From Newton to Elkhart

This is the last stretch in Kansas.

We left Newton after two days. We stayed a day longer than we anticipated to get some paperwork for potential jobs in Lawrence out of the way. We had to get finger prints taken at the county jail. It was an interesting experience. I hope that I don't have to do so again. Anyhow we headed to Hutchinson (42 miles) up through Hesston and over. We had a strong headwind for the first stretch... it was worse than going uphill all the way. Ruth (Heidi's mother) met us at the gas station in Hesston, and she brought subway sandwiches. It was so good to eat tasty food right before we start heading. The ride from Hesston to Hutch was marked by my first visit to Buhler KS. (I had seen Buhler mentioned several times, but never been there.) We stopped at LaVonne's Bakery. This place was pretty darn neat. We stopped there just before 3:00pm and ate Pie. I had peanut butter, and Heidi had coconut. It was wonderful. The Bakery-actually it's a restaurant-felt like a country kitchen. The decore was wood and mid-west americana...the genuine stuff like old photos, newspaper articles and county fair awards. It was nothing like Applebees; thank goodness. I highly recommend LaVonne's Bakery in Buhler KS.

Hutchinson was great. We had called the pastor at First Mennonite and asked if we could camp in the church lawn. He checked with appropriate people, and they had said that's fine. We arrived on Wednesday night, and it so happened that they were having a service that evening. During the course of the service and the meal a couple by the name of Bill and Thea invited us to stay with them. Bill is a Klassen from Mountain Lake. It turns out that he knew my great uncle and my grandfather (also Klassen's from Mountain Lake). I think that Bill and I are related, but I wasn't sure how. Thea was a wonderful hostess. She's a prussian who immigrated (first to Canada and then to the USA) after WWII. In the morning George and Ardyth (another couple from the church) took us to breakfast. We ate until we could eat no more. And headed off to Larned KS.

Larned KS (78 miles) was a a pleasent surprise. We were tired and hot from a day of hard riding. We rolled into town, found a foodstore, got a phone book and looked for a place to camp. We found an RV park that charged us 10.00 for the night, and it was worth every penny. It had showers...wonderful and hot showers. After a while I took a walk to the gas station to buy some chips and ran into some other bikers. They were heading east along the TransAm. (the same route Heidi biked last year.) I mentioned that the campground had showers, and they soon arrived at our home-for-the-night. In the morning we headed off to the local dinner and ate a huge breakfast. We didn't leave until 11:00AM for Montezuma KS.

Montezuma KS was a 93 mile ride. It was amazing. We had the wind at our backs and a full day of riding. A half hour into our trip that day, Heidi discovered that she had lost her wallet. She called our last stop-a gas station- and discovered that they did indeed have her wallet. So I said, ok let's hitch a ride back into town and pick it up. Heidi walked out to the road and said, "so what do I do? Just stick my thumb out like this?" and as she lifted her arm (the first time), a blue pickup pulled over to the side. The driver was happy to take her into the gas station where she retrieved her wallet. She then got a ride with a woman who worked at the correctional facility in Larned. In all, I waited 20 minutes for her. And she got her wallet. Montezuma was a nice little town. We set up camp at an RV park that did not have much of anything. 10.00 for a plot of ground with trees. That was all. And the trees weren't even tall. It was a disapointing campsite.