. I bought a kit and fixed my glasses and we were back on the road.
Shortly before the town of Lakin, where our Sag stop was to be held, my new back tire went flat! I took it apart but could not find anything in the tire to cause the flat. I finally decided that it was a pinch flat and put in a new tube and set out for Lakin. The Sag stop was supposed to be at a Dairy Queen but it had gone out of business. Bitter disappointment, no Blizzards today!!!
Meiri and I decided to go across the street and have lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It felt good to sit down and get out of the heat. The temperature was now around 100 degrees. About an hour out from the hotel, we ran into rain storm. The rain actually felt good. It rained enough for us to get wet but it really cooled us off. I was completely dried off after 20 minutes or so but the clouds remained so the heat never built up again.
Kansas is really flat although we did have a total of 1,434 feet of climbing today. We crossed the Arkansas river several times today. It does not look like the raging torrent we saw a couple of days ago in Colorado. I am sure it is because it is being used for irrigation. There still are interesting things to see even if it is not all mountain scenery.
For dinner we ate a Golden Corral buffet. These places lose money on us. Everybody goes for two or three plate loads and then finishes up with desert. I hope I can cut back from the 6,000 calories or so I am eating everyday!!!
Tomorrow we are only riding 51 miles so we get to sleep in and load at 8:00Am!