A Kansas Interlude

Well, we have had great luck with the weather (storms have usually fallen on good days to take off for rest, anyway), but it finally ran out here in central Kansas. Yesterday, we sat around in Hutchinson in the rain. After looking at forecasts from three sources predicting 50-70% chance of rain and thunderstorms for the next four days, we drove west to find the edge of it, hoping to ride. We found that the "edge" didn't really exist - 170 miles west and we're still in the cold mist. I would like to emphasize here that Mark and I are not afraid of rain - we've ridden in showers before - , but riding for 80 miles on wet roads in driving rain with no shoulder and traffic traveling at least 65 miles per hour is just not safe enough to suit our taste. Tomorrow, we'll take off from Ness City for a couple of long days, which will hopefully put us into Colorado on Monday. In a way, I hated to miss so many miles of Kansas. But, as I said in the car today, all of our other choices were dumb ones - sitting in Hutchinson for four more days (or even just two more if we were lucky) or re-routing south of the storm (which we've learned can lead to impassible gravel roads). So, here we are. I used my idleness to take stock, on this, the first day of my fifth week out. Despite the fact that it seems like I end up in the car skipping miles often (at least to me), I've ridden in a motor vehicle (Greyhound bus, Good Samaritan pick-up truck, car) on five occasions, for a total of 373 miles. I've pedaled my bicycle an estimated 1,357 miles, which is thankfully more than 373. ('Estimated' does not mean rounded up by 1,000 miles, only that my bicycle does not have a functioning odometer). Including rest and rain days, and not including motor vehicle miles, I've averaged 59 miles per day, which is just under my goal of 65 or so. Hopefully tomorrow I will once again be too tired to worry much about these things.