Day 25 - Tuesday, June 3 - Rest Day in Abilene, KS - 0 miles

Wouldn't you know it. During our rest day in Abilene, KS, the wind is pretty much calm and no threatening rain. There was rain during the night, though, and that's a good time for it to occur.


Many of us visited the Eisenhower museum and library. The museum was very interesting. It could take two days to study all of the exhibits. I sort of took an overview tour.


Across the street from the Eisenhower Center was the Greyhound Dog Racing museum. One of the workers in the museum said that there are around 45 greyhound breeders in the area. There were two retired (from racing) and very tired greyhound dogs in the lobby. They didn't pay much attention to anyone. One was eight years old and the other was eleven. Their racing careers were over at around the age of five.



One of the several historic Victorian mansions in Abilene.


Many of us ate lunch at The Dish Cafe. I had an excellent grilled salmon sandwich and apple pie ala mode. Most riders agreed that The Dish had the tastiest lunches so far on the tour.



Most of us had an afternoon nap and then had supper at the Brookville Hotel - no longer a hotel but just a restaurant that serves only one meal - a family style chicken dinner. The Brookville Hotel has been serving chicken dinners since 1915.

Tomorrow will be another long day with a 106 mile ride to Topeka, KS. It will be our third largest climbing day of the tour with 6200 feet of climbing.

Bye for now and thanks for the comments.

Bob

Day 24 - Mon, June 2 - McPherson, KS to Abilene, KS - 62 miles - 1600 feet climbing

Today's 62 mile ride was a more relaxing ride than we have become accustomed to. We had a light right-front headwind for the first 20 miles and then turned north for a 40 mile straight run to Abilene with a light tail wind. With no head wind to fight for the last 40 miles, I rode alone and took pictures - as did many other riders.

The photo above shows one of several large dairy farms that we passed south of Abilene. The scenery was very green and the traffic was light with just an occasional auto or truck passing us.


This photo shows our sag stop at about 30 miles out and at the half-way point.


A view of much of our scenery today. The land appeared to be used mostly for cattle grazing with some cropping. Many of the cropped areas appeared wet and not, yet, planted. Some corn was 6-8 inches tall and looked as though it had recently been setting in water.


Fifteen miles left until Abilene - less than an hour away with the light tail wind.



A Sonic drive-in or Dairy Queen always hits the spot at the end of a ride. In the photo are Scott from Virginia and Noreen from Canada.

We were threatened with rain again today but, once again, escaped it. After arriving in Abilene, we learned that there had been softball sized hail in the area this morning. It seems that dangerous hail storms have been following us for several days but haven't quite caught us yet.

Several of us had supper at the Kirby House, a historic mansion in Abilene. The Kirby House sent a van to the motel to transport three loads of us to the restaurant. We agreed that this was the best meal that we'd had since starting the tour. It's style of serving was very similar to Cafe Phoenix in my home town of Grinnell, Iowa. Cafe Phoenix is also situated in an old house.

As I post this entry (Tuesday morning) I hear on the Weather Channel that Grinnell, Iowa, has trees down from a storm. I called home and Kim says they did just have a storm pass through and that everything is okay in our end of town. Of course our dogs, who do not like storms, are hiding under the bed.

Tomorrow (actually, now, today) will be our third rest day - very welcomed after nine days of riding. Abilene has a population of around 6,000 and has the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum which some of us plan to visit.