Headwinds
I do not know where the term predominant westerly winds came from. They do not exist! On all three of my eastbound, coast-to-coast tours, we crossed the plains states biting into strong headwinds. As I write this, we are on our eighteenth day of pushing into headwinds. Ok, I exaggerate. We did have one day with tailwinds pushing us. It was a “short” day – only fifty-six miles. We were able to enjoy being in, off the bike, and having time to do laundry. Yup! Laundry! That is what we were all excited to have time to do. The Laundromat was one block from the motel. We had been on the road enough days that we all had plenty of dirty clothes. With the tailwind on this “short” day, we were thrilled not only to have the joy of so easily pedaling fifty-six miles, we were thrilled to be doing laundry!
On my northern crossing, we had a particularly challenging, continuous, direct, fifty mph, headwind for thirty-five totally straight miles of our route across South Dakota. Even the fast, strong cyclists could average only six to eight miles per hour into that nonstop gale. For me, it required an extreme effort to maintain five mph into that unrelenting infinite blast. It was going to take about seven hours for me to cross that thirty-five mile stretch.
A huge farm tractor came by going in my direction. I mustered energy to pick up my pace and slid in tight behind it. Immediately the sounds of the continuous winds in my ears subsided, replaced now with the sounds of the diesel engine and the clanging implement being towed. I do not know what piece of farm machinery it was, but it was BIG! – South Dakota plains size. Big! It vastly occupied the entire vehicle lane. Na na na na na nah to the wind. The implement it was pulling was some kind of rake. The many hard thick metal tines rose up vertically from their mounts then made about an eighteen inch arch downward to the ground. As the tractor zipped down that South Dakota road with me closely in tow, the trailing implement
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