Let's see, what can I say about today? It was wet, wet, wet! It started dry and ended dry, but the middle part of the day was a good solid hour and a half of riding in the rain. The good thing about the rain is that it held the temperature in the 70s. After the rain stopped the temperature popped right back into the 90s. It was windy again too. Just like yesterday, the wind was coming from the south, which meant I had side winds for most of the day. Good luck so far, because that strength wind as a head wind would have slowed me down considerably.
I started the day by talking to people at breakfast - as usual. The folks I was talking to are in Pittsburg for a big 4-state farm show that starts tomorrow. Based on where Pittsburg is located, I assume that the 4 states are Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
I stopped for my first bathroom break at a gas station north of Pittsburg, where I ended up talking with three men for about 15 minutes. One of them said that he saw a bunch of cyclists resting at the dog track up the road a couple of weeks ago. He stopped to talk to them (or to be nosy, as he put it), and ended up breaking out his cooler which was full of soft drinks and beer. He said the cyclists seemed much more interested in the ice from the cooler - which they promptly dumped on their heads to help cool off.
After I went through Girard I met a Transam west to east rider from Pennsylvania. We only talked for a few minutes because by then the weather was starting to get pretty threatening. Right before I met him I had stopped to pull my dry clothes off of my trailer drying rack - just after I started hearing thunder. He hoped to get to Girard before it started pouring, and I hoped to find a farm house with a porch that I could borrow for a while. I didn't make it, and I suspect he got pretty wet too. It was a warm day, so neither one of us had any intention of pulling out rain gear. But the oncoming storm looked scary, with quite a few cloud to ground lightening strikes. After I was totally soaked I found a farm house with an overhanging roof that could provide some shelter. I knocked on the door and asked if I could hang out by the side of the house until the rain eased up. The teenager who answered the door said that would be fine and promptly went back inside. I probably stayed there for about 15 minutes. I wrung the water out of my gloves and my socks, and started riding again when the rain got lighter and the lightening seemed to move further away. I was able to take a break a ways down the road when I found a church with a covered entryway. I sat there and had a rest and a snack, then pulled back out in the continuing light rain. It wasn't too bad - but then it started to pour again. Luckily this time there wasn't much lightening because there wasn't any shelter around except for an abandoned house and barn, both of which had holes in them! The rain stopped just as I arrived in the tiny town of Walnut. It had a post office, a bar, some other closed buildings, and a gas station / diner combination. I stopped at the gas station for lunch - a grilled cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate. Probably a weird combination, but I was soaking wet and figured I needed something warm. A couple of the guys in there had seen me go by on the road... One of them said that the rain was just a narrow band. It may have been a narrow band, but it sure seemed to stay over me for a long time.
I had another 25 miles to ride after lunch. I continued to hear thunder and see occasional lightening to the south of me, but I was riding in bright sunshine for the rest of the day. I checked into a motel in Chanute, cleaned the bike, took a shower, threw my clothes in the washer, and then looked outside to find that it was pouring again. What a crazy weather day! And if that was an example of a Kansas thunderstorm, I hope I don't meet too many of them. It would be OK without the lightening - it was one of those stay on the bike or run and hide decision days!
New wildlife for the day - I saw what I think was an armadillo trundling across the road in front of me. It had a pointed face, a long snaky tail, and a squat body that was armored. And no, I was not hallucinating!
