It was another day of waking up to a frosty tent and frost covered bikes, but getting to run inside the church right away to change where it was warm was a great way to start the day. Pastor Blake was there working in his office by around quarter to 8 and was ready to go out for breakfast whenever we were. We of course had to get our tent down and everything re-loaded on our bikes before we could head to breakfast. Somehow the church had an open wi-fi network in the fellowship hall, so I was even able to check the weather real quick this morning. It is supposed to be a sunny day, even though it's probably only going to get in the 40s today and would be cold until later this afternoon. Either way, it was an exciting day. Once we were all packed, we started heading over to the little cafe down the road. As it was just over a mile away, Blake easily passed us in his truck on the way there. Even though it was only about a mile ride, it was long enough that our toes were numb and we were really cold by the time we got to the restaurant. It was so nice that we get to see him again today and enjoy breakfast with him! I ordered my favorite- french toast, and both Joey and Blake ordered a breakfast medley of eggs, sausage/bacon and pancakes (aka hot cakes as they are called in Oklahoma). We had a great time talking with Blake and hearing about how his college was, how he grew up on a big ranch and loved herding and taking care of the cattle, and how he came to be the pastor at the Southern Baptist Church in Afton, while sharing our stories too. We also found out that he and Nikki got married just a couple weeks after us! It was nice to see that he is serving as a pastor at such a young age (he and Nikki are very close to our age.) Going to breakfast with Pastor Blake was such a great way to start the day. Spending a little time inside also gave it time for the sun to come out in full force, melt the frost and get a couple degrees warmer out. When we left Afton we only had about 12 miles to go to get to the town of Miami and then about ten to go from there to get to the Kansas border! We didn't have any troubles getting to Miami. The sun was shining and warming our backs as we rode down old Route 66. The best part was that the wind was at our sides, which would mean that we would have a tailwind when we start to head East in Kansas. The funny thing about today is that we have a Warm Showers host all set up in Neosho, MO, which is only about 20 miles away from where we started this morning, had we gone straight east. But not us, we are taking the long route so we can ride in Kansas for a little bit just so we can say we were there once. The closer that we got to the KS border, the flater the land seemed to get, which was a welcome break after some of the hills we had a few days ago. Shortly after getting into Miami, somehow, both of us missed the sign that said the road we were following turned. We ended up going about 5 miles out of the main area of town, crossing the interstate and seeing a sign that indicated a town in MO was only 15 miles away. Right when we saw that, we knew something wasn't right, we were heading towards Kansas, not Missouri! Luckily for us, we noticed just in time to be able to take a nice country road that had very few cars on it and get back on track with our road. It ended up only being a couple of extra miles and wasn't really out of the way; we just made a right angle instead of a diagonal. We got back onto our road in the town of Quapaw, which was on one of the Indian Reservations. About 4 miles after that town was the border we had been long awaiting. We were FINALLY in Kansas after all those cold nights. We were SO excited that we were able to meet our goal and make it there; it was definitely worth freezing our tooshies off for the nights that we did so that we could get there. There was a great sign to welcome us into Kansas and the first town, Baxter Springs, was just a mile or two from the border. As we were riding into town, we started looking for a warm place that we might be able to eat inside. We saw a laundry mat and knew that has worked before (to cook outside and eat inside where it is warm), but there weren't any tables and very few chairs inside unlike most of the other ones we've seen, so we continued on. A very short while later, we saw something great- PIZZA HUT!! Although we weren't planning on going out for lunch, it was perfect timing for lunch buffet, and we would get to eat indoors and not have to worry about cooking or cleaning. We also thought it would be a perfect time to put our Pizza Hut gift card, that we got for Christmas from Grammy, to use. So, that's what we did; we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate getting to Kansas. Although there was only about 30-40 minutes left of the buffet, the employees said they would not be putting it away right away, so we would have plenty of time. Salad, breadsticks, pasta, pizza- what's not to love about Pizza Hut buffet!?!? Right before we sat down, our waitress said that the manager was wondering what we would like to see out on the buffet. Of course we both answered pepperoni and mushroom pan pizza. As I was filling up my salad and breadstick plate, our waitress said that they were going to bring the pizza we requested right to our table! What special service- now we didn't have to worry about rushing or not getting enough pizza from the buffet; AND it was our favorite kind of pizza. We had such a great lunch. After we were stuffed to the brim, we continued on and headed out of Baxter Springs. By that time, we had less than 10 miles to go before we would already be out of Kansas. We didn't need to ride for tons of miles in the state, that was enough. I don't think we're missing out on too much more than lots of flat prairie land and corn fields. Our short ride in KS was sped up even more by the great tailwind we had while we were heading due east along with the pretty flat roads. After our short time in Kansas, we were at the Missouri sign before we knew it. Another state in the same day. It is always so exciting when that happens. At that point we were very close to one of the "3 corners" in the us (KS, MO, OK), however there was no sign indicating where to get to the marker, so we didn't get to go there. For a couple miles, we had to ride on the I-44 before getting onto a regular road again. With the tail wind and the wide shoulder, it was no big deal and we were off riding on back country roads again. It didn't take long before we were chased by a dog. This particular dog ran after us for such a long distance. Luckily the road wasn't busy, otherwise I would have been really worried for the dog. When we stopped at a stop sign, all the dog wanted was attention. He jumped and put his front paws right on us/our bikes and was just so cute. As we were leaving, the dog looked so sad, almost like his new best friend was leaving. Within 10 miles of getting into the state, the terrain started to change. Almost instantly it went from being pretty flat to being hilly, the steep sharp type of "rolling" hills. We would get to the top of one, and be able to see 2 or 3 hills just like it ahead of us. These type of hills sure make us tired. As we slowly made it up the hills, we knew that Missouri, and most likely Arkansas too, would be slow going if it was like this the whole time. Not only were the roads filled with these steep hills, but the roads were also very narrow. By the time we made it to the intersection where we turned to go towards Neosho, our legs were feeling it from all the sharp climbing all of a sudden. That next section of road was kind of fun. It reminded me so much of a roller coaster because there would be the sharp rolling hills and curves left and right (sometimes right in the middle of a hill). Despite being a little bit of a tiring ride, it was a very fun one! When we made it to Neosho, we started to look for a McDonald's or someplace that might have free Wi-Fi so that we could look up the micro- directions to our host's house. Normally we look them up further in advance, but we decided not to stop earlier because we were worried that we wouldn't make it there in time before it got to be dark. With no luck in finding a McDonalds, even thought we knew there had to be one around somewhere, we gave our host a call. He gave us directions and we were on our way. By that time the sun had gone down and it was beginning to get dark. Neil, our host, was only a few miles away, so it worked out very well. I turned on my light and away we went. We found his house without any problem at all. Upon arriving and getting our bikes put in the garage, we met Neil's mother-in-law who was visiting from California. After getting settled we each got to take a nice hot shower. Neil was working on making some spaghetti with venison in the sauce and garlic bread , which the 4 of us enjoyed while we were waiting for Amy, Neil's wife, to get home with the their kids, Marcus and Nicholas, who were at wrestling practice when we got there. Dinner was wonderful and we were so happy to have nice full tummies. The rest of the evening we just relaxed and chatted with our hosts. Neil mentioned us staying an extra day and going to school with him tomorrow (he is a 7th and 8th grade history teacher) to talk to his kids, so we might just do that. Another great day. I am so glad that we were able to go to Kansas!! Our miles totaled 64.94 today.
|
|