We left Sterling about 8:45 am, said good-bye to JJ and Aaron and headed out, hoping to put in a long day ending in La Crosse.
Sterling is 2 & 1/2 miles off route. The sheriff in Nickerson had said 95th avenue was passable, if we walked our bikes through the washouts, so we sallied forth – and met Colin and Sue a few miles out – near the road closed sign.
The road was totally washed out and impossible to walk across, the gap about 10 feet wide, the hole about 10 feet deep with water. Hopefully, they’ll email us a photo we can post. We declined to ride the extra 6 miles out just to see it… Mr Myers directed us another way. We rode together the rest of the day, finding our way off route through Alden, Chase, and Ellinwood, ending up in Great Bend. We stopped for pie at the Village cafe in Alden.
I’m sure the waitress cut a huge slice – before she split it for us. Across the street is the best quilt shop I have ever seen! Ladies, there’s a day trip in our future. This place is as big as a Hancock’s with all the character of Charlotte’s in Newton.
The 9 mile ride to Alden and Chase was lovely, a very quiet road. Once on highway, 56 it was a lot busier but with a shoulder to ride on.
 
We met John and Jay just as we were coming into town, they were making their own way from Colorado Springs to Chicago.
 
We got to Great Bend in mid-afternoon and headed straight for the library – to keep you all informed! The internet connection was an exercise in frustration. All libraries on the Kansas library filtering system were having major issues. I had to rewrite several times and was never sure it had really saved. Dave, Colin and Sue gave up in frustration. Colin and Sue went off to check in with the police (standard procedure for staying in city parks) and Colin came back with the weather report: anticipating torrential rains up to 2″ per hour during the night. We were planning to keep going to La Crosse, about four miles off route from Rush Center, another 30 miles. Even though the weather was still fine, hearing that the front was packing 70 mph winds was the deciding factor. After riding around the park and not finding a shelter with at least one wall for protection, we decided to try the fire station. The main station referred us to station B where we could have private room with a shower.
After checking the fire station – and the main station calling ahead for us to make a “reservation”, we went looking for sandals for Dave. He didn’t have anything that could get wet, he found some New Balance ones at Sears. Also went to Dillons for yogurt for breakfast. Fire station B is waaaay out on the west edge of town, several miles from downtown. The guys were nice, gave us the room they have for a firewoman if they get one. No bed, but a private bath. Only drawback is that when an alarm comes in, on goes the light and a buzzer. We could also hear the intercom and the phone rang in our room too.
