And the bags come off....

Today I learned the same lesson as the buxom woman who runs a marathon: It's good to be supported. Today was my first day without my bags and I had close to a 18 MPH average. However, I only biked a little over 40 miles. After lunch Mom and I decided to head up to Mount Rushmore. I know Nebraska is famous for its corn, but seriously at one point we had corn for at least five miles in every direction. It was one of those sights that make you feel insignificant; like standing at the bottom of a skyscraper or on the floor of the Grand Canyon. We made it as far as North Platte, before stopping for dinner and a place to stay for the night. By some strange alignment of the cosmos, we found Penny's Diner to eat tonight (For those of you who don't know, my mother's name is Penny). Tomorrow, we cross into the Mountain Timezone and on to South Dakota to see some really big presidents. Until then.....

PS: I have been taking pictures, however, I am having issues finding the cord to transfer them from the camera to the computer, I will add in the pictures to old posts when I find the cord.

A Kansas State of Mind....

After meeting up with mother last night, we headed on to Wichita and the Wichita Art Museum. They had an interesting exhibit on Meso-American civilizations, however since they only allowed sketches (And I am no Picasso) no pictures from the museum. After that we tried to add me as an authorized driver on her rental car, however due to the bass-ackward practices of Dollar rental car, it would have been cheaper to rent an entirely new car for me than to add me to the exhisting contract. After that we decided to head closer to the trail and for us that meant Hutchinson, KS. We decided to go see a movie, ironically, this movie is about a blogger named Julie. She works her way through Julia Childs' cookbook and in the process improved her life. Watching the movie inspired me to finish this journey of which I am halfway through. Tomorrow I am trying to push some extreme miles, so we shall see how it goes. Until then...

Across State Lines...

After waking up and checking the weather, it looked like I would once again be riding through a downpour. However luckily I only went through about 20 minutes of moderate rain. One thing I did encounter today something new, unpaved roads. Google maps apparently doesn't take these mundane things into account. However I did learn that dirt roads are much worse than gravel for bike riding. I did manage to avoid the worse of the two. Gravel does manage to make pedaling much harder. After passing into Kansas I was able to stay on paved roads the whole time. While I was stopped at a gas station, a Jehovah's Witness came and had a chat with me, I swear, I go halfway across the country and they still manage to find me. For my first day back I think I managed to do pretty well. Although I am wiped, I think I am still a little run down from yesterday. I think it is time to get some rest and try this all again tomorrow; until then....