Monday, September 21
Yesterday afternoon, we passed a car of young boys coming out of a road....the driver was bouncing, making noise (even though I couldn’t hear him above the bikes, I could ‘see’ him yelling) and giving us the longhorns gesture. Not quite sure on the ‘why’ of that one, but I’ll chalk it up to him being an exuberant young man. But, to be honest, I did a quick assessment as I passed them, and figured if need be, I could outrun them. J
Yesterday afternoon, we passed a car of young boys coming out of a road....the driver was bouncing, making noise (even though I couldn’t hear him above the bikes, I could ‘see’ him yelling) and giving us the longhorns gesture. Not quite sure on the ‘why’ of that one, but I’ll chalk it up to him being an exuberant young man. But, to be honest, I did a quick assessment as I passed them, and figured if need be, I could outrun them. J
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Day started out a bit cool and overcast, but
warmed up some, maybe high 60s, before we left the US Center Motel in Smith
Center, Kansas. I still decided to play
it smart and wear a fleece, as the air had a dampness to it…and damp air at 65
mph can bring a chill. Checking ahead to our destination, it’s predicted
to be partly cloudy but in the 80s. And every
weather outlet I’ve checked, indicates there’s 0% chance of rain today. Well, I hope the clouds got that message. J Weather Underground even went so far as to
say that around 2 p.m. the sun would come out.
Given the cloud cover I’m skeptical on that one…
**Footnote: The sun did make an occasional appearance…there
was no rain….despite cloud cover it was a warm day….temps were in the high
70s.**
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We’ve been riding about 200 miles a day on
this trip, some days considerably less. Been
taking it slow, seeing the sights, stopping to rest, etc….and 200 miles about
fills up a day like that. There’s a plan
hatching to meet up with friends from Petoskey who are heading west with their
camper as we’re heading east, spend a night around a campfire together…maybe somewhere
east side of Missouri in a couple of days, a little over 400 miles our starting
point this morning. Pretty much a
straight line shot on Hwy 36, from Smith Center (our location) to New London
(proposed meeting place)…fits right in with our 200 mile days. But we needed to figure out where to stop
tonight, staying with the KOA theme. So……
Option
A: Topeka KOA, a little over 200 miles down the road…from
there to New London is almost 300 miles.
Option
B: Kansas City KOA (in MO) which is
just under 300 miles away, with only 180 miles from there to New London.
Overall mileage isn’t much different, but,
hoping the weather would hold, we went with Option B. Do the heavy miles up front today and take it
easier tomorrow. Besides, we liked the
route to Kansas City a bit better…it allowed us to stay on Hwy 36 across the
top of Kansas.
**Footnote: Larry had some problems with his truck today,
so plans may be changing.**
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We’ve been to the Geographical
center of North America, in Rugby, North Dakota.
We’ve been at the center point
of Route 66, in Adrian, Texas.
We’ve been at the point midway between
San Francisco and New York, in Kinsley, Kansas.
And as of today, we’ve been to
the geographical center of the lower 48 states, in Lebanon, Kansas. J
While today was mostly about
riding to make some miles and not so much about playing, we did take a side
trip to a field at the end of Hwy 191, outside Lebanon, KS, which is home to
the geographical center of the contiguous states…certified by the U.S. Geological
Survey. There’s a highway marker/map out
on Hwy 36 but that isn’t the geographical center location; the monument is a
few miles north and then west. And a tiny 8 person church is on the same
site. Not sure of the correlation
between the church and the monument, though.
Interestingly, this is a blurb
about the monument from kansastravel.org:
Geographical Center of the 48 States
The Geographic Center of the United States (contiguous
48) is located about two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas. Take US Highway 281 north 1 mile, and turn west one mile on K-191 to the
maker that has been erected at the end of the paved road. The actual center
is about a half mile away in the center of a former hog farm. (Rumor
has it that the farmer didn’t want visitors traipsing across his land) So,
apparently, we weren’t EXACTLY on the center of the lower 48 states, but we
were at the monument, so I’m calling it good.
J
Today was a day for people to talk to us
about our bikes, the trailer, our little ride buddies and charity ride events. Every stop we made we had people approach
us.
*Google search:
This campground has an
abundance of crickets. Gonna be
serenaded to sleep tonight. Kim wondered about the correlation between cricket
chirps and the temperature….I didn’t know what he was talking about. This is
what almanac.com says:
Did you know that you can tell the temperature by
counting the chirps of a cricket? It's true! Here's the formula:
*To convert cricket chirps to degrees Fahrenheit, count
number of chirps in 14 seconds then add 40 to get temperature. Example: 30 chirps + 40 = 70° F
*To convert cricket chirps to degrees Celsius, count
number of chirps in 25 seconds, divide by 3, then add 4 to get temperature. Example: 48 chirps /(divided by) 3 + 4 = 20°
C
Kim and I did an independent
study to determine the temperature, meaning we each used the stopwatch app on
our phones and counted chirps for 14 seconds.
We each counted 44 chirps in 14 seconds…..44 +
40 = 84o. No way is it 84o
outside at 11:20 pm…..maybe earlier in the day, but not now. Either our counting or the formula needs work….
Today’s mileage: 311 miles Total mileage: 3450 miles
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