GreatPlains2012

Day 10

Friday, 22 Jun 2012
Emporia, KS to Topeka, KS
68.2 miles, 5h22m, 12.7 mph
Elapsed Time: 6h36m, Max speed: 36.3mph
Total Climbing: 2196ft, Max elevation: 1382ft
Total mileage: 683.1

Another beautiful day. And I feel slightly less crappy than yesterday.

I must have crossed some geographical boundary today because now it's hilly. It was really a perfect day for cycling. Clear blue skies, not too hot. and the wind was not a big factor. This is the first day on this tour where I got away from the highways and spent the whole day on back roads. It was quite peaceful.

I rode through Emporia to get to my country road. On the way through I passed another historic site without visiting it.

The home of the famous progressive newpaper editor William Allen White!

Then it was off into the countryside. I passed a city called Admire. It looked like all the streets were gravel. Then a city called Harveyville, which had a store. Then a city called Auburn, where I ate lunch. Then I was in Topeka.

Did you ever look at the back of a stop sign?

There was a lack of spectacular scenery.

But plenty of bucolic scenery.

I have massive remorse over a picture that I didn't take. I was coming down a small hill and I could see that somebody had cut their grass and their mower threw it all out in the road. I hate that because more than once I've gotten a flat from some pointy thing that a mower has tossed into the road. As I got closer I noticed something strange--the mower was nose down in the ditch, and there was no operator around. Like he was mowing between the road and the ditch and he just lost it. And it was in there good--like ass pointing straight up.

So I thinks to myself, "I need a picture of this." I look at the house. Nobody there. The road was in kind of a bowl there, so I looped around and coasted back down. Then I thought, "What if the guy's in the ditch?" So instead of taking a picture I looked in the ditch. Nobody there. So I looped around again. I was already thinking of captions for the photo: "I told you it would end in tears." "Oh no, not again!" "I just need to get that one weed!"

As I headed back to the scene, reaching for my camera, I noticed a pickup truck coming out the driveway of the house. The driver waved as he went by. As I started turning to make my fourth pass, I saw him turn around and come back, presumably to rescue his mower. I'm so angry at myself for not taking the picture. Argh. It would have been awesome.

Still can't get away from that Santa Fe Trail.

That's one windmill that'll never spin again.

The deer looks at me same as the cows.

I was in Topeka by 2:30. Sadly, the only decent restaurant near the hotel is Hooters.

Tomorrow I plan on taking a short day--only about 35 miles--to Lawrence. Maybe sleeping in and a short day will give those antibiotics a chance to do good things.

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