Scott City, KS to Tribune, KS

We got up leisurely and had a great breakfast at the hotel.  We then eventually got on our way.  We saw our first windmills in the distance.

We arrived in Leoti, KS and took got some lunch at a local convenience store which actually had some great mexican food.  After filling our stomachs, we knew that our next town we wanted to make it to had very little services.  We stocked up at the local grocery store which was only 2 blocks away from our lunch stop.  We then continued onto Tribune, KS.

We were excited to see this sign:

A few miles outside of Tribune, Linda heard her phone ding, which sounded like a a weather alert.  The sky was telling us that there was something brewing and when we arrived in Tribune, we stopped at the truck stop there.  Sure enough there was a tornado watch until 9:00 that evening.  Go figure, 16 miles from the Colorado border and we get our first Tornado watch.  We got to see huge oversized trucks at the truck stop, carrying exactly what we had seen eariler:  windmills.

That is one wing of the windmill.  Phil found out that the back tires of these huge rigs were actually operated by the pick up truck driver who drove behind.  It was pretty incredible and made us feel pretty small.  We got a bite to eat at the truck stop.  Phil struck up conversation with some people there and Linda inquired about lodging with some of the local ladies that were there.  Linda was advised that we did not want to stay in the only motel in town.  It was right across the street and we could tell it didn’t look fabulous.  They recommended the city park over the motel, however Linda asked if there was anything indoors due to the approaching storm.  One of the ladies spoke up and said the Presbyterian church kept it’s doors open for cyclists.  Another lady told Linda to hold on and let her call her boss.  She worked over at the school as a janitor and was willing to go over and open the “Blue Gym” and have us stay there.  She said there were showers and laundry there and most importantly, a roof.  Once she cleared it with her boss, she had us follow her over to the school just as it started to rain.  We then waited there for her to get her keys.  She came back and opened the gym for us.  It was very warm in the gym and she told us the chuch wouldn’t have been much better (she knew that because she cleaned over there too).  We were very thankful.

We showered and did laundry.

The rain came.

We set up our tent anyway in the gym.  To combate the heat, we opened all the door which also let the horrible biting flys in.  And they bite HARD.  The tent kept them off of us.

The tornado watch expired at 9:00pm, however there was still a lot of Severe Thunderstorm watches and warnings for most of the night.  As it continued to get darker, the storm raged on providing quite a light show almost all night.  It was incredible.   We were again, so thankful for the shelter.