Day 24

Mileage: 102

Total mileage: 2073

Oh boy am I going to miss this state! 

Last night I feel asleep a little bit late because I was so enamored with the stars. There was no pressure for today, so I decided to sleep in a little. I was awake at 8:30 and didn't leave from the local breakfast diner until 9:30a. Breakfast conversation was with another solo touring cyclist. He spent the morning telling me about getting fired from his job, his brain injury  from the army and his recent divorce. I mostly nodded and chewed my breakfast burrito, musing that there might be a reason he was traveling alone.

I finally kicked out of Ness City with a little bit of tailwind behind me, but mostly gusty crosswinds.

There's a big harvesting operation going on right now. A huge Canadian company 

is here right now doing the harvesting and they're running massive oversized equipment up and down the highway all day long. I noticed while looking down to avoid the dust they kick up that my bike, bottles, shoes and pants are all in this cool black and white theme. If I was wearing a while and black jersey I would be tricked out from head to toe in color coordinated gear. I snapped a picture because I thought it looked cool.

Traveling today consisted of riding the 96 with brief stops in the towns every 25 miles. My first turn off route besides getting water at gas stations was at mile 101 to get to the park I'm at tonight. 

Again I tried and failed miserably to get a representative picture of what the landscape is like out here, but I don't think it's possible on a phone camera. One of my goals for this trip was to try and get a sense of scale for this country. 

The first time I rolled into the Flint Hills, I was in awe at the endless expanse of rolling grasslands. I rode for an hour to the edge of the first horizon and still, all I 

could see were fields. But having ridden for hours upon hours and day after day, I've finally lost the ability to internalize their size. It's like when you see size comparisons of things in space and you just lose the ability to comprehend that kind of scale. That's what it's been like for me riding out here. I bet for the first European explorers they felt downright interminable! 

This afternoon, as I left my penultimate city for the final 25 mile expanse of nothingness, there was a storm brewing on the horizon. I included both a normal picture and a panorama, because I'm not sure how the formatting will work on here. 

I've been asked by a few people out here what I do when I run into a thunderstorm. My answer is usually 'I get wet.' So as I was knuckling down into the headwinds preceding the storm a truck pulled up to me and rolled down his window. He told me I needed to get off the road because the upcoming storm had 2 inch hail. I really wanted to push through, but I figured I'd be kicking myself if I ended up damaging my pack or bike for an extra hour of riding, so I found a farmhouse and knocked on the front door.

An older lady answered the door and I asked if I could wait out the storm on her porch. She was surprisingly hesitant, but finally agreed. As the rain really started to come down, a pickup pulled into the yard and a farmer got out. As he was walking up to his door, I stood up to introduce myself. He pushed past, muttering that 'These blasted kids can ride halfway around the world, but you get a little sprinkle and they're knocking on everyone's door.' 

I sat back down on the porch, seriously self conscious because I knew I could handle a rainstorm, but pretty soon the farmer came back outside with some beer and pulled up a rocking chair. He had been yanking my chain, and done a really good job of it. He had been a cattleman  before his retirement and he taught me a bunch about the business and the surrounding agriculture. By the time things got down to a drizzle, I was sorry to go, but I needed 20 more miles before dark.

The  wind behind the storm was blowing westward, and I rode it all the way into Tribune where I'm staying tonight at the city park. Once again I'm marveling at the stars when I should be asleep, but it's a trade-off I'm willing to make. Tomorrow I'm into Colorado and looking forward to seeing the Rockies on the horizon for the first time! G'night!