When we went to bed last night the weather forecast said 50's to start with partly cloudy skies....we woke up to a cold drizzling rain and the topic of conversation in the breakfast room was all about what to wear. It looked like the rain would pass through pretty quickly, but it was cold, windy and spitting rain so I decided to don the leg warmers and rain socks, etc. We had to pass through a construction zone right out of the hotel and the staff had advised us to "take the lane" as a group as there was no shoulder. So for about .6 of a mile about 8 of us rode ride down the middle of the road with a big semi behind us...it was fine though but now we had a headwind (why not? just the way we like it!) and that continued for 22 miles...the rain stopped almost immediately, however, so of course now we are sweating....BUT...aha! A 90 degree left turn...now we have a tailwind and a very smooth newly paved road with minimal traffic. Wahoo! Perfect conditions for testing out the legs a little...put some power into the pedals and it felt fine. Happy biker! My friend Peter from California and I ended up cruising along together and we started talking about how we couldn't believe this was our 9th day straight of riding...We have been riding continuously since Santa Fe...690 miles.
We arrived in Abilene and stopped at a little local place called Sip's that Peter found on the Internet...(we have given up looking for Starbucks and now just look for places that have an espresso machine...)
So we had some REAL coffee (vs hotel coffee, which being the coffee snobs we are, neither one of us will drink). We also had a yummy chicken wrap and chatted with some locals who seemed to know who we were...they informed us there is an article in the paper here about us. The Chamber of Commerce is providing shuttle transportation for us while we are here on our off day...that is the first time that has has happened. Really nice. So I got my bike cleaned up, did my laundry, etc. so that tomorrow I can have a "proper" rest day as our British contingent calls it. Dwight Eisenhower is from Abilene, so tomorrow I will plan on visiting the home, library, etc. Otherwise, hopefully a nap is in my future. Today I am putting in a picture of our SAG stop and a few of the gorgeous Kansas countryside. We will be heading to Topeka on Wednesday, 105 miles.
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