Day 56, Great Bend to Hutchinson, KS

Miles – 71

Miles From Start/To Finish – 2,525/1,820

Ave Riding Speed – 10-26 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 7

Weather – Sunny and 88

We were up and heading to the hotel breakfast at 6:30am. I changed it up and had the scrambled egg and bacon with gravy over top with coffee. Kim stuck to her cereal and coffee. The tv was on in the room again, only it was tuned to a different 24-hour news channel from yesterday. Maybe they were giving everyone equal time?

We showered, packed up and getting ready to head for the door and I was giving our packed bikes the once over and noticed my rear tire was running low. Instead of changing the tube, I decided to pump it up the best I could with my portable hand pump. I figured if I’d see how far I could get and change it on the road today if needed. We were heavy on the packed water today as we were going 55 miles before we would come across replenishments. I was carrying 5 bottles of water and Kim was carrying 6 bottles.

We pulled out of the Super 8 in Great Bend at 8:15am. It was sunny morning with a very light wind blowing from the east. Our wardrobes for the day were the exact same ones we’ve been wearing for most of the trip. The great thing is we never need to decide what to wear for the day, unless we need to put more clothes on because it’s cold or a rain jacket mother nature is giving outdoor showers. We rode one of the side streets headed east until we reached Hwy 281 heading south. We rode south on the 2-lane highway, with a full shoulder for about 20-miles. Then it was time to hit the backroads of Kansas farm country.

We turned east onto NE 140^th St. This was more like a 2-lane county road with no shoulder. It was a great change of scenery to be up close to trees since well before Pueblo, CO, and water in the ditches. The corn was well over 6 feet high and the farmers were cutting alfalfa. We rode around quite a few armadillos that had been hit by cars, saw some whitetail deer, cattle, sheep, donkeys, miniature horses and what looked like fenced in gazelles. We stopped at a “point of interest” along the way. It was the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge with a scenic overlook and contained the first real body of water we’ve seen for quite a while. For 29-miles we enjoyed infrequent cars passing by and little wind in our faces.

At the end of our scenic ride, we came to a “T” in the road and turned south and reconnected with Hwy 96, a road we spent a lot of time on. 8-miles further we pulled into Nickerson and stopped at a gas station/convenience store for some cold water and half-off priced pistachios which we enjoyed out on the curb in front of the store. I walked back in to ask the clerk what was the best way into Hutchinson. One of patrons spoke up and said to take 82^nd street because there was less traffic. He began to give me directions and said, “why don’t you just follow me and I’ll show you the way out of town?” I smiled and said awesome. He came out and got into his Camaro and Kim and I mounted up and headed toward the street. The man in his Camaro waited for us at each turn and then pulled over and said to ride safe and have a good trip. Pretty awesome of him to go out of his way to do that.

We zigzagged through the country roads heading southeast for 10-miles until we reached the western edge of Hutchinson. We pulled over to look up the address of the bike shop that was supposed to be open. I plugged it into my cellphone map app and we pulled up to Harley’s Bicycles within a few minutes. They had a service door entrance so I walked in, while Kim kept an eye on our bikes, and asked if we could get some air for our tires and have someone change out the rear tube on my bike. Ryden was happy to help us out. We rolled our bikes in and pulled all our bags off. Ryden pumped up Kim’s tire to 75lbs and then he put my bike on the bike stand, pulled off the rear wheel, pulled out the tube and then pumps some air in it. He held it up so his face and sure enough, he could feel the air coming out the tube on his face. He looked at the tube and said there was a small puncture. He then rubbed his fingers along the inside of the tire and felt something sharp and pulled it out. It was a small piece of wire from a semi-truck tire, again. We were in and out of there in 30-minutes and $20 later, and felt really good about it.

Ryden gave us direction to our hotel, the Super 8, on the east side of town. About 10 minutes later we were checking in. The hotel is a split level from the main entrance, so we had to unload our bags and carry our bikes down the steps. We dropped off our gear and went straight to an early dinner.

Kim spotted an Olive Garden on the way in, about 2 blocks away. We both kind of laughed, because neither of us has been to an Olive Garden in over 25 years, so figured it would be a nice change of pace.

The restaurant did not disappoint. I had the never-ending soup and salad and Kim had tortellini with chicken. The place was very clean, the food was tasty and Gracie, our server, was spectacular. During the meal she asked me if I’d like another bowl of soup and I said I would and what would she recommend and I said I’ll have it. She returned momentarily and said the soup she recommended wasn’t quite ready and she recommended another option. After we paid our bill, at the table kiosk, she said she was going to get me a bowl of the first soup she recommended so I could try it later. I thought that was pretty classy.

We’re retired to our room and planning the next couple days rides.