It's always nice waking up and not having to do the whole pack-up-your-tent-and-everything routine, I think thats my favorite thing about finding someplace inside to sleep. Waking up in the fire house, by the time I was ready a new group of fire fighters had taken over for the day so I thanked them and was on my way.
It was another hot day, and now that I crossed over the Flint Hills, the western part of Kansas did indeed seem to be the very flat section everyone talks about. Every once in a while I would see a corn field, but for the most part it was wheat, or prarie, or a cow-filled prarie. There were signs of a drought everywhere, I saw field after field of grass burnt by the sun.
There wasn't much wind until middle afternoon, when I started to feel a tailwind and looked back and saw a huge thunderstorm cell right behind me. It wasn't moving towards me, but the wind off it gave me a decent tailwind for about 20 miles, which always picks your spirit up a bit.
I was originally going to camp in Nickerson since there was a 60 mile dead zone afterwards, but a cyclist traveling east told me that a town about 4 miles off the route and half way through the dead zone put cyclists up in thier community center (yeah A/C!) so I decided to just push ahead, 80 degrees at night in a tent isn't much fun.
The wind was now coming out of the south, which didn't really bother me going west until I had to turn and go south 4 miles to reach Hundson. Those were slow miles, but eventually they were over. I rode into Hudson and the mayor's son came out to open up the community center for me. His mother came over soon after with food!
Their family owns a catering service so they always have extra food. I was treated to these things which could best be described as hambergers with onion and spices wrapped up like a calzone. Two were enough to fill me up, but she also brought salad, home made ice cream, milk, and cookies!
After I gorged myself, I looked around the community center, it was filled with old pictures from the high school that the town had from the 20's to mid-60's. It was very interesting looking through the senior pictures and how much they changed over the years.
But soon I was tired, so I called my mom to wish her a horribly belated birthday and then fell asleep on the floor of this rather large banquet hall.
Start:
Newton, KS
End:
Hudson, KS
Distance:
90.16 miles
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