I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~Abraham Lincoln

Hello everyone,

Today we rode 85 odd miles to Great Bend Kansas. Other than the last time I rode through Great Bend Kansas, I was not aware that it existed. There are many small towns, but us “big city dwellers” tend to think that the world revolves around the city. In reality, the opposite occurs as cities can’t exist without an enormous infrastructure, energy  and resource utilization, agriculture and transportation that makes city living possible.

Great Bend Kansas is the home of Jack Kilby who won the nobel prize for in venting the integrated circuit, the essence of way all modern technology is based upon. Without that, we don’y have cell phones, personal computers, the internet and a host of other things we take for granted. Jack Kilby also invented the hand held calculator while at Texas Instruments. Another example of a man with a dream who came from small town America and made an impact on the world. As I researched, Jack Kilby, I was reminded of a favorite book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham and the movie October Sky which was based upon his book. In the book, four teenage boys started to build rockets in the 1950’s in a desolate coal mining town in West Virginia. They went on to win the National Science award and Homer went on to a NASA career. In the 1950’smost of the boys in that town would be destined for the coal mines.

The greatness of America is all around us. Opportunity abounds and often originates from places that we would not suppose. I mentioned yesterday on the friendliness of the native Kansas folk and it was the same today. When we stopped, people wished us well. We stopped at local that commemorated the halfway mark between New York and San Francisco.. A young lady jogging stopped t ask us questions, wish us well and take some photos of us. An elderly gentleman came by to explain how the large display locomotive was placed in the spot in the park. A last in the convenience store asked us where we were going and wished us safe travels. All of these folks were proud of their state and their corner of America. Truckers give unfriendly honks, trains toot their whistles and many bikers give us the raised fist as we pedal onward.

I learned this on my first tour, but it isn’t all about getting to Boston but what happens in between…..

Today’s ride was vey flat with fairly good winds, pretty good roads and the temperature didn’t get too hot until later in the afternoon. As I mentioned we got some photos at the halfway milestone, between NY and San Fran. We saw quite a few windmills and windmill parts being transported by truck. The size of the blade, up close and personal, is quite astounding.

The highlight of the day was Pawnee Rock historic park. This is a large rock formation sitting in the middle of a plain. Indians used to hunt buffalo from the rock and later waited for wagon trains to amish. Later the railroad mined some of the rock for track rock. Some of the local ladies petitioned to preserve the rock and a park was created. You can see for miles atop the rock a d it is easy to se how it was utilized as a vantage point for hunting and attacks as you can see for miles.

Tomorrow we ride to McPherson Kansas which will be a fairly short ride of 63miles.

Tailwinds

Chuck