It dawned a beautiful overcast day and we set off heading East on our bicycles. We were still on US Highway 56 and headed towards McPherson for the evening. We stopped in Ellinwood to grab a cold drink and then went hunting for a post office.
We found the post office and enjoyed the harvest festival decorations (notice the nice giant grain attached to the lamp post). It was a quaint town, very similar to many that we've passed through in Kansas except that the streets mights have been wider.
We bicycled and bicycled and bicycled. We had a SE wind to fight against and soon the temperature was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Midday you would find us once again stopped at a small park on the side of the road, napping on a picnic table. Yay naps! Keeping us company at the park was a baby bird, just learning to fly. At his current stage flying really meant taking big jumps and fluttering. I was worried at first since I didn't see any adult birds near him, but as soon as I got close enough to be a threat, the parents started divebombing and screeching at me. Guess the baby was not forgotten :)
Chris called the McPherson sheriff about a place to camp in the city. They were very kind and said we just needed to stop by the law enforement office to get a camping permit to camp in the city park. The sheriffs in Kansas have been very nice and it has become a usual practice for us to call them before we arrive in a city to ask about camping.
We took many breaks to rest in the shade throughout the day. Above we were sitting about 7 miles outside of McPherson before making the last jaunt into town. We watched the train moving oil and grain cars around (below). The immense silos for the grain cars are in the following photo.
We arrived at the law enforcement office and the lady asked us what we would prefer, a camping perit or a voucher for a hotel room. A voucher?!?! Oh yes, she said, we have so many cyclists come through we have an agreement with a local hotel for providing the cyclists with rooms when they pass through the city. Wow! How very nice. We took her up on the offer of the voucher with many thanks. She said just make sure we say how nice McPherson was.
McPherson is AWESOME!!!!!!
We stayed at the comfortable Wheat State Hotel and celebrated with a pizza and beer. What a very nice day!
Note: Sorry for the delay in updates are internet has been non existent at best and temptinglt evanescent the rest of the time. But we have a good connection right now! So hopefully that means we can catch up on our blog a bit. -Emily and Chris 7/12/2011
Location:Great Bend, KS to McPherson, KS
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