Larned, KS to Ness City, KS – 68 miles
Yesterday started in my tent under the shelter at the city park in Larned, KS. I didn’t sleep too well due to the dehydration headache, so I was moving pretty slow. Rick was already long gone probably by the time I rolled out of my tent. Ate a small breakfast and was on the road just before 10.
It was about 30 miles to the next town and I figured I’d stop for a good lunch there since I kind of skipped breakfast. The wind was directly out of the east, so I had a good tail wind for the first 10 miles, then the route turned north and it was a strong cross wind.
As I was getting close to Rush Center for the lunch stop I saw another cyclist behind me in my mirror. It was Max! I was glad to see him, especially because yesterday was his birthday! When we got to town we stopped at a restaurant called Greg’s Sports Pub and Grub.
When I walked in a lady recognized my jersey and stopped me. Her name was Nicky and she has worked with multiple sclerosis charities in the past. Her mom and two of her friends have MS. She offered to buy my lunch and ended up buying all of our lunches (Julia and Dries weren’t far behind Max)!
As we were sitting eating lunch someone noticed the U.S. Men’s National soccer team was playing a friendly against the Netherlands! Great timing, I decided to hang out and watch the first half at least. Dries, Max, and Julia pedaled on. It was a great game. Tied at 1 after the first half with a lot of chances for both sides. The bar was closing down so I had to leave. I found a website to stream the broadcast of the game while I was riding. The second half proved to be more exciting than the first! The Netherlands quickly made it 3-1 and it looked like it was going to be an embarrassing defeat for the U.S. Then with about 20 minutes left the U.S. ratcheted up the excitement and got a goal back to make it 3-2. In the last two minutes of regulation the U.S. tied it up and then put another away in stoppage time to beat Holland for the first time in U.S. Men’s soccer history!! Awesome match!
Shortly after the game finished up I got a text from Dries saying they were going to Ness City. I told him I’d meet them there and told him about the awesome come back the U.S. just pulled off against his country. He was surprised. The last 20 miles to Ness City were slow, hot, and windy. As I rolled into town I got a text from Dries saying Julia and Max decided to get a hotel and wondering if I was planning on camping. We decided to check out the city park.
After heading to the city park, grabbing a shower at the pool nearby, and setting up out tents we went to get some food with Julia and Max at the Mexican restaurant in town.
Adter dinner we went to check out the block party that was going on. They had a beer tent and live music, so we hung out a bit and had a few drinks.
We hung out at the block party for a couple hours then headed back to the city park to call it a night.
