Miles and miles of open road, pedaling through the wind daily that can sometimes work with or against you, multiple variations of weather, feed farms with their unpleasant smell and eighteen wheelers throwing gravel at your shins from the road as they pass by only sums up part of my experience riding through Kansas.
In-between the plains I rode 20 miles of gravel off route the first day to get to a camping location off a lake. The route led me into the back roads where you normally won’t find a cyclist on a touring bike. After struggling through the terrain I decided to get back on my route and continue pushing forward on my normal route which I was 7 miles away from.
Upon arriving in Toronto, KS I was planning on camping at the local state park until I met Mike and his son pictured who offered me a place to stay for the night in their R/V. They both have a collection of recumbent bikes that they use for touring and leisure rides.
Setting up the bike before taking off
Rode into Newton Bike Shop where they have a bike hostel for cyclist passing through. I was happy to meet the other riders there and fix my bike and replace my chain for the rest of the trip.
A few of the guys who stayed the night who were set to take off.
I met Bob and Kelly at Newton bike shop. We rode to Sterling, KS together and after a bite to eat I took off to push forward into Larned, KS.
About 54 miles later I made it into the city park in Larned, KS. I setup and cooked diner before taking it in for the night. In the morning I was awakened by the local rooster behind my tent coupled with the gease sounding off.
I arrived in Ness City and met riders Jon and Connor who are heading east to Virginia. We camped the evening at the city park there and had a good time sharing our stories from the road. Check out Jon’s blog at Crazyguyonabike
Rode my bike around town and captured a few pictures in Ness City.
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