Wednesday, June 15th:

Today we got up to an early bagel breakfast, and then set out for the road around 5:45. Just after breakfast, I thought to check our route one more time- and when I did, I realized that there was no hotel where we were planning on stopping- Severy, KS. So, after discussing it with Ed and Jerry, we decided to head up to Fredonia- with was over 130 miles from our hotel. With forced smiles, we set off onto the Highway. As we rode the first few miles, we got to watch the sun rise over the flat Kansas plains which brightened our spirits very little after realizing that we might still be on the road when that same sun sets on the other side of the world. Around 35 miles in, we hit Wichita…. actually… it hit us: literally. Wichita’s shoulder, climate, and traffic all left us panting as sat down at a Dairy Queen for lunch around noon. Despite the horrible condition, we still had managed to go 64 miles in those 5 hours. Not too shabby- but 64 barely left a dent in a 130 mile day…. As you may notice, I write this all in the past tense- but just so you know, I write this all as we do it. I tell you this because as of right now, many of the guys don’t think that they can make it 63 more miles (I’m writing this at 12:39 Central Time about 7 miles out of Wichita). I really think that they can. I guess you readers can see who’s right at the end of the day ;-). The temperature was up to 86 degrees just before 1:00, and we were planning on it to keep climbing to the mid-90s today. After we got to 80 miles I went on ahead and scouted out the area for hotels. As we thought: nothing. So at 101 miles we threw the bikes on top of the car and drove into Fredonia, Kansas into the Fredonia Inn. It was a nice small hotel- perfect for a few pooped bikers. We grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican Restaurant- and then went to the hotel to get some shut eye.