Day 41
58 miles with near death by sniper, wild horses and kind people.
A day very much of two halves. The morning being straight forward the afternoon having some interesting features.
We left the Newton Cycle shop after saying goodbye quite late, about 0800. We easily found our way out of town and onto the road heading east. We stopped for water at the home of a very nice lady called Donna who chatted with us for some time and kindly refilled our bottles before we set off for Cassoday 38 miles away where we had a nice break that ran to an hour.
Back on the road and we were cycling along a long straight (normal for Kansas) country lane when we see a bloke about quarter of a mile away get out of his car, he was carrying a long thin instrument that I quickly figured to be a weapon. He walked to the centre of the road, faced our direction and adopted a firing posture. As I mentioned we were a reasonable distance away but I said to Tracey turn round and we cycled away from him. We then stopped and watched as a car passed him (still in firing position in the centre of the road). No shots were fired and the car drive towards us. We tried to wave them down to ask them what they thought but they wouldn’t stop despite clearly seeing our waves. A moment later we watched as a cyclist (training not touring) pedalled past him, again no shots. The cyclist stopped when we waved him down and we said “mate, what’s the guy doing in the middle of the road?” To which he said “taking pictures!”. Well it bloody looked like a rifle from quarter of a mile away. We continued up the road passing him a little sheepishly, I still say he looked suspect.
About 18 miles from Rosaria we passed fields with wild horses running free, running if and when they wanted or just grazing. I thought about Judy my sister , she loves horses and would have liked to have seen them in this environment. I have a few Photos and a video at least.
Arriving in Rosaria we found our spot to camp before going for a walk. As we returned we bumped into a lovely guy called Bill with whom we chatted for some time. Bill even took us to meet Myrtle his mum and the sweetest lady you could ever meet. They asked lots of questions about ourselves, the ride, England and of course the weather! What a treat it is to meet such wonderful people day after day.
Let the word be out, I will not tolerate unpleasant generalisations about Americans. The people here are about as much in control of their governments foreign policy etc as I am back in England and we have encountered nothing but warmth and kindness here.
So, we settle down for the night, undamaged by snipers, filled with glee at the spirit of the wild and free horses and grateful for another day of meeting remarkably nice people.