Day two was not what I had expected. Although last week when I checked what the weather would be, as is typical, it changed. I woke this morning to only a light rain so off I went. Within a mile, it turned to sleet and then full-blown snow with wind. By the time I got to Brush, my bicycle, my hands, my glasses, my helmet and anything else were covered in snow/ice. And I was just plain old cold. I had left all my winter cycling clothes and gloves home — silly me.
I finally got thawed out, or at least not shivering, and found a laundromat to dry things out. When I originally checked the weather upon arrival in Brush it indicated the same winter weather the rest of the day and tomorrow. Having promised myself to be “smart”, I booked a room in Brush for two nights. But when I finished drying things out, the forecast changed to just overcast without the snow or rain. So, I decided to push on towards the day’s goal of Yuma. It was cold, as expected, and unfortunately a light drizzle part of the way – which caused my gloves to get soaked and hence my fingers barely able to shift. When I got to Akron, I searched out a laundromat again but was told it shut down. As my luck would have it, I noticed an American Legion/VFW that was open. I was welcomed in by a fellow veteran and was able to warm up. She called around a couple of motels asking for a dryer I could use but to no avail. She called her son who was more than happy to have a fellow veteran use his dryer. So, within a half hour, I was on the road again and did make it to Yuma. On the road, to my amazement, truck drivers and most other drives went out of their way to pull over to the opposite lane of traffic whenever possible to give me a very wide berth without the draft or water splash.
I simply cannot express enough the kindness and generosity of the people I met today on my adventure. Without them, I would have been stuck for at least a day.
The weather is supposed to improve to party cloudy with some wind as I head to Saint Francis, KS.