Day 15: McPherson to Abilene, Kansas 65 miles. Flat as a Pancake (last day on the plains)

Yesterday was the day to scare the living daylights out of me.  Today was the day to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the back country roads of Kansas.  Total opposites.

This was the view for most of the day: riding through corn and wheat fields.  So picturesque.  So peaceful.

We travelled in a northeasterly direction for much of the day in military fashion:  left, right, left, right.  There are no diagonal roads in rural Kansas.  The surveyors did an excellent job of plotting out the roadways in a predictable, grid-like manner.  Left turns meant the winds were at our backs.  Oh, those were so nice!  Right turns meant we were either dead into the winds or had strong quartering winds to content with.  

A true one-room schoolhouse set between farmland and a grain silo.  And maybe five homes for miles in either direction to support this tiny school.

With the exception of the first nine miles along US 56, most of the day was spent riding along county roads and passing through sleepy little towns.  Okay, that's a bit too romantic.  Some of the towns were downright moribund.  But it was still a peaceful and relaxing day, even with the same, persistent southeasterly winds and another flat tire.

This is "downtown Gypsum."  Just before arriving here, we passed through the town of Roxbury.  None of the seven buildings that made up the one intersection in Roxbury were still in business.  Even the furniture or other items in the windows of the buildings were old and decrepit.  Gypsum was, maybe, two blocks long and had more houses, but it still had the same "we died but no one told us" feel to it.

We passed through the towns of Galva, Canton, Roxbury, Gypsum and Solomon before entering Abilene, the hometown and final resting place of President Eisenhower.  While the farmlands were a portrait of nature's beauty, the towns were another matter altogether.  Until we rode through Solomon, the first four towns were either case studies for how small town farming is dying or how the recession has been particularly hard on the farm belt.  It was such a sad juxtaposition to see the death of small towns right after passing through living fields of grains.

Oddly enough, at our one rest stop in a small park in Gypsum, a woman came up to us and started asking us questions about our ride, including how many riders there were, whether or not we were riding for charities, etc.  Turns out, she has been coming here every year for at least 18 of the 20 years this ride has been organized.  And, every year, there's an article in the small town/regional newspaper about us.  She was so diligent on getting names and spellings correctly and queried us on aspirations not just destinations.  

Must be the impending site of a Jewish Community Center!

I was last in the heartland of Kansas in the early 80's.  At that time, there were people looking at the back of my head to see if I had horns.  True story!  So seeing a Star of David on the side of a barn while I was riding through Kansas wheat fields who totally unexpected.  I can't tell you why that was there, but I thought it surely deserved a photo as proof I wasn't hallucinating.

As we were riding through the farmlands, right in the middle of nowhere, out among the corn and wheat fields, stood one of our sag (Support And Gear) vans parked by the side of the road.  And there, in front of it and marked in bright white spray paint, was a sign marking the midpoint between our San Francisco start and our Portsmouth, New Hamsphire finish.  We had travelled halfway across the country (okay, some of us took more than one year to get here!).  Still, it felt really good to have reached this milestone.

The Actual Halfway Point between San Francisco and Portsmouth.  Even the Kansan surveyors weren't THAT precise!

Riding through the town of Solomon, I could see signs of life.  This was still rural countryside, but there were more houses, even though the only "downtown" we could see was a single church and a convenience store.  No curbs.  No sidewalks.  

Eight miles past Solomon, we finally reached Abilene.  Much smaller than it's Texas namesake, Abilene, Kansas is a true example of small-town America.  With a population of just under 7,000, it's got a well-developed downtown as well as its star attraction, the Eishenhower Museum and Presidential Library.  As we approached downtown, we rode through a couple of lovely neighborhoods with rows of wonderfully preserved Victorian homes.

Stuck in the middle of railroad crossings and a very depressed neighborhood of run down houses on the outskirts of Abilene, here sits this beauty of a Victorian mansion, the Lebold House.

At the suggestion of Michelle, one of our ride leaders, a number of us stopped for lunch at a small cafe just off of the main intersection, called "The Dish."  The food was really special and you could not complain about the prices.  A bowl of Asian Chicken Vegetable soup, a pulled pork quesadilla and two large iced teas for ten bucks.  Sweet deal.

I try as often as possible to sample the local fare and to help support the local economies.  It doesn't hurt at all when the food is a good as it was here.

Just before heading to the hotel, I felt a pang of guilt, so I turned my bike around and rode down the road for half a mile to see the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.  It's also the location of his ancestral home as well as the chapel where he's buried.  Apart from some very worthy historical information (as well as his papers, etc.), it was much less than I was expecting.  And, in this digital age, it still relied way to heavily on the printed word, which made it a very tedious exhibition.  

The Eisenhower Presidential Library (just out of the picture to the right) and Ancestral Home (left) and Museum (behind me).  Great for fans of American history from the 40's and 50's.  Average for everyone else.

Tomorrow, we're on to Topeka.  109 miles, probably into those same southeasterly winds and the threat of more thunderstorms both in the morning soon after departure and at noon in Topeka.  Could be a pretty hairy day.  Also, we'll be getting back into elevations and climbing tomorrow.  No more rest for the thighs.