Today's Miles = 100.4
Average Speed = 14.5 mph
Maximum Speed = 29.2 mph
Total Miles = 1782.1

I spent the previous night in the Golden City bicyclists hostel, and was briefly awoken in the early morning hours to the sound of rain pouring down outside my window. When I arose for the day the ground was soaked and puddle covered, and they sky was dark and gray, but there was nothing coming down.

I returned to Cooky's Cafe for a hearty breakfast and then left Golden City and started heading for the Kansas border. As I pedaled out of town the rain began falling, lightly at first, but with a building intensity. Before long I was in the heaviest downpour of my journey so far, when I spotted a shelter in graveyard nearby. I pulled beneath the shed-like structure and considered my options for the day. I didn't want to spend the entire day riding through pouring rain and crashing lightning, nor did I want to return to Golden City and make no progress whatsoever. Since staying still and hoping for a break in the weather didn't seem promising either, I decided to try to ride on for two more hours to the next town.

Almost on cue, just as I was passing over the Kansas border, the rain passed and the sky turned briefly blue. While I stopped to take a few pictures the weather made a couple of changes that would lead to this being the first day that I would break 100 miles of riding. After weeks of winds that either fought me or ignored me, I finally had a tailwind out of the east develop. Add to that the overcast sky that kept me cool through the afternoon hours, and the relative flatness of Kansas after the miles of Missouri I had just passed through, and it became a perfect day to just ride and ride.

My final destination of the day ended up being Chanute, Kansas, after almost exactly 100 miles of riding. Had it not been for the setting of the sun I could probably have ridden another forty miles before my body said stop, but the daylight hours were waning and it was time to stop. My choices for evening lodging were between getting a motel, staying in the town park, or calling Katy Lopeman. "Yodeling Katy" has been welcoming bicyclists since 1981, and although she no longer lives on the route she is still happy to meet cyclists who give her a call. After getting directions to her house I headed over and we visited for a few hours during which she serenaded me with her ukulele and a few songs. Katy is happy to let cyclists camp in her backyard, but with the chance of rain I opted instead to spend the night in her garage.