Day 27: Rolling Into Rolla

The soft drone of our alarm woke us up before the sun had risen as we had every intention of making it to Rolla early to avoid the sweltering heat.  Unfortunately the tire problems that had plagued Lyle the previous days contintued to persist and after quite and ordeal we finally hit the road a little after six oclock.   The lakes of central Missouri glistened in the morning sun on our way to Camdenton where we found a Mcdonalds to scarf down some quick breakfast.  After eating quickly Lyle biked down to Walmart to buy some emergency patches and tubes because our supplies were running low after the recent tire struggles.  We regrouped on the side of 7 south and then started our trek twoards Rolla.  Soon our road began to wind up and down hills and around corners and the shoulder disapeared which make travel quite hazardous for us slow bikers.  In an effort to skip the slow and dangerous roads we decided to hop on I -40 which we wernt even sure if we were legally allowed on but we headed down interstate to in an attempt  to befriend the wide shoulders and direct path that the interstate offered.  This interstate was littered with shredded tires and like a minefield we carefully maneuvered around the obstacles blocking our path.  We took a break at St. Johns were we temporally escaped the heat at a local cafe.  We were back on the road within the hour and cruised into Rolla a little before 5 oclock. We located our friends house where we would be spending the night with Ish and Emily Keener some friends from Penn State.  Showers, laundry, and air conditioning all greeted us when we arrived.  They took us to IMO's which serves a very  thin crusted St. Louis style pizza where we had our fill but before returning home we treated ourselves at the local creamery.  A night of much needed rest lays in front of us after a long day of biking. 

85 miles, mid 90's hot and humid

Day 26: Baby Its Hot Outside

This morning we woke up at Wally and Cindy's house after a very relaxing night in the air conditioning which was quite a blessing considering the sweltering humidity that still lingered outside.  Cindy cooked us up a wonderful breakfast that consisted of biscuits and gravy, oranges, and even freshly milked goats milk! We headed out to church with their family which was a wonderful service.  We emerged from the church into the ever rising temperatures of the Missouri country side.  We returned back to their house where we were again treated to another homecooked meal.  We really enjoyed sharing with the family and after discussing our problems with our trailer Wally loaded us up and took us down to a friend named Grover who was happy to weld our trailer for us.  So for the second week in a row we were able to find a welder through the blessings of two amazing churches.  El Dorado Springs had been a haven for us but it was time to move on, and so we pedaled on from Collins Missouri where Wally had dropped us off.  As we forged on the chirping of the locusts and frogs of the Ozark Woodlands echoed around us.  With the open road before us we cruised up and down the roller coaster like hills.  When evening rolled around we decided to call it a day in Macks Creek Missouri a small town with a population of 300 people.  We set up camp in the local park which had not been maintained and was covered in knee high grass.  This was the first night in many days that we slept outside and it was one of the hottest and stickiest nights yet.  The lack of air movement slowed our sleep but even on the most uncomfortable nights sleep come to the weary.

Miles 41, very hot and humid

Day 25: Into Missouri

We started today in Fort Scott, Kansas at the Lyon's Twin Mansions which we would recommend it to you all. We slept in a King size bed after taking a nice bath. We had a delicious breakfast. I had an omelet with gravy on top, and bacon and ham and cream cheese inside it. We started biking at around 10:00 am and after only 5 miles we had left Kansas. At mile 13, Lyle noticed my trailer was sagging so we pulled over. Right next to the weld that we had made in Ellicott there was a new crack. We put our engineering skills to use and borrowed some baler twine from a neighbor and strapped the trailer to the bike rack. It worked pretty well but we needed a more permanent fix. We stopped in Nevada, Missouri and a guy helped us make a splint using a nail and hose clamps and that seems to be working. We continued on to Hermitage but before we even got close, Lyle got a flat. This was a 5:00 at night and we were still 7 miles short of Collins, a town that was 20 miles before Hermitage. It was hot and very humid and for some reason we could not fix the flat. After about 40 minutes, a guy in a van pulled over and offered to drive us to Collins, the next town up from there. We got there and still struggled with the wheel. After awhile we gave up on trying to bike onward, so we tried to find a ride but none could be found. We were right outside a restaurant called Smith's Restaurant. We went in and all ordered the Pork Tenderloin with corn bread, home-made mash potatoes, and salad. It was all very good. Our waitress, Stephanie, had family from Germany so that was cool. We also got pie and cobbler. Lyle- strawberry pie with ice cream and whip cream. Jody- Strawberry shortcake with ice cream and whip cream. Stephen- Blackberry cobbler with ice cream and whip cream. Another waitress Meagan offered for us to stay with there family in El Dorado Springs. It was such a blessing because then we had a place to stay and a church to go to for the next day. After all the stuff that slowed us down, it all still seemed to work out. Catch you tomorrow.
60 miles, very hot and humid, 7 mile ride forwards 10 mile ride backwards

Day 24: Ft. Scott: Where Dreams Come True

The previous night Rob and Tammy had invited us to sleep on their floor instead of in our hot tent and so we woke up around 6 o’clock well rested.  They made us pancakes with fresh strawberries and bacon.  The food was amazing and we were sent on our way with full stomachs and plans to make it to Ft. Scott by the afternoon.  The morning road took us straight on highway 54 and had more Kansas views of corn fields and surprised us once  more with some gently rolling hills.  We ate lunch in Iola at a local park consuming some of the large quantity of food we had been carrying.  Steve finished off most of his generic captain crunch cereal while Lyle and Jody ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches coupled with bananas and oranges.  For the first time ever we actually limited ourselves to a one hour lunch break and were back on the road at one.  The temperature rose to somewhere above 90 but remained bearable with the slight tailwind that boosted us along.  When we got to Ft. Scott we immediately found the visitors center.  It had free cookies… that was all we really needed to know to know that this was going to be a great town.  The woman at the desk was enthralled with our story and told us that her boss had a swimming pool and would love to have us, but we would have to wait to find out if she was ok with it.  Not only were there free cookies, this weekend was the Good Old Days Festival in town and we had stumbled in right at the start of it.  In the end Lindsay her boss had contacted a woman in town named Miss Pat who ran the Lyons Twins Mansions Bed and Breakfast as well as contacted the local newspaper the Ft Scott Tribune and before we knew it we were being showed to a room that blew all of our minds and interviewed for an article.  A king sized canopy bed with dual lions at the foot, a couch, tv, fire place, queen bed, day bed, and a bathtub with paws on its feet all greeted us.  We were simply amazed an thankful for the generous gift.  After showering up we headed downtown to eat our famous chicken from Chicken Marys and find good seats for the parade and wiener dog races.  I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more American in my life as I watched tractors drive down the streets brick street with American flags waving from the back.  The Wiener dog race was an incredible sight as each sprinted toward their master. Tank was the winner perhaps because he had such a big cheering section called Team Tank.  It turned out that Tank’s master was the granddaughter of Miss Pat who provided us with such an exquisite room.  After the dog races we enjoyed the country music concert and further exploration of the town before returning to our quarters to relax for the rest of the night. 

91 miles, hot and humid, more blessings

Day 23: Little League in Eureka

Today we woke up in Hesston around 6:15 and although we were very tired we were awakened by  a great breakfast of homemade waffles made by Faith.  The apple butter and homemade applesauce was an added treat to the already delicious waffles.  After getting packed up we headed through downtown Hesston on our journey towards El Dorado where we planned to eat lunch.  Once again the morning was filled with strong headwinds but we forged on until we hit 126 where we made a left and thus moved the winds to our side.  The western Kansas landscape has begun to remind us a lot more of home with trees, fields, and more gently rolling hills.  Steve entertained us by asking us agricultural trivia and ag terminology for most of the morning.  We made it to El Dorado a little after one where we pulled into a Burger King with the intent of eating our own packed meals, to make it less wrong we bought milkshakes and checked with the manager and he seemed to be ok with it.  After traveling through the town we later noticed and amazing park and Kansas oil museum and regretted we had chosen Burger King as the to eat our lunch.  Upon leaving El Dorado we began to catch our first break in a couple of days, as the wind shifted slightly to our backs.  So we flew the last thirty miles to Eureka and we were all glad to again experience fast riding and the opportunity legitimately go downhill again.  We arrived in Eureka around 5 oclock and happened to knock the door of Rob and Tammy a couple who was happy to help us out.  Before we knew it Rob began grilling us steak and had cooked us up an amazing dinner of Mac  and cheese and biscuits.  Rob used to be a social studies teacher but now works as the principle the local elementary school and Tammy is also an elementary teacher so Rob had some advice for Lyle’s future in the educational world.  After dinner we headed over to watch their son’s little league baseball game and had a blast cheering  for the Eureka Tornadoes!  Christian actually had a pivotal hit that tied the game up in the last inning.  We returned from the baseball game and passed the evening watching the NBA finals and figuring out our route for tomorrow.  We are continually surprised by the amazing blessings that we have received as each day continues to provide more and more evidence of God’s provision on our trip.
80 Miles

Day 22: Reality Check In The High Plains

Today we woke extra early in an attempt to get a ahead start on not only the heat but the 150 miles that lay between us and Hesston Kansas.  We had planned to be on the road by 5:30 but were delayed by flats in both Jody and Steve's tires.  After leaving the brick covered streets of Ness City we began our slow journey into a light southern wind that made travel very difficult.  Each town that we entered followed a similar pattern, grain bins at the entrance, a main street with its few stores and some kind of railroad tracks were the trains could load up the grain.  We were again surprised to continue to see Oil Wells as we rode through the Kansas landscape.  For a moment the most exciting thing that we saw were some stone fence posts which Steve was particularly fascinated by.  As the wind continued to grow stronger our resolve and perseverance began to be tested to a greater degree as several times we had to stop and discuss the likely hood of us making it to Hesston today or making in back in time for Dietrich's wedding,  As we neared the 60 mile mark of our day the wind got even stronger, as we crawled into Great Bend Kansas we decided that we were going to stop for lunch well short of our original plans for our lunch time break.  We knew we had a place to stay in Hesston, because Jody's former pastor Jim and his wife faith had moved to Hesston and offered to put us up. With this in mind we had begun plans of hitchhiking to escape the brutal wind.  While dining on another amazing Pizza Hut Buffet we were approached by a man named Dwight who  we happily shared our journey with.  Later Lyle asked if he was headed to Lyons, but he didn't have his truck and we wouldn't be able to fit.  After leaving Pizza Hut temporarily he returned to tell us he was going to go home get his truck and give us a ride.  We set out from Pizza Hut into the blazing 90 plus degree heat where we headed down the road looking forward to even a short ride to cut down the days mileage. Sure enough Dwight showed up in his red Dodge Dakota and after loading up we took off down route 96.  Dwight was a member of the Christian Motorcycle Association and we enjoyed learning about his adventures in the club as well as his work as a federal agent.  Well he never stopped driving and we kept talking and soon enough he had driven us 80 miles all the way to Hesston! Suddenly our day go a lot shorter as we practically were at the door step of Jody's friends.  It was great to see Jody share memories from  church as well as eat the amazing meal that was cooked by Faith.  After examining maps and calculating numbers we finally realized that making it to the wedding was going to be a long shot as well as ten days of long hard miles that would leave us tired and unable to enjoy the trip. So tonight we go to bed with hopes of easier days to come and more time to meet the amazing people in our path.

150 miles, strong winds, 90 degrees

Day 21: Sharon Springs to Ness City

Woke up to a hearty breakfast made by Jan at the Mt. Sunflower Bed and Breakfast which consisted of stuffed french toast with strawberry toppings, bacon, and sausage.  After are stomachs were filled and our bags were packed we got on the road at around 7:30 and then soon changed into Central Time Zone...so we lost an hour.  Went to Tribune where we chilled out in front of the local library and filled up our water before heading to Scott City to eat lunch.  For lunch we dug into Jan's cinnamon rolls and cookies and put lots of icing on them.  We had a long lunch which really pushed back our arrival time.  We just never seem to leave on time.  Steve kept getting flats in his front tire so we did a lot of patch work on that.  During the later afternoon we ran into some headwinds which slowed us down and felt like we could not get anywhere especially when you can not see the end of the long straight road in front of you.  We finally got to Ness City around 8:30 and the first house we asked at just so happened to be Scott, the mayor's house, and he graciously allowed us to set up camp in his yard.  We dropped off our trailers and went to get dinner at a burger and ice cream joint where we ate with some insurance claim guys from Nebraska who were checking out roofs that were damaged from softball size hail that had hit the town on Monday.  We then went back to Scott's home and set up camp.  Scott showed Lyle his music collection and we found out he was a drummer in a band.  Scott was a great host and really made us feel welcome in Ness City.  After a long day of biking we all fell asleep pretty quick.

135 miles, long day