Friday, July 3, 2009

McPherson to Abilene KS 68.7 miles -1,984.8 miles cum






Today we made it to the halfway point of the ride. It is hard to believe that the ride has fewer days left than we have done. It will be over before I know it.
The day started out the way most of the days have been lately, slightly overcast, cool and non-favorable wind. The wind was mostly a cross wind but it still was an irritation as it caused us to work harder and me with only a "ten-speed". We followed rte 56 east for the first 11 miles. It was typical Kansas, flat and pretty neutral. After riding the first 11 miles we turned to the North. Now the annoying cross winds turned into a pretty kicking tailwind. We flew down a two lane country road with very little traffic. We were averaging 18 to 22 mph as we just cruised along enjoying the ride. At about the 25 mile marker we noticed a group of cyclists in the road and realized that it was the half way point. Everybody took pictures and we celebrated our success at making it this far.
We continued along this road for another 20 miles or so. The terrain was rolling hills with trees and small farms. It began to look like Ohio instead of Kansas. Unfortunately, we then made a turn back to the east. Again the friendly tailwinds turned into annoying cross and headwinds. We started zig zaging like this until we got into Abilene. I was riding with Meiri and she wanted to get Dairy Queen before we went to the Eisenhower Library, Dwight Eisenhower grew up in Abilene. She asked some kids where the DQ was and they said down that road next to the McDonald's. We didn't look at our route sheets and headed off for the Dairy Queen. Imagine our surprise when we discovered our hotel right beside the DQ. We had lunch with Michele and headed back to town to the Library. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. We finally checked into our hotel at 4:30 just in time to get ready for dinner. Dinner was family style and consisted of a chicken dinner with all the standard trimmings. It was great!

2 comments:

Laura said...

I can't believe you are already half way done!! The best is yet to come. Oh, and Happy Birthday. I hope you treated yourself to an extra DQ treat for your birthday!!!

Unknown said...

great job leo!! I missed the blog for few days, flying and my computer crashed after instaling vista service pack 2. a friend came over today and we fixed it after 7 hours with service pack 3, secret version. thanks for pictures along the way!!