May 9 - On to an New State and Better Weather

We left Topeka today and rode to Atchison to cross the Missouri River into ‘The Show Me State’. We then rode on to St Josephs, the start of the Pony Express. Today was a GREAT day. There are no two ways about it. It started with a very cute do not disturb sign that I saw on my way to breakfast. We are not conserving energy. There was a rainbow over Topeka as I started my ride and it only got better. What made today’s ride so good? There was no rain. The roads were for all but a few miles very nice to ride on. For most of the day I rode in a 6 or 7 man paceline, where almost all of the riders knew what they were supposed to do. There was the small problem that I missed the turn for lunch, but when I discovered that I had missed the lunch stop, a mile down the road, I decided to push on and was one of the first to get to the hotel. Lastly, the ride was only 85 miles long.

It also occurred to me that the Santa Fe railroad, now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, or BNSF, was once the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. I have traveled through all three of those towns. Until today I never realized that there was a town called Atchison.

I hope we have left the bad weather of Kansas behind us, but more importantly that the weather leaves Kansas as they, and much of the mid-west, need a break. When we crossed into Missouri we got a good view of the Missouri River that has come over its banks in Atchison. Tomorrow’s route has been altered because the original road is under 2 feet of water in at least on place. We know that the first 30 miles of the new route are water free and hope that the next 115 miles are also passable. Yes, we will be riding 145 miles tomorrow, our longest day of the ride. The route is said to be hilly with steep rollers for the entire distance. For my GPC friends I suspect that it will be like riding Hwy 1 from Point Reyes to Fort Bragg without the view, rolling hills and headwinds have been promised. We have also been warned about Missouri drivers.

As I have been riding alone quite a bit recently, I have been paying close attention to the odometer on my cycle computer. The following are six consecutive numbers in a series of 100 four digit numbers; 2727, 2840, 2963, 3074, 3197, 3210. Leading 0’s are permitted. I don’t want you to give me all the numbers in my series, just the 1st, 25th, 50th, 75th and 99th numbers. Maybe one of my classmates will be interested enough to provide an answer. I will reveal my answer in my post for May 11.