Day 7 - Saying Goodbye to Kansas

8:18 p.m. We're overnighting in Hiawatha, Kansas. It's 72 degrees and really nice after the hot day with head winds we experienced. Still, we logged 113 miles averaging 12.9 miles an hour. Ride time in the saddle was 8 hours 45 minutes.

Hiawatha is the largest city and county seat of Brown County. It is the largest city on U.S. Route 36 between St. Joseph, Missouri and Denver. Hiawatha is named after the legendary Onongada and Mohawk Indian leader Hiawatha. Hiawatha is nicknamed the "City of Beautiful Maples" because of its countless trees that produce delightful colors in the fall season. This year is Hiawatha's 150th anniversary.

There you have it!

We're in an RV park in the City of the Beautiful Maples, with our tents set up under two massive soft maples. Its fun to camp when it's not too hot and you're not too exhausted. I can tune in my Grundig shortwave radio and bring in the world. Australia, the UK. Cornfields across the road, and the BBC is right here in my one person tent. Oh Jeeves, bring us some iced teas, won't you? Thank you, ole boy!

There is a Super WalMart down the road which may be our best option for food. I hope they're up to the challenge. We're powerfully...POWERFULLY...hungry. Giant box of Cheese-Its anyone?

We are 240 miles from Hannibal! Tomorrow, a new state; we're 30 miles from the Missouri border!

Araceli Pedroza with WGEM-TV called media central tonight. She's going to cover our arrival Monday/Tuesday. I remember watching channel 10 when Charlie Griffith anchored the news, and Cactus Jim hosted afternoon cartoons for the kids. Cactus was a little scary now that I think about it. When he drank milk from his plastic cowboy boot cup,and he did frequently, he always admonished us - the youthful viewers - to "kink our pinky." No Cactus, no.

Let's take a look back at the rest of the day...

3 p.m. We're just outside Seneca, Kansas with 76 miles in so far today. We'll probably overnight in Hiawatha which will be about 30 miles from the MISSOURI BORDER.

We had lunch at the Pony Express Coffee Bar & Deli in Marysville. A guy we met said that U.S. 36 from St. Joseph, MO to Hannibal is all dual highway, which is great news! So far we've been on single lane roads with good shoulders. It's pretty warm this afternoon, but the landscape is looking more like Missouri; fewer large wheat fields and more cornfields. Talk to you later from Hiawatha!

11:45 a.m. - We've stopped for lunch in Marysville, Kansas. We've ridden 50 miles this morning with an average speed of 13.5 mph. It's sunny now, but less wind so we're riding a bit more easily. We've ridden some steep hills though, similar to the grade on Loveland Pass in Colorado (without the altitude of course). We take those a bit more slowly at 7 mph. We were thinking about shipping home the sleeping bags and one-man tents, but decided to hold onto them. Some of these towns only have one motel, and if the inn happens to be full we'd be "outta luck."

The CycleQuest media office in Minneapolis had an e-mail this morning from a reporter - Trevor - in Athens, Georgia. He inquired as to whether the CycleQuest ride would be coming through Georgia. (Bob! Come back!) Maybe, we'll do a Georgia ride at a later date, Trevor. Georgia is a beautiful state. A great idea. Thanks for your interest!

Earlier, we had a good overnight rest at the Super 8 in Belleville, KS. Here's something curious...the showers have new - non-intuitive - faucets. I was running the water and trying to ascertain how to turn on the shower. There is NO lever. Nothing! So I ran a big tub of warm water and thought about it. While soaking I realized that you have to pull down on the bottom of the spigot to activate the shower. And they call this progress. :-)

Bob and I had a pre-breakfast before getting the bikes ready to roll. Bob joined me in the kitchenette/dining room of the Super 8 with a big...I mean BIG... bowl of Fruit Loops. It's hard to get enough calories on these rides! The Super 8 offers a free breakfast to their guests, and we can testify to the fact that it is awfully filling.

We have 300 miles ahead of us, and if this is a good day, that'll be down to 200 tonight.

It was overcast and 64 degrees at the start. The winds are out of the south at 9, so it looks good weatherwise. That's what we like.

Thanks for your great comments. They mean a lot to us. We're already thinking of ideas to formalize CycleQuest into a permanent vehicle for promoting ovarian cancer awareness. More later. Meanwhile, if you want to get on a mailing list for future CycleQuest updates, please send your contact information with mailing and email addresses to my brother John: john(at)wingategroup.com. He's keeping track of these things while we're "at the mobile office."

We had an email from a reporter - Steve Eighinger - who works for the Quincy (IL) Herald-Whig. He's planning a story. Thanks Steve for your interest! Also, the two Quincy television stations, WGEM-TV (NBC) and KHQA-TV (CBS) have both been in contact with the CycleQuest North media office in Minneapolis. Quincy is across the Mississippi from Hannibal and upstream about 17 miles. I spent many years there, and a lot of money at the great bike shops. Madison-Davis Bike Shop has been in business since the early 20th century. Same ownership for decades. Cool.

By the way, Hannibal has a new bike shop called CoolByke. We were in there over the July 4th holiday. Nice shop!

I hope we have nice weather for our Hannibal arrival...hopefully on Monday afternoon late. But wind, heat, equipment breakdowns, etc. could change that. We're staying positive.

Later!

Brad (and Bob)