“The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”
Epicurus quotes (Greek philosopher, BC 341-270)

Hello everyone,

As you my have guessed, we ran into a bit of foul weather yesterday morning. I with the first group left the hotel at 7:00, I had put the clear lens into my sunglasses but had to remove them within the first several miles as the condensation and water droplets and darling kiss made it very hard to see. The rain seemed to get worse as we road. I was in a small group with Herm and Michael and I was grateful for their taillights that helped guide the way. If lightening gets to be close by, we are supposed to take shelter and while we saw lighting, the thunder indicated that it was several miles away.

We came across the first group of cyclist who had taken shelter at an old abandoned station, we pushed on even though the staff asked us to stop, After a few more miles we were outside the city of Topeka but the rain was falling steadily. Michael had a flat and when we stopped to fix it, the SAG van asked us to get inside – we pushed on. It was kind of cold but the wind was calm and the skies were not as dark anymore. Around mile 25 we went into a convenience store to get some food and drink and dry out a bit. There were several elderly gentlemen sitting in a prove ted are on a bench out front. One of them called me “old timer” and we passed a few jokes back and forth. When we left, the riders who had taken shelter arrived at the store.

Several miles down the road, the SAG van pulled us over and asked that we wait with them for 15 minutes or so because a severe storm was going to pass through quickly. Tracy had also held up the last group of riders from leaving because of the weather. I found out later the they didn’t leave until 11:00 am. We acquiesced and got into the van to warm up and dry out a bit. Robih showed us the radar map on her phone and it did appear a little hazardous. After about 20 -25 minutes, they told us that we could leave. It was starting to fog up and within minutes the wind starting gusting. The trees were bedding at odd angles and we could see the clouds racing across the sky. I had to admit that I was questioning if I should go back to the van.

After a short while, maybe a few miles the winds died down and the rain lessened quite bait. We came upon the SAG and again were asked to hold up. Part of the rationale was that the other groups were so far behind us that the ability to support everyone was compromised. We went on knowing that we might not have any support vehicles or the next SAG would not be ready when we passed.

We left the SAG and the sun came out within a few miles and we were able to shed some of our rain gear. Unfortunately, I had lost my sun glasses when I got in the van so I need a new pair of Oakley’s….. Our ride into Atchison  Kansas was a lot of fun because it was mostly downhill and we finally had a decent tailwind. In tow we stopped to have lunch at DQ because we thought the SAG at mile 70 would not be open. We gad a great conversation with a few of the locals. Michael who was sitting behind me kept asking if Leavenworth  prison was open. So I asked the one elderly gentleman and he gave me a quizzical look and said yes. So I told him that Michael’s uncle was  incarcerated there and Michael wanted to pay a visit. That got quite a few laughs and Michael’s retort was that they wanted to drop me off there.

We crossed the Missouri River with our 6th state line crossing. There is a new bridge there, much nicer than the one I crossed over in 2012. The river was running very high with lots of debris. Our ride to St. Joseph was fairly uneventful. Our route does take us through a long park of about 6 miles with lots of climbing. It is scenic but hard.

All in all it was another tough day and I was so exhausted that i didn’t complete the blog yesterday. Congrats should go to Herm and Michael fro pulling me through the inclement weather and putting up with my jokes. I will remember the gusting hard winds more so than my first real day of rain in 2 years of riding cross country.

Tailwinds

Chuck