Blog posted July 21, 2008

July 18, 2008    Rode 98 miles to Toronto, KS

 

This was one of the first days to wake up with a light rain falling.  One fellow drove beside me in his pickup and asked me if I wanted a ride or if I wanted to ride in the rain.  I told him that I would ride in the rain.  How could I say I rode coast to coast if part of the way my bike was in the back of a pickup.  I actually would prefer rain to the hot sun.   Passing through the little town of Rosalia I noticed a cafe where I had a great mid-morning pizza and waited for the rain to clear.  Such a luxury to have a 10" pizza as a mid-morning snack.  Thinking the rain had quit I started out only to seek shelter at the grade school.  One of the teachers stopped to talk and gave me a description of the school environment in this little remote village, the kinds of students and what they end up doing.  She said most stay in the local area and farm.   There is a lot of corn growing in Kansas and most of it is irragated.  What a lot of work that is. 

 

Toronto KS is very small, probably less that 150 people but the state camp ground id great, even a new shower building with lots of hot water.   The little deli in town fixed a corn beef sandwich with the most generous portion of meat I have ever seen.  Tjhe meat alone was a stack easily one inch thick.  Even I could only eat have of it and had the rest for lunch the next day.  Brian Chance, the own of the deli pulled up a chair and entertained us will all kinds of stories growing up in the area and his experiences in the army. 

 

July 19, 2008

 

This was a 75 mile ride to a little Lutheran Church out on the plains about 7 miles of east of Walnut, KS.   This was a great stop.   Conner, a rider heading west, told me about the stop that morning and my cycling map also mentioned it as a stop.   Pastor John at Immanual Lutheran Church welcomed me like a long lost friend and offered that I could camp in the A/C fellowship hall.  He then offered the use of his shower in the basement of the parsonage and also picked three ears of sweet corn from his garden that I could cook in the Parish Hall kitchen for supper.   It turned out that 5 folks from England who were heading west were also going to be camping there.  So we had quite a road reunion

 

My time is up, the courthouse libarry is closing so I will finish the story next time.