August 23, 2017
Week 126: to Lawrence: We are in kansas
"Can we get through?" Patrick says to the worker as we lift Rachel's bike over the fallen tree. "No!" the man barks, "the trail is closed." As Rachel carries the two dry bags off Patrick's bike and he lays down Rachel's bike past the tree then comes back for his bike. The bike trail through Kill Creek Park is closed, so we backtrack to a through road and work our way to route 10 by De Soto toward Lawrence.
After a great birthday celebration with the Stoppelman Family and a good night sleep, Robyn has fixed scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast. Steve works in the direction we are heading and gives us a ride for about 25 miles and around Kansas City. This sets us up to being back on schedule and through a section not pretty to cycle with lots of traffic.
We say goodbye to Steve after he drops us off. We will pay their hospitality forward. Looking at the map, we decide to stay on Santa Fe Street and to a bike path rather than on route 7. The rolling hills return then at the park the gate is closed. There's a car parked at the entrance, so we go around the gate. Not too far on the path, we meet two day cyclists who tell us a tree is over the path. They tell us "maybe they'll let you through" so we continue on through a nice area. Then we see the fallen tree.
The workers give us directions to get back to the road to De Soto that's first on a gravel road until turning onto Homestead road. We stop for one break before De Soto and eat blueberry muffins Patrick has carried for a few days.
Once we reach route 10, we are on the four lane highway until we see a sign with a list of vehicles not allowed, including bicycles so we exit. We are close to where we would get off anyway. There is much evidence of flooding in the fields, and the secondary road we are on detours us back to route 10 until finally entering Lawrence. We cycle through the main part of town across the Kansas River to the north side of Lawrence.
There's a Motel 6 and a KOA campground. We check the rate at Motel 6 and figure the campground would be half of what the room costs, it's only 12:30 so we check in and call it a half rest day.
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Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 37,915 km (23,545 miles)
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