70 miles. Beloit, KS to Red Cloud, Nebraska
I know, seriously, a town called Red Cloud, you just know this day had to be awesome. I'd def put it in the top 3. All the cool things today were definitely much needed after those 200 miles of nothingness.
To start with, 70 miles is actually a treat. Our terrain was the same mix of flat and rolling ground, a great mix of wild, untamed prairies and endless farms. It was really gorgeous and kind of struck me as a less intense version of West Virginia(which id say has been the prettiest so far), West Virginia Lite if you will.
The weather was a whole other deal. To begin, as we exited the building this morning what did we find? Not one, but two rainbows covering the entire sky! They were so pronounced and colorful, almost like a skittles commercial. It was the first time all of us had seen anything like that. Words cannot describe. It was wild and purely awe - mazing.
We started the day pedaling away from the darkest of the dark clouds towards the other half of the sky that was all blue. It was only 2 miles before the cue sheet turned us left back into the storm clouds for 27 miles. As we prepared for the worst, being rain, the landscape yet again pulled off something crazy. The sun peeked through some clouds illuminating all of the seas of wheat and contrasting heavily with the ultra dark sky. The color clash was outrageous. It looked like a poorly photoshopped image or something and was super. Kinda was one of those "Whoa, are you for real right now sun?!" moments. Even more super was that we were able to actually peddle all the way through the storm clouds to the other blue sky side without any rain! Anyone reading this blog knows very well by now what that means for me.
Our first funstop of the day was at the world's largest ball of twine at Cawker City, KS. In case you were wondering, 17,000 pounds is really heavy and yes that ball is ginormous. Its kinda hilarious to think that something like that actually exists but then again we need something to take pictures in front of, right? Much fun was had as we did some climbing on it as well as taking little snippets to carry along with us. Don't worry, we also put on our own twine contribution that way exceeded what we took.
Next up was the geographic center of the universe, erm, i mean the continental US. I kinda love anticlimactic monuments and this definitely did not fail to deliver. Though i did think it would be pretty funny if they one day discovered that they were off by like a few feet and had to move the whole monument. There was also this rooster just hanging out in the lunch gazebo. Kinda random, but also kinda fun.
The biggest highlight by far though, and one of my favorite memories so far, was my riding with Larry, Ryan Farr, Steven, and Carlos. 20 miles of enless, deserted rode basically means byof. Bring Your Own Fun. What started out with some joking around about riding formations quickly turned into the most extremely synchronized cycling performance Kansas has ever seen. Seriously\, I've seen less coordinated Olympic athletes. After developing about 6 or so moves including the Jack in the Box, Flying V, Five Abreast, Reverse V, we ran through a 5 minute choreographed routine memorizing positions and all. That was merely to prepare for none other than our finale, the fabled Zanzibar. All i can say is that criss crossing, water bottles, charging, flanking, thumbs up, and fist pumps, may or may not have been involved in that move alone.
While obviously super fun by itself, we performers have the audience at heart and ran through it relentlessly in preparation for a Van only performance. Kate apparently didnt get the message and passed us only 1/3 of our way into it. No Joke, we were actually furious that they hadn't watched it all. Its all good since we calmed down after getting out a flawless run through anyway. Ugh, Happiness is so internal these days...
The waterballoons were unused today due to rehearsal, but the munitions team remains ever alert.
Passed into Nebraska today! Apparently over here is where its "The Good Life". Funny, you wouldn't really know it from the 5+ shotgun rounds sprayed onto the state welcome sign. Oh America...
Got some pool time in along with the others in town. I've never really taken to diving but there have been boards everywhere. I decided today that I don't enjoy painful bellyflops but would rather prefer graceful swan aerialism. Did a lot of practicing on the board. Not much improving, but still, a lot of practice. Hopes are to get a decently cool one i can do solid by the end of the trip. I mean what's water for if you can't show off to your friends, right? The millions of little kids there definitely had a ball doing that in front of us today.
Thought today about having us try to break some kind of cycling world record. Would probably be unneccessary, silly, and totally useless. Figured it would fit right in with the rest of our fun activities!
47 miles tomorrow is a joke, we usually do a little less than that just for lunch. Will be nice to rest while still covering distance. I'm also responsible for writing the group journal for today. Was originally planning on letting my imaginary gnome friend, Moxy, take care of it. He tells me he'll cover next time though and will just use my experience for this time. Gnomes these days... Anyway, Goodnight!
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