Day 13 – Anything but an Unlucky Friday the 13th

After just about 393 miles I left Kansas. Many thoughts. Some written below. Some here. I certainly had a plethora of experiences. From days of rain, sleet and snow that caused a two-day delay, to the real experience of cycling over rollers for hours and hours, to cycling into a 25-mph headwind, to the days of a cycler’s dream; cool, level ascending or descending and being able to simply enjoy being in the saddle.
I wish I had studied more geology. Here is just one example of layers of earth that left me with questions unanswered as to what they tell of the earth’s history.
Not all houses were small. The newer and larger ones such as this had modern day barns and out-buildings. In a similar fashion as to my wonderings about the homestead homes, I also wonder what the history of these would be, especially the ones pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Crossing the Missouri
Into Missouri.

A wonderful day to be riding a bicycle across America. The day was cool and just enough of a breeze to keep me refreshed. As I approached the Missouri River from eastern Kansas, the road leveled off and was basically downhill. As I entered Missouri, the road was basically an uphill grade. Makes sense to me that the grade was toward the river.

I do want to end with some of my thoughts about Kansas. What wonderful, open-hearted and genuine people I met. They have met many hard times yet seemed to continually see the glass as half full. Places worthy of mentioning: Penny’s Dinner east of Marysville, Kansas; The Buckshot Inn, Smith Center, Kansas; Sweden Cream, Mankato, Kansas and the Frontier Motel, Oberlin, Kansas where my room was comped in appreciation of my ride.

Tomorrow I’ll be looking for a cleat bolt to replace the one lost and then head out to Chillicothe. I actually have some days of shorter, and longer distances, due to the availability of lodging.

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