I woke up early to a chilly morning. I rode a mix of gravel, rough concrete, and U.S. Highway shoulder a total of about 18 miles to Emporia, KS, where I had breakfast at Huddle House. While sitting at the restaurant, the cook cranked up some country music that began with "Highwayman" by Willie, Johnny, Waylon, and Kris. It was quite an appropriate song while sitting in the wild frontier of Kansas.
This is my second day in the Flint Hills of Kansas. No better way to enjoy it than from the seat of a bicycle.
My route today took me through the towns of Emporia, Olpe, Madison, Hamilton, and Toronto.
Emporia was by far the largest of these towns. Below are some pics from around town.
It is apparent that the Saint Joseph's Catholic Church is the main thing happening in Olpe. It is the largest most ornate building in town (pics below).
Below are some pics of Madison's downtown.
Pics of Hamilton's downtown are below.
When I got to U.S. Hwy 54 about 10 miles south of Hamilton, I connected with the Transam Bicycle Route, US Bike Route #76 (USBR 76). It is an Adventure Cycling Association route that goes from Yorktown, VA, to Astoria, Oregon. When I got on it, I imagined I felt like a sea turtle that gets into an ocean current to migrate :) I am going to try to stay on it until somewhere in Kentucky, when I will head south toward home. Hopefully, I will meet some other touring cyclists on this route.
Toronto appears to be just barely making it (pics below).
I'm camping at the Cross Timbers State Park, about 9 miles from Toronto.
The bathroom room/shower house at the park really fascinated me. It is an open air building. Below are pics of the building.
Pic of the 2 showers is below. It would have been uncomfortably close if anyone else had been in the shower with me.
Pic below was my view from the shower. I'm glad no one was in the tree.
A cold or chilly day would put another spin on one's decision to shower at this park. I got lucky because it was a nice day to take an outside shower. In fact, I kind of enjoyed showering in nature :)
Total miles today: 91.7
Wow! Look at that red brick road in Madison! That is so cool! I imagine it was not too comfortable for biking on, though, I'm so glad it was warm outside for the shower! That surely is quite different. I've done outdoors showers at the beach, which makes sense, but in the middle of KS is a different story. Thanks again for posting all the pictures and the narrative!
ReplyDeleteThanks for following along Deb.
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