Halfway Home

We have now officially reached the halfway point. It has gone quickly, but it seems like we left a long time ago. The days seem to blend into one. Although I cannot remember what I did each day I can recall what did happen. If that makes sense.

Today started out with me talking with Lisa (Chris's wife) and Andrea (Peter's wife) in the front of the hotel. I was explaining that our group would probably be the last to leave , but we do tend to make the time up and catch up with the pack. We left and Harry forgot to sign out so he had to return to the hotel. Another day on the road.

I will leave to others to describe the wind. What struck me was the beauty of the area we bicycled today. I imagined Kansas flat and with a lot of farm land. Today we bicycled hills and the lushness of the green all around was beautiful. The pictures below do not really do justice to how it looked as we bicycled through the area.

There were even some Elk roaming around the area.

At around the 92 mile mark we went to the following cafe.

Norma is an 89 years young. She entered a national pie making contest and much to her surprise, last November 26 she won the best pie in America contest. The pie was a coconut creme pie. Norma explained to me that she makes 6 pies a day, 5 days a week. She starts at 6 in the morning. Each pie has 6 slices so that is 36 slices available. By the time we arrived there was no more coconut creme available. They list the pies on a board and as the pies are not available they take them off the board.

She has 8 kids (4 boys. 4 girls) , 22 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 11 great great grandchildren. I guess she baked a lot of pies for her family and the practice led her to win the contest.

Alec was talking to two farmers at the store and offered them me to help them with loading bales of hay. I pointed out that I probably weighed less than the hay we all agreed that this would not be a good idea.

After we were done at the pie store, we continued on to the hotel. My group stopped and insisted that I leave my bike with the rest of the bikes below. They want me to pedal it in the Atlantic, along with my Flip video.

Abeline, KS - Topeka, KS

Miles 106.47

Ave MPH 14.3

Actual bike time 7:28:22

Left Hotel 7:25

Arrive Hotel 4:50

I am very concerned about tomorrow's hotel. Apparently, they serve free beer to guests. The day after may be a long day for the Musketeers (with the exception of yours truly, who has sworn off alcohol until Boston).

Lastly, tomorrow is our last day in Kansas and this is for the people that I work with back in LA. When people ask me what I do and I explain we produce EM:HE every person in Kansas loves the show and knows that we have built houses for 2 families in Kansas. They all love the show and appreciate what we have done for these families. Good to be doing good.