Day 34, June 30

Dighton to Larned, KS
97 miles

This was another beautiful day with huge tail winds for the first 3/4 of the day.

Leaving Dighton through more flat land:

This historical marker, noting the location of the homestead of George Washington Carver,  was located about 15 miles into my ride, near Beeler.

The picture below was taken in Ness City,  where I grabbed a snack and spent some time talking with a few farmers who were hanging out in the convenience store.

The brick streets were nice looking but were horrible to ride on.

This religious message appeared on a hill near Alexander.  People here tend to be very religious and talk about it frequently.

Rest stop in Alexander. They put ours to shame.  All of them I have been in are air conditioned and perfectly clean.

A few cyclists headed west stopped to take a picture of a passing train a few miles past Alexander.  This group turned out to be from the San Francisco bay area.

Drivers in Kansas are the best I have ever encountered when it comes to how they interact with cyclists.  I have never seen anything like it.  When coming up behind a cyclist they either cross completely over into the oncoming lane to pass or, in the case of oncoming traffic, they will slow to the speed of the bicycle, wait for traffic to clear, then go clear into the oncoming lane to pass.  They do this even if the cyclist has a several foot wide shoulder. Even when I have motioned for them to pass they usually won't until they can cross the centerline. It is as if I have bubonic plague and they don't want to be anywhere near me. Only the 18 wheel truck drivers are sometimes a bit impatient and will pass even though there is oncoming traffic but even they are far better than the truck drivers I have encountered elsewhere.

The behavior of Kansas drivers is similarly cautious when I am approaching a side road that they are entering the main road from.  Rather than try to race out onto the main road before I reach them they will sit and wait until I pass, even if I am as much as 15 to 20 seconds from them.

After Alexander I passed through the two similarly tiny towns of Nekoma and Rush Center before reaching Fort Larned National Historical Site and the town of Larned itself.  The historical marker in the picture below provides some information on the fort.  I explored the visitor center but was too beat to bother with the half mile or so walk out to the fort itself.

The town of Larned was sizable and had a nice park, swimming pool and showers. I set up for the night in the park along with some other cyclists.  Jeff and Jimmy, who appeared to be in their late teens, had both been at the park I camped at in Dighton. Austin and Mike are headed west and this is Mike's 3rd time going across the country.

Some kids enjoying the miniature train which ran around the park:

Everyone relaxing in the park pavilion:

After it got dark I started seeing flickers of light just above the grass and realized I was looking at fire flies, which I have not seen since I was about 6 years old.

It rained quite a bit later that night, which was the start of a less than enjoyable weather pattern that would last for several days.