Day 37 & 38

65 miles flat, hot but with a treat at the end.

We set off from Ness City in a thick fog, it was cool, grey and nice to cycle. We knew however that it would clear up and get hot later in the day.

The ride itself was pretty uneventful, flat and with similar scenery as the day before. Today however is independence day and this did set the day apart. It meant that most of the smaller towns convenience stores and groceries were closed.

Riding in Kansas is tougher than I thought it would be. I thought that dropping out of the Rocky mountains would be like a rest for a while. The problem is that in the mountains we were on and off the saddle frequently where as in Kansas we are on the bikes for 4-5 hours before a decent break. What I’m saying is that my bottom hurts!

We were therefore very pleased to arrive at Larned with a planned rest day on the 5th July.

Just before we entered the town we called at Fort Larned, this is an original Indian Wars era fort from the 1860’s. The fort is situated on the route of the Santa Fe trail a trading route running through the state and down to New Mexico. We had a good look round the barracks, the fort hospital, store and accommodation. We also met Marla, the lovely lady in the magnificent dress you see above. We chatted for quite some time about both her role (re-enacting at historic sites) and bike trips. We then watched the lowering of the flag at the end of the day. This was our cue to head off and cycle the remaining 6 miles into the town.

Larned is a small town but has decent facilities and will be a nice place to have a day off.

The evening was spent at the community park where we bumped into Marla from the fort and watched the Independence day fireworks:

This was a great way to finish the day,

Day 38

Day off

Spent relaxing in Larned where we visited the Santa Fe trail museum. this was a very interesting insight into life in what was a very remote and tough environment back in the 1800’s. They even had a jail:

We visited the museum with Stuart a very nice Englishman who is cycling to the West coast but is having a few days off for various reasons. He was great fun, especially when he tried to make a cup of tea using the water with pre added hot milk he was given in a cafe in town. It was one of the funniest things I have seen in weeks. Check out his first attempt and then the more successful final version:

The only other thing we did today was wash our clothes before they cycled away on their own.