Kansas here we come! Today I rode from Missouri into Kansas, which for me marks the end of the eastern part of the route and the beginning of the central part. The riding today has been comparable to the end of yesterday, i.e. dead straight roads (longest straight in the route today was over 30 miles), flat and seemingly endles farming fields (mostly corn, wheat, grass, cattle) and a strong southern wind. For the westbound bits this meant crosswind with sometimes a touch of headwind, for the northbound bits it meant tailwind and cruising along.
In Girard I stopped to get some drinks and food. Newly discovered junk food: Twinkies! Sweet cakes with a creamy filling inside. As most American junk food: full of sugar and calories, so not for normal use, but perfect for cycling. Girard also marks the end of the 4th out of 12 sections of the route. When I walked out of the market I ran into a tall guy into his 50's or 60's with the text "Volendam" on his cycling jersey, hence unmistakably a Dutchman. He seemed a bit confused a first when I responded in Dutch, but then we had a nice chat. His name is Johan from Heerhugowaard and he started beginning of May with the same route as me but then West to East. Apparently packing heavy is a Dutch thing as he was packing even heavier than me. He did comment that my legs were still too white, so I'll try to tan 'm up a bit more :)
In Chanute I rode into the city fairground to camp there and ran into the group from Bike the US for MS (biketheusforms.org). They are a group of mostly young people doing a cross country charity ride for the disease MS. I expected to run into them one of these days, as I say in logbook at Cooky's in Golden City that they were half a day ahead of me. Within 5min of arriving the guy I initially talked to had grabbed me a special beer, a chair and put on QOTSA for me, awesome :) During the evening I talked to some of the other guys. Really cool to learn how they are approaching this ride and how different (bath good and bad) it is to ride in a group like that, maybe even something to consider for a next ride...
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