Distance: 36.5 mi, Climbed: 827 ft
Completed: 1,770.8 mi, 95,399 ft
I got to start today with a treat. One of the traditions on the TransAmerica Trail is to stop in Golden City and have a piece of pie at Cooky’s. Cooky’s is very welcoming to cyclists, and they keep a log book of all cyclists who visit. Pie sounded like a perfect end to a long day. Unfortunately, yesterday I arrived after Cooky’s had closed for the day. Instead, why not pie for breakfast? I had my usual breakfast – Dutch blackberry pie with a side of eggs. Perfect. And yes, the pie was worth it.
Today was almost completely flat roads through massive farm land. To be fair, they were not pancake flat. They had some rolling hills but not that many, and all of them were very gentle. The roads were almost perfectly straight all day.
I really enjoyed seeing all the windmills that were scattered across the landscape. The engineer in me finds these massive wind turbines fascinating. They are huge. It is hard to comprehend their size without a reference point. They were also a reminder that Kansas is known for its wind, which I will have to fight all the way to Colorado. The good news was today the winds were pretty light. But, the big winds are coming.
The big highlight today was crossing the state line into Kansas, the 11th state of the trip. And, I made the crossing on enough of a main road to have a proper “Welcome to Kansas” sign. Thank you, Kansas. Actually, I could see there was a proper “Welcome to Missouri” sign going in the other direction. I grabbed a snapshot of the Missouri sign as well because I could not find a good sign when I entered Missouri. I figure I can use today’s “Welcome to Missouri” sign in future photo albums. No-one will know.
I only had a few miles in Kansas today before reaching my hotel in Pittsburg. I am looking forward to my ride tomorrow where I will get my first full day in Kansas.
that’s a straight line!!