Sometime nice people stop and pick up the turtles, carry
them accross the road and point them away from the road. But there are a lot of turtles that don't make it. The buzzards like possum squirrels and most other road kill but they don't like turtle, so the poor turtle carcuses have to bake on the road and never get a decent burial.

I talked to a farmer who was picking pie cherries. They looked like cherry tomatoes. They were not sweet but they were tasty. He has 2300 acres and is just waiting for things to dry out a bit and then he is going to harvest his wheat. Then he will plant soy beans in the wheat stubble without plowing the ground. That way he gets two crops out of one field. He plants a lot of corn too. It dires in the field and then the
combine shells it and they but it in the storage bins. If the corn is not quite dry, they can blow hot air through it once it is in the bins.

He said that he and his brother and sons and nephews help him work the place, except that his brother fell off of one of the storage bins two years ago and "hasn't been much good since". He home schools his children.

By noon the beautiful blue sky was gone and it looked like rain, but there was blue sky in the west, the directon I was going, so I kept riding, bucking the wind all the way. It didn't rain until 10 minutes after I checked into a motel in Chanute.

When I went back for a coffee refill another old guy asked me if I was from England because he said that I have an English accent. He then proceeded to tell me about how he bought a book an an auction that happened to have a whole bunch of money in it.

It was sunny and bright all day. The only thing keeping it from being perfect was the wind. It wears one down. Part of US 75 that I was on for a while had a perfect rumble strip set up. 6-8 foot wide shoulder, and right next to the white line was a rumble strip that would bring a semi to its knees. Deep gouges 3" wide and 15" long alternating with 3" of smooth road. I called the Kentucky Highway Department and suggested that they send all the rumble strip applicators in Kentucky to come to Kansas and see how it's done.

Even though I had a strong head wind, I did not need my granny gear.

I like to wear colorless glasses so I can make eye contact with drivers. It helps make them aware of me. But today the sun was so bright, I decided to switch my lenses and change my glasses into dark glasses. After doing so it was much easier on my eyes.

Newton is the heart of Mennonite country and I saw many Mennonite churches on the 39 miles between Cassoday and Newton. I rode around Newton a little after I got there and it looks like a great town. Nice old residential sections and a Main Street that had no vacant store fronts. Maybe they kept Wallmart out, but somehow I doubt it.

Everyone on the ride seemed to be having a good time. They were laughing and socializing has they rode along. A sharp contrast to how I have felt in the past two days bucking the wind. I stopped at one of the stops and got some shaved ice (lime) most refresing in the middle of a hot muggy day, except that horse flies were all over my legs and I had to continually brush and stomp to keep them off. Even so I got bit hard in several places.

I stopped in Buhler to eat lunch and met Bicycle Jim, a retired mail carrier who is the self appointed caretaker of touring cyclists. He said if I needed anything he would get it for me and listed all the places that I could spend the night that were west of where we were. He did a lot of riding at one time (did Ragbrai three times) but not much any more. He is a nice guy but I was glad when I could gracefully extracate myself from his company.

I ate dinner in Nickerson at the sunshine cafe. I had the special: green beans, noodles with beef all heaped onto mashed potatoes ($4.50). Really hit the spot with me. On the wall, the cafe had posted a certificate from the WCTU congratulating the Sunshine Cafe for running an alcohol free establishment and thus contributing to family values and personal health. I thought the WCTU had long since gone out of existance, so I looked for Carrie Nation's signature at the bottom of the cert. But the cert bore a recent date and was signed by the head of the Reno County chapter.

After dinner, it was still warm and only about 5:30 pm. There was lots of daylight left so I rode on an additional 13 miles to Sterling for the night. Sterling is a college town (Sterling College) and the down town area looks a little like the area around Andrini's in Arroyo Grande. Especially since, when I got there, another BAK group had moved into town for the night and there were lots of bikes leaned up against the ajoining restaurant and cafe. It was such a pretty place and the evening was so balmy that I was really glad that I did the extra miles and got to Sterling.

I went to the grocery store and bought a lot of juice and water because I had 55 miles to go through without as much as a quickie market. But once I hit the road I was flying. It was flat and no wind or maybe a slight tail wind. I was in my big chain ring the whole morning. I got to Larned Kansas about 1:00 and my average speed was 14.1 mph. I bet Lance could have averaged 40 mph under those same conditions.

Just outside Larned I met a guy coming the other way. He too, like the first guy I met in Kentucky, had had his troble with dogs. he was carrying a mt bike handlebar as a weapon against dogs. I told him that I had not had any trouble and had even given my can of mace to the bike shop owner in Pittsburg. This guy was a real animal. He said he rides from sunrise till just before dark (6:00 am to 8:30 pm currently) and pretty much drops wherever he is. He had stayed last night in a roadside rest stop. I would not like doing that. He had come from San Diego in about 26 days.

In the afternoon going from Larned to La Crosse I made almost the same average speed. The main trouble was that I ran into SBS. [NOTE: Shell Beach Syndrome ("SBS") is a well recognized road pathology in bicycling literature. It consists of an otherwise adequate road with 2" - 3" wide grooves spaced about 10 yds - 12 yds apart, said grooves running perpendicular to the cyclists direction of travel. Most cyclists report riding over a road with SBS to be extremely annoying.]

When I got to LaCrosse I was really hot - I felt hot down to my core (where ever that is). I got a room in the crummiest motel I have ever been in and took a cold shower, then I took a nap starting around 6:30. When I woke up it was dark and the only thing open was a gas station convenience store. So I had popcorn and a bean burrito for dinner.

Actually the reason that I have time to send these e mails from the last 3 days is because I stayed in Scott City today (June 13) because I developed a toothache. I was really hurting and I called my dentist in SLO and was told to take advil. This did help and this morning it felt a lot better but I diecided to go see a dentist. Luckily there is one here in Scott City. I just went to his office at 8:45 am. It was closed. At nine a woman came to open the door. I figured it was the nurse opening things up but it was the cleaning lady. She said that the office was closed on Friday. "You won't find a dentist in western Kansas that is open on friday" she said.

I talked to the cleaning lady for a minute and then she said she would call the dentist at home and see if he would come in. He came in about 20 minutes later and looked things over but felt that it was a minor irritation that would clear itself up in a few days. He also recommended advil. So I am just taking it easy today. It was raining anyway so if you can't ride, you might as well go to the dentist. Not only is it raining, but in the next town 20 miles down the road, Leoti, there was 4 inches of hail. Anyway I am trying not to do anything to irritate this tooth.