Tuesday, 29Jun10, Dodge City, KS
Wow! Can you believe it? Yes, it’s true …
We are already in Dodge City, KS … and we’ve cycled 1720 miles and we are on Day 24. That is amazing to me!
Great job, Adella! You are an amazing trooper … and we are almost 1/2 way to Portsmouth, NH.
I received an email from Paul Maher (my roommate in 2008) … he will be riding 5 days with us across upstate New York … it will be great to see and ride with him again.
We took lots of very neat pictures today … make sure to check out Facebook at the Give Blood account.
I again rode with Tony, Wade and Fran … they were nice enough to let me ride with them … after Adella decided to ride with Lauren.
Today was Wade’s turn to have a “blowout” on his rear tire … we stopped and got it fixed, then Gerard rode with us to the SAG stop and we were cruising at 2s6-27 mph. (He was just taking it easy on us!)
Today was a “fun” ride … with a 19.5 mph average to the 1st SAG stop and a 17.5 mph average for the overall day!
We stopped for a lot of pictures … saw a lot of “feedlots” for thousands of cattle, they were huge and seemed to go on for miles.
We stopped in the quaint little town of Cimarron at an old time 50″s soda fountain … it was awesome!
I had a Hot Fudge Mikeshake that was delicious and I met 5 of the town’s most famous silver haired “foxes” … I can’t remember all of their names, yet, that had lived there for years. One had a grocery store with her husband, one was a school teacher and a librarian, another said that she “waited on” her husband, and another one was a “blood donor” … they were amazing and allowed Adella and I to take a picture with them, they were funny and had a great sense of humor. (check out the pix of Cimarron’s Five Silver Haired Foxes)
We stopped to get some interesting pictures at the Santa Fe Trail historical markers, and at the Dodge City Cowboys tribute where Tony and Wade carried their bicycles all the way to the top of the monument for a picture.
We are now at the Dodge City hotel and getting ready for some much needed fun tonight at the Boot Hill Museum.
Also we were able to wash and dry our clothes … thank goodness! (Clean shorts are a must for this kind of cycling tour!)
While that was going on … Adella was playing piano and then Gerard and Robert decided to sing, play piano and harmonica. (They really sounded great together)
In the meantime, Adella played ping pong with Wade and it was “down to the wire” for each game … yet … they had a lot of fun playing each other!
This afternoon Gerard is teaching us some new “tips” on cycling, how to look back without falling down, how to make quick turns, how to dodge rocks, and most of all … how to make quick and much needed stops. (Boy do we need this!)
Tonight there will be a Gun Fight at 7 p.m. scheduled in honor of Michelle our cyclist “mom”, and at 7:30 we will attend the “Miss Kitty” show … a good time will be had by all in attendance or else!
The trick to Dodge City is not how easy it is to get here … it is how easy it will be to get out of Dodge City alive?
It should be a lot of fun … and … I’ll check in with you on the details later.
Note: A special thank you to Lauren Larsen for talking to Scott today … you are both amazijng.
Also this afternoon, both Adella and I did an phone interview with Gary K … from Life South in Florida … preparing for our visits in Atlanta, Gainesville, and Mobile. (We have met before on the Five Points of Life ride in 1997 when we rode through to Gainesville, FL.
That should be enough for now.