Blazin' Saddles

Part II
Day 2
Olathe, KS to Ottawa, KS +10 miles
53 miles

We started out the ride this morning around 9:30 a.m. Even though it was hot the breeze was blowing and it wasn't too bad. Passed lots of cornfields that are dried up! It is pretty sad looking. Our Green Girls set everyone up with the program Find a Friend. It worked out really well. All our cell phones were linked together and we could keep track of where everyone was. It made it really nice to know where everyone was without having to call. We are partly following the Santa Fe Trail so we have seen lots of these signs.

Once again this year we are running into gravel roads so we are having to tweek our routes slightly. We even had to go through a work zone today where it was down to 1 lane and they had a vehicle escorting the cars through the area. It was interesting riding our bike through there. They let us go by ourselves but when the escort vehicle came by we would have to get off the bike and stand in the grass and let the vehicles go by. Everyone was really nice about it though.

The heat was grueling today. As you can see it was extremely hot and it really got to us. We had to take more rests than normal. Clay even ran out of water so we stopped under a tree and waited for Rachel and Abby to bring him some more. We are so thankful for our support crew! We also came up with  more ways to try to stay cool (if that is even possible). Matter of fact, when we got to Ottawa we decided to stop at the hotel for several hours and cool off and then at 7 pm we went back out to do the last 10 miles.

You know it is hot when Clay lets me put sunscreen on him, because he never puts sunscreen on! We decided in this heat we are going to have to start earlier in the morning. Tom and Susan are doing great on their tandem! They rode until lunch (23 miles) and then rode this evening with us for the last 10 miles. Speaking of the last 10 miles we had quite a surprise. It was going to be on a trail that is listed on the Kansas map. After being on the trail for 1 mile the picture below shows what we came upon.

It was unrideable on our bikes. We had to turn around and get back on the state highway. When we got on the state highway they had grooved the surface. So the whole 10 miles was rough! What a day we had dealing with the roads and the heat. When we finished tonight at 8:30 p.m. is was 97F.

Tomorrow we were suppose to be on the above-mentioned trail for 30 miles, so tonight we have to find a new route for tomorrow. Praying for cooler weather or clouds for tomorrows ride!