GreatPlains2012

Day 9

Thursday, 21 Jun 2012
McPherson, KS to Emporia, KS
81.8 miles, 6h52m, 11.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 9h21m, Max speed: 26.7mph
Total Climbing: 1503ft, Max elevation: 1554ft
Total mileage: 614.9

A beautiful day for riding. Too bad I felt like crap.

I woke up in the middle of the night with chills, then sweats, and my sore throat was worse. I decided I had to do something. But it wasn't so dire that I had to go out of my way.

So I rode 25 miles to Hillsboro, where they have a little hospital and a clinic. I got there at 9:30 and by 10:30 I had my antibiotics and was on my way. Back home it would have taken at least twice as long. It was amazing. Everybody was really nice and wanted to hear about my trip. Especially at the pharmacy, which took less than ten minutes to fill my prescription.

My favorite medical clinic in the whole world.

I rode on to Marion for lunch. I took a county road for a change. No trucks!

Marion has a neat downtown, but I wanted something cold for my throat, so I ate lunch
at a convenience store.

After that I had a long stretch without any towns or stores in the region they call the Flint Hills. The scenery was spectacular, but I felt like crap and the wind wasn't all that favorable. But I took a few pictures.

The sky seemed big.

I didn't understand why the road ran up this hill when it could have gone around.
But wow.

I imagine these are longhorns.

The whole reason for being in this area was to visit the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, but when it came time to make the turn, I was too worn out. It would have been a six mile round trip. Not only that, I didn't take a two mile detour to see the oldest courthouse in Kansas.

Anyway, I suspect the tallgrass prairie would look something like this.

Then I had a 12 mile run into Emporia. I haven't had much to complain about w/r/t rumble
strips in Kansas. But these are just stupid. Too far apart to be effective, and all the way across the shoulder.

I discovered a new soda in Emporia. Dr. Wells is like Dr. Pepper, but with less
carbonation. I like it.

Tomorrow I ride to Topeka. From there I'm thinking of taking a rolling rest day to Lawrence rather than riding all the way to Kansas City.

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