We headed headed north to Donald and the wind was behind us.  Really behind us.  We were doing 20 mph easy without effort.  We knew it would be different coming back south.

We were right.

The forecast was for 60 mph gusts from the south.  I know we felt at least one 50 mph gust.  The riding was hard, but it was a direct headwind so all we had to do was hunker down and peddle.

Joanne was ahead of me and was fighting the wind on 99E when Mike and Grace drove by in their van.  They stopped and offered a ride to her and she was pleased to climb in.  They dropped her off at home and she immediately went out in our van to rescue riders.  Soon our van was full and after dropping off those thankful riders, she went out for another pass.

I meanwhile took the most direct path home and made it in before she found me.

In the graph above, you can see how much the wind affected my speed.  The spikes in the second haft of the ride were because the road turned to the north for a short ways.