More Kansas today! Ughhh! I'm sick of this state. Started out as the last person to leave with Nigel. We caught up to Brian at the first stop. The weather today was in the low 60's, overcast and misty. Again the wind was blowing from the northeast, making riding perfectly miserable once more.
We rolled through one little town after another. Oftentimes a water tower was all there was to mark its place. Sometimes there was a closed gas station in town. You wonder how anyone could live here. What is there to do? The scenery has improved from previous days. They seem to have heard of trees in this part of Kansas, unlike the western part where you could look all around you for miles and not see a single tree. Added to the trees were some cows, horses, goats, creeks, ponds, and some rolling hills. At one point five horses were running in a field alongside us. That was neat.
We picked up Pat, Denise, and Mike as we rode to lunch. Lunch was noodles and hot soup, and a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. Off into the misty road. My yellow tinted sunglasses were getting too fogged up to use. We hit some nice rollers and I went off on my own plowing through them. Stopped again at next stop for some delicious chocolate brownies. Brian's wife was in town so he sped up to get home. One last stop where we had some gorp with M&M's. A local told us about a college football game in town as we rode into Pittsburgh. Got in around 6pm.
Today was a long day. The wind was obnoxious as usual. I liked the cooler temperatures. It tried to rain on us several times but did not fully open up. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain for sure. Plus another vicious crosswind. Plus 140 miles. Plus 6000 feet of climbing. Plus Lon said it is the toughest day of the tour. More details tomorrow.
