Guymon, Oklahoma to Liberal, Kansas

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas! Three states in three days! How about that for progress?

(I will, of course, not dwell upon the fact that we only clipped off tiny segments of both Texas and Oklahoma, in order to make that progress!)

Today was a short ride, almost embarrassingly so. We rode for only 40 miles today. With the mildly favorable headwind, we were generally at, or just below, 20 mph. (Keep in mind the strict definition of the term "favorable headwind", that covered on a previous posting in this blog.) Even with the late start today, as scheduled, at 9:15 AM, most of us still made it to the destination of Liberal, Kansas, slightly before noon. That means that today almost feels like a rest day. I will not feel bad about that, as this is the middle of a 9-straight-day run until the next true full rest day. The next four days, in particular, may be quite long, and hot, so I will not feel bad about taking it a bit easy today.

Liberal, Kansas, really seems like a nice little town. It may be that we never really get a good concept of the towns in which we stay, since we generally arrive by the main highway and generally stay probably on the town's outskirts. Still, Liberal seems much nicer than Dalhart, Texas, and Guymon, Oklahoma. From what I have witnessed, from the seat of my bike, this is a very clean and pretty town. Nice people.

When we arrived here today, just before noon, the temperature was then tolerable. Now however, mid-afternoon, it is over 90 degrees! This does not bode well for us; on our next two days (if not the next four) our longer mileages will probably have us still out on the road when it is getting this hot. We will see.

Today is Marsha's birthday. Hopefully she already got the (neatly wrapped) present that I left earlier with Nickie. I am certain that she did. I tried to call, minutes ago, but my cheapo cell phone has no coverage anywhere in this entire quadrant of the state of Kansas. I hate to call collect, just to say happy birthday, but I probably will do so later anyway.

Soon after arriving in town, we learned of the Mid America Air Museum. That is located at the airport, here in Liberal. Michel and I rode our bikes there, finding Ty, Doug, and Bill already there. This was really worth the trip. There are lots of planes on display, most military but some civilian. It was really cool to see all of these. (Bill used to fly A4 jets in the Navy, while then stationed on an aircraft carrier.) I saw a number of early Cessnas also. Some looked like the taildragger equivalents of the model 172 with which Marsha and I are familiar. The state of Kansas has had a lot to do with aircraft manufacturing, civilian and military, and with military flight training.

I am grateful for Lynette's comment of earlier this date. After roughly three weeks of absence so far, I had, of course, assumed that I have been long forgotten at Gundersen-Lutheran. I am certain that the whole place is functioning so smoothly, in my extended absence, that the term "Dan who?" is used occasionally. It makes me feel good to know that my progress on this trip, such progress as it is, is being tracked. Thanks for the note, Lynette! I will see you in early July, and I may even wash up a bit before that time!

Tomorrow we go to Dodge City, Kansas. That is an 83 mile ride. Hopefully we will arrive there before the heat.