You say "Road Closed," I say "Biathlon!"

Quick post (unfortunately without pictures..) from Larned, KS. Ended up taking a zero day in Newton with Liz and Heidi - had an excellent time being lazy and running errands around town!

Did some maths and figured out that I should be able to average just a hair over 50 miles per day from here on out, and take ~10 more zero days, to make it to Oregon with time to get back to Colorado and school. That was a bit of a relief, especially considering that I've only taken 4 zero days so far (counting Newton,) and that I've been averaging over 60 miles per day overall. So, hopefully that means a weekend in Boulder, some time off the saddle in Idaho, and who knows what other adventures! Kansas has gotten really flat over the last 100 miles or so since Newton, and it has been windy! Fortunately, the winds have been out of the South (and I'm heading West,) so although they're kindof frustrating and do make riding tougher, it's nowhere near as bad as a direct headwind.

Scenery has been fairly dull really, not as bleak as I had imagined, but it's just a continuum of farm scenes, occasional oil well heads, dirt crossroads, and more farm scenes. Traffic hasn't been too bad, for much of yesterday, I was able to just take up a whole lane and do my own thing. Today there have been more trucks, so I've been riding the white line most of the morning.

Had a fun little adventure just south of the Quivra Salt Marshes (basically in the middle of nowhere) yesterday. A 10-15 foot chunk of road had been washed out in recent storms. Rather than following the recommended detour that would add 15 or so miles to my trip, I rode around a bunch of barriers and crossed the abyss. Slight exaggeration, maybe. Although the road was definitely collapsed for a section, and definitely had water in the middle, that was likely full of chunks of asphalt and sharp metal (from the culvert pipes that had gotten a little mangled,) it wasn't too hard to cross because someone had placed a nice stout plank between the two piles of rubble on either end. All I did was change into sandals, then shuttle my gear over in a few trips. Took the bags off my bike to make the bike easier to ferry across, and maybe 10 minutes later, everything was back together on the other side of the gap, where I had a nice little lunch break.

Had an excellent stay in Hudson, KS last night with the mayor, Harold, and his wife Sally. Long story, but basically I was anticipating just camping in a very small park (it's a town of ~120) under the stars, but ended up getting treated to a nice dinner of home cooked ribs, green beans, mashed potatoes, homemade bread (baked with flour from the local mill,) and homemade ice cream! Sally unlocked the town's community hall, so I ended up sleeping in a nice air conditioned building with bathrooms and a small kitchen - what a nice surprise! Got out of town around 8:15 this morning, and am about to grab a quick lunch in Larned before heading on West!

Should be crossing the border into Colorado the day after tomorrow if things continue as they have been, really looking forward to being back in Colorado, and especially seeing the Rockies!