Day 27 - Topeka, KS to St Joseph, MO - 86 miles - 2,185 feet of climbing - 5:10 hours in the saddle

Timing is the key (and luck).  All day long we were riding just behind the rain showers.  In the morning, the rumble strips were full of water and in the afternoon the streets of St Joseph were wet.  Speaking of rumble strips, for the first 40 miles the shoulder consisted of just a rumble strip.  After 40 miles we got a proper shoulder about 2 feet wide.  Currently my world seems to revolve around road conditions, gradient changes (hills) and weather (rain, wind speed and direction, no longer concerned about temperature). It is a pretty simple existence, where everything is out of my control!  I just have to ride through whatever the day brings.  It may be difficult to re-enter the “real world” at the end of June.

Lots of corn fields today.  Rolling hills today, but not like yesterday, where you could coast down up and then back up the next.  These were longer and require to pedaling hard to get to the top.

And who knew that Kansas was so formal that you could rent a tux at a house outside of Atchison!  And thank goodness for gears tat make riding these hills on a bike manageable!

Leaving Kansas, we crossed the Missouri River and entered into our 7th state, Missouri!

Much of today we were on the Lewis and Clark Trail.  At mile 70, I got a flat front tire (my 9th of the trip).  Never could find the cause of the flat.  Hope it doesn’t go flat overnight!  The ride into St Joseph was quite nice on the Southwest Parkway,   Nice road, shaded, curves, hills, parks!

Tomorrow eastward through Missouri.

Savor the Journey // Achieve the Goal