Thankfully the rain stopped in the middle of the night sometime so I broke camp relatively dry. Had to put up the tent and everything wet which I hate but there's not a whole lot I could do about it. I vowed to air my gear out at some point in the day, just like I'd promised myself after every other rainy day and ultimately failed. I was happy about at least getting rolling before 8 but I forgot yet again that DG doesn't open till 8. The next store on route was 100 miles down the road so I waited. There was a gas station but I needed more sunscreen. And lots of food in case I needed to camp before town. The route headed straight for the border with Kansas. It took me through vast expanses of open range through more stunning natural tallgrass prairie. Gently rolling hills, and dotted with cows everywhere. Horizon to horizon, all I saw was grass. Not a tree in sight. I passed by the border town of Elgin, KS. I decided to take a spin around the little grid of gravel roads. So glad I did. I get a kick out of exploring cool small towns and this one was awesome. Its remaining commercial buildings were boarded up long ago and many old houses remained with a few occupied. The streets were the best part. Most of the town was paved with red brick. It still had a nice little park and community center and a cool sign that said it was a town too tough to die. The roads dealt with the rain well and were dry by the middle of the day. Pretty fast rolling as well. My feet began to bother me a little while after I forded a couple of larger creeks. I stopped to look and they were like prunes. Swapped to slightly drier socks. It helped a little. Eventually the sun came out, and I stopped to dry me and my gear out finally. There wasn't a natural stopping point anywhere, no trees or buildings or intersections. So I just stopped at a gate and sat and ate a lunch. Wind plus the sun dried everything out in no time. My feet and hands thanked me. Soon I spotted a gathering of scattered storms just southwest of me. The wind had picked up dramatically, feeding the storms. It was blowing hard from the east and I was going due west. I really made some ground fast. It was blowing hard enough to push me to 25 on level ground with barely any effort. I had a lot of fun here. The views were incredible, gravel was perfect and I felt like I had wings. But eventually I caught up with the rain and my tailwind died. I rode through the rain and while it never poured, it was steadily coming down and made for a messy ride. Thankfully I was on good gravel roads so it was all still rideable. I lubed my chain twice to keep it from sounding like it was going to explode. I emerged onto pavement as the rain stopped. Went by a small volunteer fire station and decided I was done for the day. I set up my tent in the back. Pretty quiet, the road is paved but doesn't have too much traffic. No campers with loud diesel trucks.