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Kansas


My motel in Pittsburg, Kansas. The receptionist seemed insistent on me bringing my bike into my room... The whole of Kansas seems to be covered in a huge grid in units of one tenth of a mile. Typically, t... Girard. Population 2773. Storage tanks at the petrol station in Walnut. I've seen these photographed before. Oh good. Again. Broasted? That's never a word. The town of Chanute was named after Octave Chanute, who advised the Wright brothers and provided pub... I know someone called S Plummer! It's a shame the 'S' of 'S Plummer Ave' here has been shrunk to mak... Sunflowers are the symbol of Kansas. I saw one, small but perfectly formed, growing by the roadside ... Apparently, Kansas is famous for having stone fence posts instead of wooden ones because a large par... This field contained a few bits of road like this. It looks like roads get dumped here when they are... Coyville. Population 71. I think there are only three towns in Wilson county. Now 'onto Toronto pron... A rare hill. The brown sign says that an area called Holiday Hill is off to the left. That sounds like a funny pl... Cross Timbers State Park. I've got some more good sweets here. The scarcity of them must just have b... I don't think the reservoir is meant to be this deep. I had heard that there had been some problems ... Toronto, with the kind of main street that makes you want to have a gunfight. The Country Junction shop and restaurant, better known as Lizard Lips. It's well-known with cyclists... The view from Lizard Lips is a bit bleak. It makes me feel I'm at a windswept beach. The wind seems ... I had wondered why the hotel which I have reserved for tonight was called Blue Stem Lodge. An inform... A lot of the cows seem to enjoy standing in lakes. Some hay on the move. A nice-looking house. I have just met two Swedish cyclists going the other way. They brought more go... Eureka. There's nothing special here. I just liked the evening colours. It's not a large town. I'm on the main street here but this road seems to lead straight out into the... More beef grazing ground. Cassoday! One of two trains which came through Cassoday. They were both very long and pretty slow. I saw the f... These cows were in the stream but didn't seem to want to be photographed there. I was a bit puzzled ... It seems that I somehow lost my Adventure Cycling Association map in Cassoday. It doesn't really mat... Interesting shape for a house. In the absence of the Adventure Cycling Association's map, I've had to resort to Google Earth again,... I don't know why seeing a school bus in a car wash amused me. It wasn't as funny as the dustbin lorr... Yoder's Ornamental Concrete. That's what it is. On the left is highway 50, a good, straight, very fl... A house flying the flag of Kansas. I like the silhouette of a cowboy leaning against the tree. Somet... This is reputed to be the longest grain elevator in the USA, about 800 metres in length. It's obviously not big enough for the town of Hutchinson, which also has these ones and more. Talking on the IP phone. What a great system! The quality wasn't absolutely perfect but you can't co... 'Welcome to your outdoor adventure' said an unexpected goodie bag in my room. It was full of beauty ... The prevailing wind around here is from the south, as borne out by the tree under which Bikey will b... Ah, there's no place like home. This state must be known for something else. It turns out that 'Target', two doors away from my hotel, is a hypermarket. I found everything I nee... The Hutchinson Cosmosphere. Apparently, they just asked NASA if they had any old rockets they didn't... Really? A bike shop not being open? Who would have thought it? Actually, the place doesn't usually o... The Arkansas River. This won't be the last time we see this. Scenery typical of the region. I was expecting this. A few minutes ago, I had barely aligned myself onto this road, which the cycle... One of the college buildings in a place called Sterling. The town of Lyons, featuring an unusual collection of non-American flags. I wonder why they're there... Lyons again. The state flag is showing a bit of a headwind just now. A moment ago it was a tailwind.... This is in a place called Ellinwood. Sadly, as I'll be off the proper TransAmerica route for most of... That beats third place at Miss Illinois County Fair! This is at the entrance to a town called Great ... I'm making good progress now. I thought I would because the wind seemed to settle down to blowing fr... One of several similar railway bridges along the route. Another of those irrigators. On the left is the town of Alexander, with a population of about 80. On the right is the visitor cen... All day, there seems to have been some kind of competition going on to see who can transport the big... Here's one of those stone fence posts. Apparently, Rush Center, a few miles back, has a barbed wire ... I had forgotten about this landmark. Elaine's Bicycle Oasis in Bazine, which offers accommodation for cyclists. I had thought of staying ... Flat, isn't it? It's hard to believe that I'm now 670 metres above sea level. It's the graffiti barn! I agree with others who have passed this way that this barn does seem to hav... A train, grain elevators and a cattle lorry, all typical sights in this area. These ones are round t... The inside of the Derrick Inn. I don't know what it used to be but it's a bit of a funny motel. Ther... I don't know why there's a telephone in the bathroom. Perhaps I should have used it. My mobiles stil... You also get all this for free. The window between my room and the atrium is smashed in one place to... At first, this looked like a graveyard, apart from the smiley face. It actually seems to be the disp... The Ness County Bank building, known as the 'skyscraper of the plains'. Ness City is another of those small towns. I'm standing at the central crossroads now. All the stree... I assume this artwork is meant to be visible from the road. Perhaps it is when the grass is shorter. This could be the biggest yet. The going seems very hard today. Flags and the occasional thing blowi... I spent most of the morning wondering how it was that the road in the distance always looked like it... Dighton. My phone still doesn't work. I didn't have any luck with this payphone either. When I dialled the nu... Just a funny-looking water tower. A lot of motels have the letters on their signs spaced oddly like this. I don't know if it's part of... I tried using the phone again in Scott City, without any luck. This was a different type of phone. W... Where's the beef? Ah yes, there's the beef. I wonder why these cows aren't allowed out onto the plains. Perhaps the on... Back to this scenery for a while then. The grain elevator on the right is at a tiny place called Mar... This is another commonly photographed sight. The question is why this one spot was singled out as be... What is a lineman anyway? Actually, I've just left central time and entered the ominously-named moun... Another landmark.