We're not in Kansas anymore...

After 5 pretty hard days, we left Kansas today and rolled into Missouri.  Thankfully the weather has been exceptionally good for this time of year. The highs for the past 3 days have been in the mid-80's and the wind hasn't been too bad even though it hasn't been helpful (cross or slight head winds).  The only thing I really was hoping for was some good tail winds which I only saw in very short spurts.  I think a little wind in your face is a good trade-off for mild temperatures.

Yesterday was our 70 mile "short" day. (Here is the track) We were finished riding by 1PM.  We stopped at an RV park east of Osage City, KS and took quick showers.  Then we headed 25 miles north for Topeka and the state capital building.  After Nicholas and Beth took a quick tour, we found a great park east of town where I took a much needed nap and they played Catan.

We drove on to Lawrence, KS to meet up with our biking friends, Marci, Jason and their 2 year-old daughter Harper for dinner.  We were hoping to do some riding with them sometime this week, but their schedules just didn't line up with ours.  We had a great dinner and filled them in on the trip.  They checked out the RV and Harper had a good time playing with Mo.

After some ice cream, it was back to the RV park for some much needed rest.  Today was an 80 mile ride across the Missouri state line.  We stopped for lunch in "Miss B's Cafe" in Louisburg, KS.  I had been looking for a small town cafe to have a late breakfast or lunch for 3 days and hadn't found one in the last 250 miles.  Miss B's definitely fit the bill.  Nothing like an omelet, hash browns and blackberry pie with ice cream for lunch!

In a previous update, I had talked about Beth's quest to find a license plate from each state we rode through somewhere along the side of the road.  After more than 300 miles in Kansas, she still hadn't found one.  She had been really excited on the first day in Kansas when she found a plate on the side of the road within the first 5 miles in the state.  Too bad it was a New Mexico plate and we hadn't seen another one since.  So yesterday, while she was waiting for Nicholas and me in Osage City, she saw a junk yard and went in to ask if they had any Kansas licenses plates that she could have.  They were nice enough to give her one, but it just wasn't the same as finding it along the road.  Well today, as we were leaving Louisburg and almost to the Missouri state line, I found a Kansas plate on the side of the road to keep the streak alive.

We are spending the night in Harrisonville, MO, south of Kansas City. (Here is the track for today)  The plan for tomorrow is to ride 94 miles to Versailles, MO to my brother, David's house and then ride on to Nicholas' house in Wardsville, just outside Jefferson City, MO on the 4th of July.  We'll spend a few days "resting" (laundry, RV cleaning, bike cleaning/tuning/repair, maybe replace the RV skylight, restocking the groceries, etc) and visiting our relatives in the area.

Here are the current riding stats after 5 complete weeks on the road:

(keeping up that 500 mile/week average, but that won't last with our stop in mid-MO)

Map after 5 complete weeks of riding.