Wichita KS

I am writing today from Wichita KS, currently from a McDonald’s fast food place. Having been rained out yesterday, we were up and ready to go again today, but realized as we left that our tension levels are pretty high, as a result of being so out of touch, and not having Internet for two weeks now. We have bills to pay, we haven’t been able to check email for two weeks, and we feel so disconnected. Ralph – Chelsea and Alex’s dad, and a great supporter of our trip – told them that Wichita has Verizon access, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have it again until we reach Denver – which is over another week. So today has been a much needed but very mundane day getting the bikes fixed, and doing the blogs, checkbooks, etc. I am about to send off all this to Evelyn so she can post it, but I may not be able to send any more until we reach Denver (actually Pueblo CO, but we are taking a side trip up to Denver). Alex’s friend Kevin is joining us there in Denver, so we need to be there for sure next Friday.

We did get someone to set up our laptop today with regular wireless access, so that may help, but the kinds of towns we are going through don’t even have a library, much less any coffee houses with wireless access. We are now heading out into the “badlands” – where we don’t even have any services of any kinds for 50-80 miles at a time.

We have been meeting other cyclists at long last, and it’s really helped our attitude. It’s been great fun to spend 10-15 minutes finding out what others are doing, and checking in on other’s lives and adventures. Cross-country bike riding is a solitary sport!

The riding has continued to be pretty brutal – in Kansas we have had 15-25 mph cross and head winds, with gusts to 30 mph, and the heat has continued to be 105-111 degrees. We are SO looking forward to some cooler weather! And don’t believe anyone who tells you Kansas is flat. The parts we are riding are not flat!

Chelsea and Alex are agitating to either get on the computer or head out, so I need to quit now. We have been here long enough that it’s time for another meal, and we still have camp to set up. I’ll keep writing and posting as I can.

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