Day 51: Bazine, KS

Day 51

July 6, 2015

Miles: 69

Scott City to Bazine

Di and I got up at 6am in an attempt to get an early start.  Di had checked the weather forecast and learned there would be a west wind in the morning.  So we hurried to breakfast, hurried back to our room, packed our stuff, and got ready to start our ride.  I looked at the clock in the hotel room and saw it was almost 8am.  How does this happen?  Looking back, I still can't understand how it took us so long to get ready.  Perhaps turning on the television to watch a little of Serena and Venus' Wimbledon match didn't help, but it must be that time moves a lot faster in the morning.

Breakfast at the Best Western may not be the best, but its free

We rode the entire day under overcast skies.  It always looked like it might rain at any moment.

Cloudy with a chance of plains, oops, I mean rain

We rode 26 miles to Dighton and because the wind was at our backs, we got there around 9:45am.  Di said it was too early to eat anything, so we went in a gas station to get something to drink.  We got our drinks, Bai5 Blueberry, then we each bought a container of watermelon, then I bought a Chobani yogurt, then we decided to split a turkey and cheddar cheese sandwich.  For not being hungry, we sure ate a lot.

Di hanging out at the service station

It started to rain while we were in the gas station, so we decided to wait a bit to see if it stopped.  We accept that we have to ride in the rain every once in a while, but its really hard to start riding when its raining out already.  You always want to wait to see if it stops.  And amazingly, it did stop!  We started riding again at 10:30.

Di at the George Washington Carver marker dressed for rain

We rode 32 miles to Ness in expectation of rain that never came.  It was easy riding, with the rain mostly at our backs, the sun blocked by the heavy clouds, and the temperatures in the low 80's.  It was over 100 degrees yesterday, so temperatures in the low 80's is very unusually for this part of Kansas.

Approaching Ness (a grain silo always signifies a town)

We found a cafe in Ness and Di and I each ordered the tuna fish sandwich.  I asked for ice coffee, but the owner said she didn't have any, but a rival cafe down the street had good ice coffee.  She then brought me out of her store and down the street a couple of blocks so she could point out the other cafe.  "Go and get your coffee there and when you come back, I'll have your sandwich ready."  That's extremely neighborly!  I ordered an iced espresso with a shot of chocolate and soy milk.  It tasted amazing!

We finished our sandwiches and by this time it was 3pm and it still looked like rain.  We had 11 miles to go to get to Bazine, so even though I tried to convince Di to go back to the cafe with me so we could order another iced espresso, it made more sense to to get on the road and get to Bazine.  I'm still regretting that decision and will always have a hole in my stomach where that second iced espresso should have been.

While in Ness, Di had called a Bed and Breakfast place that catered only to bicyclists and reserved a room for us.  Even though the wind was no longer behind us, the 11 miles went by quickly and soon we found ourselves in front of the identifying sign of the bicycle B&B.

The owner, Elaine, said be on the lookout for the bicycle out front

Di in the backyard of the B&B

Elaine and her husband Dan are in their late 60's and have been running their bed and breakfast for 11 years.  They provide not only a nice place to stay, but also dinner and breakfast.  It probably won't surprise anyone to learn that Di pitched in and help prepare dinner.

Di looks at home in any kitchen

Elaine (and Di) made a dinner of baked potato, lasagna, salad, and bread.  There were two women from Norway who were also staying at the B&B and they are heading to San Francisco.  We rode much of the route they will travel and they rode the route from Yorktown, VA that we will travel, so we spent the time at dinner talking about our different experiences.  They are looking forward to Utah and we told them they won't be disappointed.  As we see more and more of the sameness of Kansas, I appreciate just how spectacular Utah was.

After dinner, Dan took Di and I out to his fields to show us his golden retrievers and his farm equipment.  He is a baler and has a number of clients for whom he cuts their hay and bales it into those large rounds (enormous sushi rolls).  He also took Di and I for a ride in his swather, a huge tractor that has a cutter in front for mowing the hay.  It moves surprisingly fast.  Dan also showed me the stone posts on his property that were put in place over 100 years ago.  Wood is scarce in Kansas, so instead of having wood fence posts, they have stone posts.  These posts probably looked the same as they did when they were first put in place all those years ago.

Stone posts put in place over 100 years ago

Tomorrow we ride to Larned, which is as strange a name as Bazine, but at least it doesn't sound like medicine.  It sounds more like a town where everybody wants to be smart.