Day 23: Great Bend to McPherson, KS

https://give.michaeljfox.org/barbarasbigride

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/122684818

The Ride

The Stats

65 miles

732 ft. climbing

Challenges: More wind from various directions,
but never behind us!

Miles Completed: 1,569

Miles to Go: 1,827

States Visited: 6 of 15 (yes, we're still in Kansas!)

Feet Climbed: 52,755

The Ride

Double groundhog day. Leave hotel. Turn left. Ride 65 miles. Turn right into another hotel.

So hard to get motivated this morning, but thankful for a relatively short day and pleasant temps ranging from high 50's to low 80's, with no rain. Did I mention it was still windy? Hard to tell exactly where it was coming from, but it was never a tail wind! 

I did enjoy the mostly smooth pavement and lack of traffic (not sure if that was attributed to the road itself or that it was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend), especially the lack of trucks. Red-winged blackbirds seemed to be a dominant species once again (thank you, Google, for the image!) and I enjoyed trying to find the birds I heard before I saw them.

In the rural areas between the towns, I noticed the anti-abortion signs are getting more frequent and graphic, but I'll spare you the visuals. Let's not go there. 

On a more positive front, one sign asked passersby to thank the farmers if we ate today. So thank you, farmers! 
It seemed particularly apt as I was noticing the newly planted cornfields extending for miles!

I also enjoyed rambling through a few small towns, and imagining life without the freneticism of either coast. Somehow, my parents were "with" me as I passed "Nana's place" and went through Lyons (complete with a statue of liberty--they were both such New Yorkers through and through!). 

Our "Nana's Place" would've sold F'in Fetzer Chardonnay!

While the previous posts talk about the "lion" connection with my dad, for some reason I couldn't help but remember the time he told me I had a message from "Mr. Lion" and gave me the phone number of the Bronx Zoo to call -- such was his sense of humor!

I also must give shoutouts today to the Marks (American and British) and Chad, who gave me a nice pull coming into the first (and only) SAG, and Gregg, who pulled me later on in the day. Much appreciated!

Otherwise, I was just in the zone as the miles ticked along. Fortunately there weren't too many of them!

They posed so nicely for the photo...then promptly fled from the paparazzi!

Made me think of Sting's "Fields of Gold"

Thanks, Lisa, for the photo!

Continual reminders that we live in a very patriotic country!

I rolled into McPherson around 12:30. The town is named for Union Civil War General James Birdseye McPherson, and there's a statue dedicated to him in the town square. 

As our hotel was typically located outside the "main street" area of town, and smack in the middle of fast food hell, I went into town in search of a more viable lunch option, and the Google machine led me to Noffy's Sandwich Shop & Pub. What a breath of fresh air! Sat at the bar, had a delicious spinach salad with goat cheese, cranberries, and homemade poppy seed dressing, a couple beers, and two mini-chocolate chip cannolis...YUM! Had I not still been in my bike shorts with the need to ride a couple more miles to the hotel, I'd probably still be there! (See Employee of the Day for more.)

Today's Lean

No parking in Lyons lean

Employee of the Day

Part of the appeal of dining at a local place is sitting at the bar and talking to the locals who live and work there. That was precisely the case today as Adam greeted me, and welcomed my bike (and stinky self!) into Noffy's. The place is named for a local whose nickname is Noffy, and they're sufficiently successful that they'll soon be expanding to a larger space down the street, including patio space. (Unfortunately, they were the outlier among many more establishments that have since shuttered their doors.) There was a sophistication to the food and beverage selections that I found pleasantly surprising in a small town in the middle of Kansas. Adam is a Kansas native who lived for a while in Pasadena, but returned home opting for the quieter life, despite the arguably less favorable weather! Most remarkably, after sharing the story of my trip and fundraising journey with him, I came back to the hotel only to learn that he had made a donation to my Team Fox ride. I was so touched by this. While I would've been happy for him to just follow my blog, it's the generosity of once-strangers like Adam that help motivate me when the going gets tough. So thank you Adam, for being a beautiful person who helped make my day a better one!