A hazy blanket of fog covered the Kansas landscape and provided us cover until 11:00. This was nice because the breeze was cool and the sun did not beat on us for a few hours at least!


We stopped 6 miles in at Fort Larned, “Guardian of the Santa Fe Trail”. The buildings that remained are made of sandstone.

The stones were so soft that when we pulled in and leaned our bike up against the walls the Ranger came and asked us not to since they were softer than your fingernail. It was neat but we did not stay longer than to take a few pictures and get back on the road.
For at least the third day straight, we enjoyed a tailwind that was strong enough to blow us to our first break in Rush Center, KS, which was 31 miles from where we started, in 1 hour and 25 minutes. This was great and took very little effort. I enjoyed cookies and a Gatorade for snack. I even took enough time to talk to Ed Durbin (my boss from Fab Masters in Marcellus!) for a few minutes. The road and the wind were calling to us so we got back on the road to go the next 30 miles to Hess City, KS.
We polished off 15 of the miles in less than an hour and decided to stop at a Rest Area/Historical Marker in Alexander, KS.

We got water and electrolytes and rested a little. As I was looking at the map in the building I came to a wonderful conclusion: This would be our fasted day on the bike in the whole trip. I never should have come to this conclusion, because we got on the bikes to go and as we got to the road Dad called to me: He had a flat tire. No problem, it should only take 5 minutes. Off with the old tire and tube and on with the new. The problem with the new is that it also had a hole in it. Off again and failing attempt to patch it. Twice. No good, we ended up throwing it away. We then decided to patch the one that had just gone flat. We found the hole and patched it. The tire was put back on and hands were washed. In the time that it took to wash hands and get back to the bikes the tire was flat. This was getting rather frustrating to say the least. We took the tire off one more time and patched it one more time, with our last patch, and put the tire back together. We put the tire back on the rim and pumped it up. Hand pumps that are carried on bikes can only bring tire pressure only to about 70 psi. We also carry CO2 cartridges that will put the pressure up to 110 psi, which is what we want. The only problem is since we had pumped our tires up so many times we were almost out of air. We used all the air we had left and hit the road with Dad having about half the pressure that he should have in his back tire. Elapsed time for the entire stop – 2 hours. This would not end of being the shortest day on the bike of the trip. Oh, well the LORD knew that we needed that much of a rest at that time of the day.
The next city had a tire shop where we got Dad a new bike. It really only felt that way since we were able to get his rear tire up to pressure and it no longer felt like he was riding through quicksand.

We made it to Ness City, KS and had “lunch”. It was only called this because it was our second meal of the day. It was 2:00 before we got our lunch. While we ate, two guys pulled up to eat at the same place who were going from Oregon to Virginia.

They were fully loaded and I often feel a little like “Underdog the Wimpy SuperHero” with nothing in tow. They are doing a real ride I am kind of just having fun. They were both professors at the University of Tennessee and had the summer off for such a trip.
The biking was great for the rest of the day with a southwesterly wind that grew stronger as we went west. The reason it was grew stronger was there was a large storm growing larger as we got closer our destination. I have never been fond of thunder since it is usually the result of lightning so to hear thunder above me for the final 5 miles made the final part of the trip less than enjoyable even though the speeds were fun.

We arrived at camp and quickly realized that the storm that had once been moving northwest was now moving southeast right towards where we were. Without even a chance to change clothes we were in the car and off in the opposite direction of the storm (none of us wanted to feel the inside of a tornado while in an RV. In an attempt to outrun the storm, we all now know that a 2001 Yukon XL will exceed 100 mph. We did outrun the storm (even though I have heard that it is not the best thing to do) went drove around until we thought the storm had sufficiently past Dighton, KS (where we were spending the night) and returned to find our RV in the same spot. We were actually a little surprised. There was a tornado that touched down just outside of town but nothing had affected the town. The kids enjoyed the puddles that had been created and believe it or not my clean freak of a wife (don't get me wrong it is more of a benefit than anything) allowed and even made the suggestion that they do so!

Today we learned that the LORD gives tailwinds, flat tires to force us to rest, and safety during a storm! The LORD also takes away the shortest day on the bike, all of our patches and tubes so that we would be reminded that our safety, security and dependence is in the LORD! I must learn to be thankful for whatever the LORD brings my way!

The LORD gave us this beautiful sunset to enjoy at the end of our exciting day. Another reminder of just who is in control!!!
1 comment:
So glad you are safe. Keep on pedaling!
:o)
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