Two of my favorite people!

Tom M took this photo from his bike while cycling

Saw hundreds of these in the morning

San Fran to New York half way point

Beautiful SAG park

Can see for miles

View from the top

Cindi, Chuck, Ed and Julie

I liked the clouds

When I read this – don’t think my ride is so hard…

Good evening everyone,

You may have noticed that I tagged this day as (b). Some how I messed up the count and I know tomorrow should be Day 1 so I fudged it.

Today was a beautiful ride through the farm country of Kansas. The morning started out really cool and I had my wind breaker on until the first SAG at mile 30. It was in the 50’s then and a little cloudy. Early in the morning we passed fields of giant wind mills most of whom were not turning. Part of the day I rode with a couple of different groups and I rode a wee bit on my own early on until I caught a few folks.

The second SAG was at mile 52 and was in a little park. We passed quite a few wheat fields and I got I few folks to sing “America the Beautiful” (because of the amber waves of grain!). Most of the folks tended to ride at the same speed or linger longer at the rest stops, because I saw just about everyone today.  Some of us took a side trip to see Pawnee Rock Historic Marker (for the Santa Fe Trail). In Kansas at this point, it is about as flat as you can get. Right in the middle is this giant hill / rock from which one can see for miles. The Indians used to use the rock to spot Bison herds and later on settlers passing through.The original rock was mined down, but they erected a platform to emulate the original height. I took a few photos that i will post.

I can also report that John F (who had been injured) rode quite a bit better today and his speed seems to be increasing and his dry humor retuned. I had dinner with him and his spirits seemed quite a bit higher. For a Brit, he is remarkedly knowledgeable about American Baseball and other sports. Really glad to see him cycling better. He is the youngest of our group at 48 and quite a strong rower.

As we got into Great Bend, our group which consisted of Cindi, Julie, Ed and myself joined the tandem couple from NH (Jeff and Roberta) for ice cream and other delightful snacks before checking into the motel. One of our group, Darrell will be leaving us tomorrow as he can only do the trek a week at a time. So he will be back next year to complete his second last leg of the cross country ride.

All of us yearn for a day of rest, although today was easier, most of us are very tired and a little sore. Everyone is looking forward o our rat day on Tuesday. The mileage between then is not significant but wind and heat could certainly alter that.

Cheers

Chuck