Butterflies and Camels

Overall the America's Best Value Inn in Hesston was satisfactory. But when we awoke at 6 and went to the the free breakfast, which supposedly started at 6, the doors were locked and the Indian woman running the motel was nowhere to be found. I rang the bell and she emerged, sleepy-eyed, and opened the breakfast bar, such as it was. No fruit, no waffles, no OJ, no bread or peanut butter to make ride snacks. Just some oatmeal packets, mis-labeled cereal, and shrink-wrapped corn-syrup "muffins." Fortunately the oatmeal was plentiful, the coffee was hot, and that was enough for me.

The moon was setting as we headed west out of Hesston

The ride today was about as straightforward as it gets. Due west on arrow-straight roads through the heart of the Kansas prairie. The wind was from the south, maybe a little southwest, but we made good time.

Not sure what he/she was doing here

The only thing between Hesston and Larned is a little town called Nickerson, where we stopped for a break. We stopped a little cafe (in fact, the only little cafe) in town. They have a guest book specifically for Trans-America cyclists so it was fun to read the notes from the other two-wheeled travellers. The dates were surprisingly sparse: the last riders that came through (and stopped at the cafe) had been in mid-August.

After that it was 58 miles to Larned, with absolutely nothing in between. That is, other than Monarch butterflies and Brown-Eyed Susans, both of which are everywhere. The butterflies are in the midst of their annual migration. I had not previously noticed them, but after someone brought them to our attention, we started seeing them everywhere: on the road, on the flowers, and smacking into us as we ride.

Brown-eyed Susans everywhere

Hard to see but that's a Monarch alit on the flower

The weather today was nice: cool in the morning, warming into the mid-80's, and dry. In the afternoon I had to meter my water carefully to make the 58-mile span from Nickerson to Larned. I am carrying two 1L bottles, which lasted about 85% of the way.

Since we did not stop for lunch, and managed to make a good pace, we arrived just before 2 PM. Tom had a creak in his headset and my handlebar tape has started to unravel so we had a few bike chores to attend to. We also spent some time securing our route and hotels past Pueblo as we enter the Rockies next week.

All in all, a good day for riding. 97 miles, flat and straight.