Kansas - Nebraska

Yesterday was quite an eventful day. First of all, I was riding "sweep". [Everyday two riders are the designated sweep riders, which means that they wear awesome bright yellow sweep capes and they stay in the back, carry med kits and make sure everyone is okay. You ride the whole day with your sweep partner and stop everytime another rider has a flat, does into a diner to eat, stops by a lake to swim, or just tools around in a small town. So it makes for a long, long, but rewarding day because you end up chatting up a storm with your sweep partner].

I had never been to Kansas prior to this trip, but all I heard about it from others was, "oh man, enjoy the midwest (insert sarcasm). It'll be so boring! Corn corn corn".

Well, I say not true. Kansas is one of the best states I've cycled through. Our first stop was Lawrence, KS - the hometown of our of our riders, Meryl. It's a liberal, college town (Kansas University, home of the Jayhawks) and very much like my university town of Ithaca, NY. Who would have thought that NY and KS could be so similar! But it's true and almost uncanny. The phrase about Lawrence is that it's 25 square miles surrounded by Kansas while the phrase about Ithaca is that it's 10 sq miles surounded by reality. Eco-friendly people and a lot of young, vibrant people. Small shops, few chain stores, very friends and with an AWESOME bike shop called Sunflower (KS is the sunflower state). They tuned up all of our bikes better than I've ever tuned mine up... free of charge.

Yes, Kansas has corn and soybean, but after two days of cycling, the landscape totally changed. We had arrived into the Flint Hills (look it up for pictures). Here, there is litigimate rolling hills (false, KS is certainly NOT all flat) where there is only a very thin layer of topsoil, too thin to grow crops. Instead, it's the perfect land to raise pastured cattle. Cattle everywhere. It's not irrigated here, so it contrasts greatly with the vibrant green cropland. Here, it's dry and dusty and I feel like I'm in the Wild Wild West. There are black, wooden cut-outs of cowboys on horses, or mounted Native Americans chasing buffalo. Here, there are no towns for miles and miles and when my sweep parter, Doug, and I arrived at first lunch, we were out of water. The van had already left in search for more liquids and had to drive for over an hour in order to fill up and bring us back water before we could hit the road again.

We mounted our bikes again and headed toward the "geographic center of the USA" located near Lebanon, KS. We had crossed the half-way mile marker. My odometer read 2000 miles. (actually 2500 including 500 miles of training). Onwards to Nebraska. The "Welcome to Nebraska" sign greeted us with bullet holes.... The sign was totally riddled with holes.... and a picture of a cowboy on a rearing horse. Behind the sign was a landscape totally different from what we had been riding through in KS. Prairies. Wild, preserved prairie land with rolling hills, shrubs, grasses, and no cropland. Thank goodness for a tailwind that pushed us home. 113 degrees. Excrushiatingly hot. So hot. I must have dunk over 6 liters of water that day. But soon the 70 miles appeared on my odometer and we rolled into Red Cloud, NE, our home for the night. We passed the public pool, where we found the other 30 riders who simoultaneously cheered, "super sweep!" Everyone had made it in safely. A bit dehydrated, some with not so great feeling stomachs, but all really satisfied with the eventful day.

Question of the day : is there a difference between a prairie and a plain (the great plains) and if so what is it? Everyone seems to have their own definition of the two words... what is yours? Let me know!