Distance: 47.6 mi, Climbed: 1,007 ft
Completed: 2,229.2 mi, 104,776 ft
We got even more rain last night. Joanna and I spoke to a local who said they got ten inches of rain this week. It’s been crazy. Much of the rain has been overnight, but we have had to adjust our schedule a few days to avoid some daytime storms. Today, the forecast was for cloudy skies, but no rain. But when we got outside, it sure felt like it was going to rain.
The good news was with overcast skies came cool weather. It was a welcome change from the 90-degree weather we have had the last few days. While it did not quite rain, there was a mist in the air all morning.
Every day the farms seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Today, the farms stretched all the way to the horizon. There were no trees, buildings, or telephone poles in the distance to give a sense of scale. It was like looking at an ocean of wheat.
Sadly, the cattle farms also got bigger and more industrial. We saw several farms with large metal pens housing hundreds of cows. Gone were the small herds of cows grazing in large fields of prairie grass.
About twenty miles in, we came across a statue of a bicyclist in front of the Heartland Mill and Country Oven Bakery. We had to stop. Inside, we found a great bakery. Joanna and I shared the salted chocolate-chip bar. Speaking to the owner, we learned that the statue in front was a memorial for John Egbert, a cyclist who was killed by a distracted driver on the TransAmerica Trail not far from the bakery.
Around ten miles later, we went through the town of Leoti. We stopped at the Dairy King for some ice cream to help us cool down. They only offered one flavor — vanilla. We sat down next to Jill and Rod, who were out with their three grandchildren. The kids were all wearing rubber boots so they could go out into the mud and help with the cows. Rod was beaming about his new purchase, which he used to drive everyone for ice cream — a 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS.
We have not seen many bicycle tourists. So, we were excited when we saw Shaun bicycling towards us on the opposite side of the street. Shaun owns Helmet Flair, a company that sells attachments that can be used to add horns, cat ears, and other decorations to bicycle helmets. He was riding from Boulder, Colorado, to the start of RAGBRAI — a legendary bike ride and party across Iowa — to run a booth and sell his wares.
Maybe ten minutes after meeting Shaun, we saw another cyclist also coming towards us. What were the odds? Sander was from the Netherlands. He was biking from San Francisco to Boston, where he plans to meet his wife and son, rent an RV, and do some traveling.
While we were talking to Sander, Leo from Czech Republic pulled up alongside us. He is riding from Seattle to either New York or Washington, depending on where he can get a cheaper flight home. He was very excited to meet us, as we were the first cyclists he had seen on his journey. How crazy that Shaun, Sander, and Leo were all riding west to east and had no idea each other was there, and there was maybe five miles between them.
Just before getting to Tribune, Kansas, we passed into the Mountain time zone and gained an hour. And good thing, as we were trying to catch a tour of the Horace Greeley Museum in town.
Horace Greeley lived in the 1800s and was an American newspaper publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune. Horace Greeley had never been to Tribune, but the town named itself after his newspaper to pay homage to Greeley’s championing westward expansion.
89-year-old Cecile met us at the museum and gave us a tour of the museum’s many artifacts. Amazingly, they had a skull of a wooly mammoth that was found nearby. The museum also displayed old tools and equipment that gave a great picture of what life must be like in Tribune 100-plus years ago.
After getting settled in our lodging, we walked a half-mile into town for dinner at the Uptown Bar and Grill. On the way home, we were surrounded by lightning as a yet another storm approached. Watching the lighting was pretty cool, but we had to hurry to outrun the storm. Fortunately, we made it back in time and again avoided getting soaked.
