Dust in the Wind. . .Kansas

 Crossed one more state and entering Kansas. Now that he is almost all the way through, Ben says he likes Kansas better than Colorado. He likes the countryside as well as the people. He says they are more real than Coloradans.

 But apparently their road crews don't know how to paint stripes on the highways!

 Ben, Noah and Laura have parted ways with Mick because they need to put in more miles each day than Mick wants to. But they must still have some psychic link because this is Ben's picture, and . . .

. . . this is Mick's shot of the exact same barn!

 Ben says in the past couple of days they have passed six different prisons. I had no idea Kansas was The Prison State. And here I always thought they were The Sunflower State.

 Ahh, the joys of riding  a bike in the wind. And yesterday it was not only windy, but rainy the whole day. Ben said all their bike bags are waterproof, so their gear has stayed dry.

Ben took this shot for KHS, the company who made his bike. He used to ride for a KHS sponsored bike team, so we told them what he was doing. They asked for a picture.


Ben says they will cross into Missouri tomorrow. Then, on the other side of the state, he will send Laura and Noah on their way to the Atlantic, and he will head north to St. Louis to catch Amtrak. He will come back for a couple weeks to be Best Man in his best friend's wedding, then go back to St. Louis and continue his ride. Joanne Schenck is a friend of mine who is following Ben's route. She has good friends in St. Louis and they have offered to let Ben store his bike and gear in their garage while he comes home. People really ARE wonderfully generous.

I had worried that when he returned to the trail, he wouldn't find any other cyclists to connect with. But Ben says this portion of the trail, called the TransAmerica Route, is so heavily traveled that he won't have any problems meeting folks. He also said this section is sooooo much easier than the Western Express that he almost feels like he is cheating on this leg. All of the tiny towns they go through are set up to cater to cross-country cyclists, with city parks that have showers, and people who have set up hostels just for the cyclists.

His first experience with that was in a small Eastern Colorado town. Their Adventure Cycle map pack includes information about where to stay in towns along the way. In this town the directions said to go to such-and-such gas station and ask for Ilana. Ilana turns out to be an Australian who has fixed up several old trailers with stoves and bunks that she lets cyclists crash in. Ben helped her fix some fence line in exchange for a night's sleep.

Then in Newton, KS, they stayed in a bike shop that lets cyclists sleep, shower, do laundry and use their tools for $10 each. (Mick actually took this picture when he went through a few days later).

Although Ben is enjoying this leg, I think he is very glad he began on the Western Express. He likes the sense that he beat the elements and successfully proved himself tougher than Nevada.