We're not in Kansas anymore Toto. We're in Missouri!Today IS the halfway point on the tour, 16 riding days down, 15 to go.
Beautiful weather today, sunny and in the 70's most of the day. Rolled out of Topeka at 7:15. Only 89 miles today and everyone seemed in the mood to get it done. The usual team riding together. Nice gentle rises and falls in the terrain, so we were pushing hard, 20+ miles per hour, when we were caught by the TLM express train doing 25 mph. Rode that as a 7 man paceline for a few miles, but soon got dropped and it was back to the 3.
People have generally been very friendly in Kansas, asking what we're up to, how we're getting on etc. To cross over the Missouri river we had to traverse an old steel bridge, metal slats, not ideal for riding on, very narrow, one lane in each direction. Just over the river we got honked at by an old woman who's journey we had delayed by about 4 seconds. A few yards down the road it happened again, from a truck, for no reason. Welcome to Missouri. But generally people are great here too. At lunch we were camped outside a community centre. The woman how owned it remember Mike and Barbara from two years ago so came over and opened it up so we could use the toilets.
On the FAQ section I've put a couple of photos of shops doorways. No smoking, no dogs, who cares? The big question is can you bring your gun in or not. First we see a shop where guns are considered a bad idea. Apparently unless they show this sign then it's OK with the old firearm. But what to do? Do you leave it chained up outside, ask someone to watch it for you, problems, problems. In the second example we see a sign positively encouraging bringing guns into the store. What, you're out of Kit Kats, go ahead, make my day. There's a debate going on here about whether students should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. A 'D', you gave me a fricking D, go ahead, make my day.
Another rider, Jay, left the tour today. He'd only signed up for half and was using this as training for a race season. He's done several tours before and was the life and soul to some extent. He gave us some good advice in his leaving speech. 'You know you can do this now, you're over halfway, but the key thing is routine and consistency. Keep washing your water bottles, keep looking for things in the road and point them out to each other.' He's dead right, there's a strict routine, keep charging the GPS, don't forget the bum cream, or the sun screen.
Got in at 1:30pm, so one of our shorter days. Plenty of time to prepare for tomorrow. Went for a meal at the BBQ house next door, where they're famous for their 'dry rub'. I'm a big fan of the West Wing and dry rub (a style of cooking without sauce) was featured in one of the episodes where the city slickers from Washington got stuck out in the sticks, so it was great to find out what it was - again delicious. Generally the local delicacy is worth trying - see brisket.
Tomorrow is our longest day, 143 miles and all the rolling ups and downs that I suffered with so much yesterday. It's the day I've been thinking about, been training for, for the last two years. I've been out on a 70 mile training ride, got back and thought 'could I do that again immediately'? The answer has generally been 'well possibly, but I'd really rather not'. Tomorrow we'll find out whether it is possible. Gave the bike a good clean and oil this evening. It's early to bed, I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Depending on what time we get in, there may not be a blog tomorrow.
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