Only 21 Days Behind on Blogging!

6/19 - Lawrence, Kansas - 74 miles: Today we were fortunate enough to ride on the Indian Creek Trail for 16 miles. It is always nice to have a little break from the road or mainly cars. From all of the storms recently in Kansas, the trail proved to be a bit of an adventure! Little did we know that there would be even more of an adventure down the road. A few of us wanted to have a quick lunch in an attempt to avoid a big storm. Unfortunately, we made a wrong turn, fortunately, we were able to cut across the grid-like roads over to the gravel road that we were told to follow on our cue sheet. Not long after, we saw big thunder clouds roll in and felt the severe thickness of the Kansas pre-storm air. I was riding with Derrick and Joe through the storm and, well, they don't like big bolts of lightening and loud thunder claps. I thought it was a bit scary but it was SO beautiful and it ended up clearing up. Storms provide good distraction from riding for sure. I rolled in to downtown Lawrence, home of University of Kansas with my St. Louisian friends, Sarah Graham (one of three Sarah's and there are three Jen's and two Will's...crazy!) and Christina. Christina, who goes to KU knew practically everyone in town and took us to a bike/outdoor store called Sunflower. It was awesome and the folks there helped us with our bikes for free! We stayed in a private school and a lot of the group got in the outdoor pool that was there. That night, after getting in to bed late because the temperature was perfect outside and I ended up talking with Sharif and Sarah Crawford for a bit, the alarm at the school went off. I think a door was left open a bit to set it off. I was one of about five of us who actually woke up to the loudest and one of the most obnoxious alarms I have heard. Luckily the guy who was helping us out lived near by and came over to turn it off and I was able to easily go back to sleep. Lawrence ranks on my top 5 for places I have been on this trip and I hope that it will be a place I will visit in the future. Thanks to Andy for these pictures!

6/20 - Manhattan, Kansas - 86 miles: Manhattan, Kansas is yet another college town which always provides for more of a town and place to explore. The picture in the upper right corner is from today! You may not believe me but it really did not rain! Kansas shows us some pretty outstanding skies for sure. It was supposed to be over 90 degrees but it ended up being a bit cooler from the threat of a storm. We still were provided two lunches though with our rule of "if it is 90 miles or 90 degrees or over, we get two lunches." The ride being cooler, being relatively flat with some nice rollers, and the wind holding off, we were able to average close to 18 mph and we were just cruisin'. Other groups were going over 20 mph. After lunch we took a nice nap on the side of the road under a tree which was spectacular. At the prime age of 19 I have finally learned to take naps! The church that we stayed in had three different big buildings with lots of entertainment such as a big ball, big screen tv's, lots of food, and a ping-pong table!

6/21 - Manhattan, Kansas - 1st DAY OFF!: I slept in till eight o'clock! We usually wake up between 5 and 6 on bike days and around 7 for build days so I was genuinely able to sleep in! I had a really rough morning of eating a slow breakfast with a mug of coffee while watching "The Dark Night." At around 11 six massage therapists came (with tables) and we ate Chipoltle burritos which weigh approximately 80 pounds and were absolutely delicious. All of this was made possible by the church and we could not thank them enough. This trip is truly made possible by the people who host us, listen to us, feed us, and continue to encourage us.

After burritos a lot of us went downtown and hung out at a coffee shop where I sent out some post cards that I bought at a local book shop. We later headed back to the church for a fabulous pot luck dinner by the church-goers and then attempted to go to sleep early.