Christina’s World By Andrew Wyeth (1948)

 

Hello everyone,

As I cycled into Kansas today, I had a flashback to the painting done by Andrew Wyeth, one of the scenes was just missing the young girl, however, in my mind’s eye she was there. The painting captured much of the essence of what I was seeing.  The scenery is in stark contrast to the desert and mountains that we cycled through just a few days ago.

Today was the shortest riding day of the tour – less than 40 miles but I managed a few more as Herm and I tooled around Liberal Kansas. We visited the Aviation museum and tried to visit the museum of the ongoing pancake competition between Liberal Kansas and Olney, England UK. The pancake place was closed and that was too bad as I had a taste for pancakes but I suspect they didn’t actually serve them there. WE got lost a few times and I guess we cycled about 7-8 miles over the actual allotment. That’s OK by me as I want to make up the miles that I missed in a SAG. By my calculation, I need another 48 or so.

We left Guymon at 9:00 and basically  took our time. The weather was perfect and the wind was favorable. On the great roads pin Oklahoma and Kansas, it was easy to maintain speeds over 20 mph.

Our first and only SAG was in Hooker Oklahoma and I purchased a T-shirt that reads “Support Your Local Hookers, OK”. It was a fun SAG stop as almost all the riders were there at the same time. No one was rushing as the hotel rooms would not be ready and the shish-ka-bob that Carol prepared was delicious. Richard (retired vascular surgeon from Wales) was able to but the Oklahoma refrigerator magnet to complete his collection from every state visited.

Today also had quite a bit of sadness. Randy G from Springfield has been pedaling (and walking) with almost unbearable leg-knee pain. He decided today to rent a car and drive home to Springfield. He will visit his doctor and hopefully, he will return to the tour when we reach Springfield in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, Michele will rejoin us in a few days from her rehab program and I hear is raring to go. Randy will be missed very much as his positive and friendly demeanor elevated everyone’s spirits. I appreciate Randy’s good humor and the positive attitude he put forth every day. We ae looking forward to his return in Springfield.

We performed the time-honored sand sprinkling ceremony at the Kansas border which was just a few miles from Liberal. Michael and Tim joined Herm and I at the Aviation museum. It was quite good and much larger than I would have expected. Liberal was home to some early aviation manufacturing and testing. It was a nice way to spend a few hours before we had a delicious taco lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.

Dinner was at Ruffino’s, an Italian restaurant that is a reclaimed train station building. It was a nice meal and I remember being there 2 years ago as well. Seems like yesterday.

Tomorrow, we get into Dodge, KS. It is getting warmer and more humid. Should be fun.

Tailwinds

Chuck