Data: 108.5 miles Riding time 6:20 (17.1 mph avg)
Today was my favorite bike ride on the tour! Weather was finally perfect (overcast and warm), the rural road was rolling hills, it was green like Ireland, full of neat farms, and it was little traveled by cars (it paralleled Hwy 70 to the south). The road was called "the native stone scenic byway" because many of the homes and walls, and especially the chimneys, used stones taken from the hillsides.
We all celebrated when we arrived in Topeka because we completed the first half of the tour and tomorrow is our day off. Kasper and I are happy we've made it safely thus far.
Because we had lots of "free time" tonight, since we won't need to get up early tomorrow morning, ten of us took two taxis to an Italian restaurant (normally we have time only to walk to the nearest restaurant). Fortunately, on Mondays the restaurant has an "all you can eat" special! The waiter couldn't believe all these skinny guys were eating so much.
I would guess that when many people imagine what it would be like to "ride a bike across the country", they would picture the idyllic ride we had today. I always pictured Kansas as looking flat, like what we had in the western part of the state. But eastern Kansas is rolling hills, green as far as the eye can see, and the farms and ranches are clean and sharp, with no longer the old rusting cars and trucks we've seen up to now, other than this picture I got as we were leaving Abilene of someone's T-bird collection.
Today's scenery reminded me of the country roads in Wisconsin. Since it has rained so much recently, all the little creeks were rushing torrents, and most fields were muddy or temporary lakes. It had been predicted to have strong headwinds today, but they were minor from the south, so they weren't a factor. Rob took my picture at Dragoon Creek.
David, who was knocked off his bike yesterday by the dog, is okay and rode the entire distance today. However, he has no memory of lying on the street for those 30 minutes, and, his helmet was cracked in five places. So, it was a close call. The dog, we heard, got a ticket (i.e., the owners were cited).
The scenery was so nice, I decided to take it easy and enjoy it, stopping often to take photos. I rode with Shane, one of the staff, early in the morning, but let him go. The rest of the day I was pretty much by myself, occasionally catching or getting caught by others for some visiting. One little spot I stopped to look around was White City, and here is its oldest house dating from 1872. The postmaster was A.C. Buck, so perhaps I am related to him.
After the final rest stop, I rode a little with the tour leader, but we kept playing leapfrog along the road as we stopped to take photos in different places. Here's a photo of a strange piece of folk art - a dragon or monster eating a bicycle!! It was just alongside the road suddenly, next to a farmhouse:
This piece of folk art was especially strange. Do these folks not like bicyclists, or just what?
Tomorrow we're looking forward to our only rest day. We had the "rap" for Wednesday's ride to St Joseph THIS evening instead of tomorrow night, and look at all our visitors! Lots of wives and girlfriends and family have flown/driven in to Topeka for a visit since tomorrow is free.
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