Supplemental picture post

Picture #1 family of locals

Picture # 2 The fisherman in the boat in case you couldn't find him

Picture # 3 The chef who made the cinnamon buns

Picture #4 A wall painting in downtown Chillicothe

Eat Your Heart Out:

That's right all you cyclists, eat your heart out! Today was the perfect day. It started off slightly cool at 56 F ( 13 C) and warmed up though out the day to a high of 74 F (23C) . There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The wind was close to nil, although at times were was just a hint of a breeze to cool you off. So you have the picture, a perfect weather day. The road was this freshly paved country road. Lots of winding curves, lots of really neat roller coast hills, some of the hills were high enough that you had to get down and spin them out, but none were over a half mile, of course they were offset with longer down hills, very little traffic (all of which was exceedingly polite). So you have the picture: the perfect road. The scenery was these beautiful green hills, with lots of trees, fields of wheat and corn, the odd pasture with cows or horses, quaint farm houses and the odd little town. So you have the perfect ride scenery. Now put it all together. Perfect weather, perfect road, and perfect scenery. Like I said: EAT YOUR HEART OUT!. The only sad part of the day was that at 88 mile mark I had to turn off of the road and into the hotel.

The high point was we rode though this little town called Mayville (pop 1200). It was designated as team day so we were all wearing our team jerseys. Then just before town we all stopped and rode into town as a group. In town the local historical society was hosting a social for the riders. This group of sweet little ladies had gathered and put together a wonderful feast. They had fresh fruit and all sorts of goodies as well as lemonade and ice water. This one fellow had been a chef for thirty years and had made his cinnamon buns. They were the best cinnamon buns I have ever had. They were sweet but not overly sweet, not sticky, but not dry. The glazing on top was perfect, not over powering. No raisins or nuts to get in your way or distract you from the enjoyment. Trust me, I know my cinnamon buns. The social was held in front of their museum which was quite a collection of local memorabilia. Stopping here is one of the things the Crossroads has been downing for several years.

Tonight we are in Chillicothe, which is a quaint little town of 8900. It seems to be prospering as the down town seems to be alive and growing. Chillicothe is the home of sliced bread. Yea right. OK here is proof; http://www.chillicothecity.org/bread.html I saw a sign on the wall of a building downtown and had to look it up.

Today's picture was a really tough chose as there were a number of great pictures to choose from. However I did settle on this picture of this river that was so pretty I stopped on the bridge to get a picture (not recommended practice). As I was taking the picture one of the other riders said "Look someone is down there fishing" I just couldn't see him but there he is in the lower left in a boat just off the one big hole. I'll bet he knew exactly what he was doing.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments.

Happy trails (?)

Terry

Show Me:

You guessed it we are in Missouri. We crossed the Missouri River on this decrepit bridge about 70 miles into the ride today at Acheson. Acheson is actually a really famous place from the Acheson and Topeka railway fame and of course home of Amelia Erhart The bridge itself is the huge iron truss affair which stretches across the river in three sections it is probably over half a mile in length. It had to have been built as part of Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" in the mid 1930's and it has not seen any maintenance since. Last year's Pacific Coast ride boasted some big bridges but this one was right up there. May be not in size or length up certainly in terms of scare factor.

Tonight we are in St Joesph, MO which is a really quaint place of about 75,000. There are lots of old Victorian homes and the old downtown is mostly 20's-30's brick . However there are lots of modern shopping malls as well. The ride into town took us though some beautiful treed streets and parks. St Joesph is home of the pony express and although it only lasted a few years is quite famous. The is a huge pony express rider statue right in front of the museum. (No picture sorry messed up). It is also home to Jesse James and the Younger brothers gang. I am really messed up on this western stuff this place doesn't look any thing like the west of the movies. The Wild West in the movies is this dried out sun backed place which is full of tumble weeds and evil Mexicans (sort of like Nevada). Looks like I am going to have to make another trip though here to visit these places in more detail.

I guess that today's ride also marks an important point in the trip as we are now over half way. Topeka was the half way point. It seems to have just flown by. It is really hard to believe that we have traveled in excess of 1900 miles. There have been some great adventures and I am sure that there are a few more just over the next hill.

Today's ride was 87 miles with a 25-35 mph tail wind. So most of the time we just flew down the road. It was great flying along at 25+ mph without even pedaling. At one point I was going up a pretty steep hill at 22 mph and wasn't pedalling. However the last 8 miles or so though town was tough as there are a bunch of really steep hills and I was tired from yesterdays beating. Never the less the seat time was only 4:57 and the average speed was 17.6 mph. I got in just after 1:00 and was really fortunate as my room was ready. Most of the crew had to wait until 3:00 to get their room. Boy was there ever a bunch of grumbling. So even though I had a ton of office work to do and should have got for a run but I opted for a 2:00 hr nap. After that I worked on my brakes they were not working very well and there were a couple of places where I really had to jump on them to stop. Rick the Crossroads mechanic was going to the bike shop so I hitched a ride to get some new brake pads. The shop however was may be the worst shop I have ever been in they didn't even have brake pads.

Today's picture is fooling a round at the first rest stop. Jim took the picture even though he had no idea of what was coming down. Randy (blue shirt and white helmet) is the only one who knew what was happening. I could have shown you a bunch of really pretty county side but you have all seen beautiful county side. You know rolling hills with lots of trees and fields of grain and fields with herds of cattle. The country has really changed over the last couple of days.

Well thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for all the comments. I love to know that you're out there. But tell me what kind of dirt you want to know about, and I will try to let you in on it.

On the road again.

Terry

Blown Away:

How hard is it for wind gusts to talk to each other? It is a breeze. Well that is how the old joke goes but it was NO breeze for us today. The wind was a constant 25-35 and gusting to 45. The wind was coming directly from the south. For the first 15 miles after we left Abilene we headed directly south into the wind. The best I could do was 11 mph. I thought I would never get to the turn. As we came to the turn you could watch the riders grinding to the turn and seem to shoot forward as they made the turn. The next leg of the ride was a straight shot due East for 60 miles. When you were headed East you could make up to 16 mph, but a lot of the time I spent grinding away at 8 mph. I think that on the the first two legs I averaged 14.2 mph. When a gust would hit you it would carry you half way across the road. My safety flag was bent over at a 90 degree angle to the bike. It was really weird riding along leaned over at a 45 degree angle. It was really hard on your arms and shoulders as you had to constantly wrestle with the handle bars to keep the bike going in a straight line. At one point the gusts were so strong I thought the bike was going to lift off so I got of and walked for about 100 yards to this point where there was some shelter from a tree. The last 35 miles into Topeka were NE so we got some relieve. In fact a one point I crested this one hill and with the wind directly on my back I hit 44.7 mph in less than 0.5 miles. While this may not have been my toughest century it did take me 7hr 25 minutes to ride the 107.3 miles.

The safety flag which every one has attached to the bike was jerking the bike around so badly that I bent it over and put it under my handle bars. Then finally at one of the SAG stops I took it right off. This was one day where being a big heavy guy on a heavy duty bike had an advantage. The little light people on light bikes were whipped around even worse.

However it wasn't all really grim. The highlight of the day was this little coffee shop in a town called Dover. A place right out of the early 50's. A bunch of local retires drinking coffee and exchanging tractor stories. Tom E and I were together and went in to have pie. It was absolutely fabulously. I had a piece of homemade banana cream pie that to die for. Curt I. they had homemade cherry that Tom had and raved about. Tom bought - Thanks Tom.

One of today's picture is of me after the ride. As you can see I was totally caked in salt. I think that I drank 10 bottles of water and 3 bottles of Gatorade to day. My skin felt like I had rolled in sand there was so much salt on me. The second is of a sign for the town of Alma. Jim says they make good cheese there.

Thanks for reading my blog, and of course thanks for the comments. Stay tuned for tomorrows blog when we ride in to St Joesph MO. The forecast is for 25-35 mph SW winds and we are headed NE.

See you down the road.

Terry

Newton's Third Law:

A body in motion tends to stay in motion. And today was no exception. Up early for a 10 km run, which was really fun. The wind was only blowing 4-5 mph and the sun was out. So a beautiful day for a run which took me down though the old downtown and historic homes. There are lots of turn of the century Victorian mansions, and running pass them though the tree lined streets was really special. Of course I put in my penance and did a little office work (3hr) and did a few chores. Then Jim and I headed off to see the town. We walked down and had lunch in the Kirby House which is a turn on the century Victorian mansion which is now a fine dining restaurant. Then into the Dwight Eisenhower presidential library and museum for a good solid 3 hr of museum touring. Ike really did a lot though his career as a soldier and as president. Not to stop there we hit the Greyhound Hall of Fame. I guess I was a little mistaken on my greyhound image as I had thought that greyhounds were much smaller maybe only slightly larger than whippets 30-40 lbs. However they had three greyhounds that now lived at the Hall of Fame and they are quite large maybe 70-80 lbs. Well maybe not something you would drive thousands of miles to see.

For supper we ate at the Brookfield Hotel which is world famous for it's fried chicken. The fried chicken dinner is the only thing on the menu. A large platter of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and creamed corn with creamy style Cole slaw is the dinner. It is served home style, where large platters of food are brought to the table and you just help yourself. It was a wonderful meal. Jim tells me that people around here will drive over 100 miles to eat at the Brookfield.

Today's picture is of me with the all time running champ of greyhounds. Sorry I can't remember his name. The pictures from the last nine riding days have been added to Webshots and are in a album called public shoe box which is some sort of default album I'll figure it out later in the mean time the link is : http://community.webshots.com/user/hot_biker

Thanks for visiting my blog and your comments

Terry

Greyhound Capital of the World?

Well that is what Abilene claims to be. The greyhound hall of fame and museum is located here. Yet another surprise from Kansas. Abilene is also home to the Eisenhower Center, which is the presidential library. As tomorrow is a rest day it is something that is on the top of my list of things to do. Abilene is also famous for being home of Wild Bill Hickok where he was sheriff and held court in the infamous Alamo bar. OK for the history lesson, it is really nice little town and quite pretty. I think that I am going to cruise around the town and look at all the beautiful homes. A couple that rode Crossroads 2 years ago looking for a place to retire picked Abilene (we met them last night).

I thought today's ride was going to be be a walk in the park. It was only 65 miles and the weather and wind looked favorable. However after 20 miles we turned north into a steady 20 mph head wind. The easy day turned into a grind. I was riding by myself, so I settled into enjoying the beautiful country side and forget the odometer. Just don't look at it. Right as though that works for all of 30 seconds. I think that a lot of people had a tough day as I rode in 11th.

At the 38 mile mark I was riding along when I felt this terrible burning sensation between the little finger and second finger on my left hand just where the fingerless gloves start. As I lifted my hand I saw that a hornet was trapped in there. Now, I must tell you that I am deadly allergic to wasps and hornets. In one smooth motion I threw the hornet over my shoulder. So I stopped to examine my hand where the burning sensation was on the little finger. What to do? 8 miles back to the SAG stop which would be at least 20 minutes with the wind, find a farm house and go in, flag down a motorist, tie my finger off with something but with what I have nothing on my bike. After I examined my finger I could see that the skin has not been broken and that the hornet had not stung me but was trying to take take a bite out of me. The next 30 minutes were tense as the burning slowly subsided.

Doctor Richard was having his birthday today and hosted a little reception in the lobby this evening. he turned 68 today. Happy Birthday! Keep on Ridin!

In the parking lot there is an official looking truck that says "Storm Chasers" on it. It is sprouting antennas and is filled with radios, GPS, computers, and emergency gear in the back. I wonder if they know something I don't. The sky looks nice and blue to me.

Today's picture is some old pump jacks that were beside the road. I thought that they made an interesting picture. There seems to be quite a bit of old oil field equipment around in bone yards. However you don't see much that is actually in use. The equipment that is producing all seems to be single well batteries with no gas conservation and there does not seem to be any water injection. There are a few places where there will be a scattering of pump jacks that appear to be tied into a set of common production tanks, but again there is no water production (none of the tanks are heated or insulated) nor is there any measurement.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments. I am sure you have it figured out. Just press the comments word, and enter your comment in the box.

Sleeping in tomorrow! Nine days without a rest day Ouch!

Terry

McPherson Kansas:

Like I said yesterday, the surprises about Kansas just keep on rolling in. The place we are at today McPherson is a really pretty town. It is ranked as the 45th best place to live in America by Progressive Farmer. Don't believe me here is the link: http://www.pfbestplaces.com/default.asp?pageAction=Display&Region=Midwest
Today's 65 miles took us from Liberal to McPherson and it was truly amazing how the country side has changed. Yesterday we saw a lot of wide open country with out a tree or hill. A bunch of tiny slowly dieing towns that are huddled around a large concrete grain elevator. Today the open space has become gently rolling hills with lots of tree boarded fields of grain and corn. Although we only passed though one town, Lyonn before reaching McPherson, they both seemed very much alive. Both are beautiful places. I believe that the description Tom E used "Norman Rockwell". It fits very well.

Early this morning the water pistols were out in full force again. Seems likely there are more of them again. I shot Margret as I passed her on the road this morning. I should feel guilt about shooting her she is so nice. Obliviously it is some sort of character flaw.

There were two terrifying incidents today. One rider in the lead echelon took a tumble when she touched another riders wheel and was only barely missed by a semi. Further back in an unrelated incident two other riders collided and did somersaults over the handlebars. Tom and I had been in that group but decided that we didn't need to be involved in the craziness, and we had dropped back to take pictures. Too many riders, riding too fast, too close together. What for it was only 65 miles? Race down to the next town to sit in the lobby and wait for your hotel room to be ready. Smell the roses! Fortunately everyone is alright save for some nasty scrapes

Jim and I stopped to save a box turtle which had crawled out on the road. My humanitarian task of the day was completed.

So rolled into Town and had a hamburger in Montana Mikes. This unbelievable burger comes. It has one pound of paddies in it. Fortunately Tom H arrived just as the burger did so we cut it in half. Perfect.

The motel has and open court yard with a really nice pool and a nice patch of grass so out came the Frisbee and I enjoyed a good game of catch with Gil and Toni. It was great running and jumping in the sun.

One of the pictures is of the town hall in Lyonn. See what I mean about Norman Rockwell. The second picture is of Ian's bike at SAG. There were no places, to lean your bike in this beautiful little park were the SAG was so Ian put his bike on the garbage bin and we all took pictures and had a huge laugh.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for all the great comments. It is really neat hearing what you have to say.

On the road again!

Terry

Getting Mellow:

As cruised the 85 miles on into to Great Bend today it was a day for getting mellow. Most of the day I rode by myself. Just cruised along at an easy pace. The weather was warm and the sun was out so it was a great day for just cruising. I rode a few miles with John and a few with Jose but most of the time I was by myself. It was great. I was really enjoying the idea of just drifting along and being mellow. I stopped for a while and watch a turtle swimming around in a creek. It must have been 10" across.

At lunch time I stopped at a Sonic Burger. There I meet this stray puppy which was a really pretty cinnamon colour and with a nice light brown nose. So we shared my bacon cheese burger and root beer float. We had a really good discussion of life, the universe and everything. He seemed to be very knowledgeable for one so young, but then maybe he was just leading me on to get more of the burger. Soon it was time to go and he wanted to come with me as he had been on the road for a few days and was looking for a friend. He liked the idea of going to Boston as he had heard what a great place it was. So I took my root beer float which was now down to the last 2" of ice cream and tore the cup down for him. Then I slipped away while he lapped it up as I knew he would be better off at the Sonic than following me down the road. What a great guy! It was wonderful meeting him. I felt like a heel leaving him.

Yesterday my handle bar mirror fell off in the rain some where, so I had no mirror. This morning I mentioned this and Frank pulls out this helmet mirror. Totally amazing! So I spent the day trying to get it into focus and tilting my head to see. Maybe in a day or so I will have learned how to use it. Thanks Frank!

The view finder on my camera quit working today so now I have to use the screen to take a picture. Crap.

OK I guess that I have to come clean on yesterday's post. I messed up the facts on the history of Dodge City. Boot Hill was in Dodge. OK Corral was in Tombstone AZ. Waytt Earp et al shot it out with the Clantons not the Daltons. We passed the Dalton gang's hide out in Meade OK. Half the stuff in Dodge City is named Wyatt Earp. There are Wyatt Earp liquor stores, welding shops, streets, hotels, you name it. Thanks for the comments pointing out my mistake like I said Kansas seemed like too nice a place for all those bad guys. Sorry for the misinformation.

Today's picture is the sign pointing out the half way point between San Francisco and New York. It is located in Larned KS. Once again who knew this about Kansas. And speaking of things that you never knew the smell to the cow stuff is every where and at times is over powering.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments. I promise to try and keep the facts straight in the future.

Terry

Dodge City Kansas:

"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything." Wyatt Earp. That's right we are in Dodge City. Home of the OK Corral and Boot Hill, Wyatt, Virgil Earp and Doc Holiday. Some how it doesn't seem right that this place should be in Kansas. I mean I have seen every picture ever made about Wyatt Earp and the Dalton Gang, but I never realized that it was in Kansas. Kansas always seemed like a nice place with Dorthy and the Wizard of Oz, nice folks raising their corn and wheat not the old west and gunslingers. It just doesn't seem right. That sort of stuff belongs in Texas or maybe Arizona. What do I know I am from Canada EH!

Today's ride was 85 miles from Liberal Ks to Dodge. Although we the total elevation gain was 1100 feet the wind which seemed to be coming from every which angle except as a tail wind was much more of a factor. The other really big factor was the driving rain. This morning I decided to take my rain coat out of my trunk and put it in the luggage. I have been packing it around for 2 weeks and haven't needed it and when I looked out this morning I thought the clouds were moving away from us (oops). Just as I got the the first sag I was pelted with pea size hail for about a mile. At the 50 mile mark I caught the hammer heads in a store. In for a quick drink and everyone was off. It was great to have a group to ride with. However 5 miles later there was a flat and we stopped to fix it. While we were fixing the flat the clouds opened up (and I mean opened up) and just drenched us. Off we went in the poring rain. Tom and I were in the lead but I lost my mirror to day in the rain and I didn't see the rest of the group fall off when Jim had a flat. When we got to the 60 mile mark the road turned North and there was a restaurant. Go in and have lunch or keep going? Tom said lets push on because we won't come out, and he was probably right. We were soaked though any way. About 20 miles later we were down to taking a break every 5 miles when the rest of the group caught us. I saw the SAG wagon pass us with 7 bikes on it so that gives me a 7th for what was an extremely hard day.

But the weirdness never stops. At route rap Tracy announces that Richard and Marlyn (one of the staff) were leaving. Then Bob gets up and says that he is pulling the pin as well he is flying out tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM. Boris who had ridden the route in 02 told us that in his first year 7 of the original 34 dropped out. So two are gone. Then we go to this Mexican joint for supper. Earlier when we were checking in I had drawn this box under the menu where you are suppose to check off what you want and wrote "None of the Above". Tracy goes on at route rap about this was our only choose and tough luck. As it turns out the service is just horrid. Tracy who is deathly allergic to Guacamole (I think it is a nut allergy) is served guacamole even though she had ordered her meal without it. As soon as she has it in her mouth she realizes it and they have to rush her out of restaurant to get her medicine, but now she can't ride for three days, because it knocks her out. If she didn't get in time which she won't know until tomorrow she maybe out. One of the three Jim's never does get served. Jim H my roomie eats half of Jose's meal. They sit these to obese women, and man with 5 children in our area of the restaurant. The children are all screaming and yell so loudly that a one point all the riders simultaneously yelled "SHUT UP". I guess the right choose was none of the above. As a side note ten people did in fact choose None of the above.

Today's picture is of this a shot of this interesting tableau which was in front of a house before it started raining. I think that it represents the American family inviting you in for the hospitality (just my guess, who really knows). I only took 4 pictures today. Stopping in the rain just wasn't in the cards .

Well thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments. You know what to do hit the comments button. Then type your comments in the dialogue box. Select the anonymous radio button if you don't want to register and hit publish.

Tomorrow is another day. Weird how that works.

Terry