To Haswell

I started this morning's ride about 5 miles north of Pueblo, skirted the city to the east and headed out of town on SR 96. Meanwhile Dick tried to go to church in town, but didn't work out today. The sign on the church doors said today's service would take place at "Pastor Cindy's house."

For the next 300 miles, the elevation will drop from 4700' to 2050' in Alexander Kansas. I wasn't sure if this would make a noticeable difference in riding, but it was and I rode about 39 miles to Olney Springs. We're now in a part of the country where almost every driver waves at you.  It's very rural.  This truck was filled with onions:

Boone, settled by a grandson of Daniel Boone, is the home of:

Grain elevators are a part of the scenery, this one in Sugar City:

This is the sum total of what we see mile after mile:

The AC map states there is camping in almost every town park along the route.  Some have no bathrooms or water available, we try to avoid those.  Tonight's stop, in Haswell, has taught us that even parks with bathrooms might not be suitable.  I'll avoid the gory details, only to say the men's side of this outhouse was unusable.

The women's side was fractionally better.  There was a very long hose near the water spigot, so Dick rigged up a shower just inside the fenced area.  It worked pretty good except for the unmentioned gory details.

Haswell's claim to fame:

14' x 16' cell block would house just one person at a time until the 1940s:

So, we've decided to try to ride more miles/day if at all possible and put these flat prairies behind us sooner.  Today we set a new record for daily total at 82 miles. 

Miles = 1736