Day 20- Dodge City, KS > McPherson KS (64 miles)

 May 26

The route:

Man, if you have not been to Kansas to ride a bike, I highly recommend it! Amazing how the wind can make you eat your words...today was AWESOME. The weather/ride app called for a cross wind that was mild 12-14 mph, but it felt more like a tail wind, and we knocked out 63.7 miles in 3 hrs and 2 min. We had the train rolling, good roads, and a little push from behind. We had a pinch flat about 7 miles into the ride, and we watched the larger group ride away from us...enter today's hero: Fred. As we were starting back up after the flat (and normal cursing and spitting), one of the guides was riding through and asked if he could pace us for a bit. Fred proceeded to pull the four of us the next 22 miles at 20-23 mph into the SAG...we made ourselves quiet and small. One of the other guides decided to make a sprint out of it to the SAG, and Raff made the young pup work for the green jersey. The four of us Griffin boys rotated for the last 34 miles and rolled into McPherson in time for lunch.  Back to the weather/ride app, I appreciate multiple people coaching me about not using apps and just enjoying the time outside; next time I do a trip like this, I will exchange my DNA for somebody else's and try that approach. I know the app is essentially an anxiety app, but if you can get data, you get data. Please keep coaching me because I can definitely stand to learn more, but I'd prefer coaching on music!

This was my light lunch in McPherson (this is a normal sized plate): yes, I put all of it in my mouth and probably shortened my life by a few days...

Photo of the Griffin guys from today as we were rolling along:

Cool photo as we actually had some cloud cover today:

We took no other photos because we rode a little hard. A couple of quotes for the day...one was crowd sourced and is a great one referencing our tough day last week: "Some days are diamonds. Some are rocks." Tom Petty said this. Another great C.S. Lewis quote came to my radar doing some reading: "I think if God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him." One other short one that came from Stuart's interview with Steve (guy whose bike I showed yesterday): when Stuart asked him to describe himself in one sentence, his answer was classic: "not smart enough to be scared". 

Tomorrow, we roll into Emporia, KS and have a rest day there. Talk to you then...thanks for following, texting, and praying for us!