We don't do that at Innes' Tea Room!

No rain and even though there was a head/crosswind, it was less than 10 MPH. That's not bad. We had a fairly simple route, follow US 54 until we get to Greensburg, Kansas. Did you know the US 54 is also known as the Yellow Brick Road in Kansas? It's pretty funny that my Garmin would tell me to turn onto the Yellow Brick Road whenever I got off the route or the road took a little bend. I guess you had to be there, but it made me laugh. 

At about mile 40, Thom and I stopped for lunch in Meade at the Chuckwagon Restaurant. Our waiter who looked like he was in his 20's was the grandson of the owners who were there and the son of the cook. When he asked where we were going and we told him Rhode Island, we became the talk of the restaurant. Fortunately I had one of my official Bay 2 Bay shirts on to show everyone our route. His grandmother came over to talk to us. It turns out she grew up in Wichita, where Claudia's mother grew up. I asked her if she had ever been to Innes Tea Room and she said yes. There is an expression in Claudia's mother family about etiquette that if you are doing something wrong you are told "We don't do that at Innes Tea Room!" Innes Tea Room closed way before I had ever been to Wichita. Since she had been there the owner knew exactly what the expression meant. I guess Innes Tea Room is one of those places where you would raise your pinky as you drink your tea. Again it was something that made me laugh. Those of you in the Howard family may know where the expression originated.

Here is my lunch.

I was hungry.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. The cows barely looked when I mooed at them. I think I scared Thom once with one of my moos. Thom did have a flat but we handled that easily. Something about the stopping for the flat messed up my ride on Strava. The total riding time was 7:50:19 and the average speed was 13.1 not what is shown below. 

My major observations for the day were that the trains while fewer than what we were seeing earlier in the trip, seem longer and they don't know how to spell North Kingstown in Kansas.

Here is the ride on Strava:

PROGRESS

 

I may have fixed all the glitches in the spreadsheet I am using to develop the progress table. The operative word in that sentence is may. With our third ride over 100 miles we have boosted our average daily mileage to slightly over 83 miles per day. Our original plans had us in Missouri on Day 19, so we are about 3 days behind. Don't tell Claudia but I think Thom and I are both hoping to figure out a way to make up the mileage. It would help if all of you would do you best to create a wind from the west. Maybe if when everyone gets up in the morning, you could go outside and blow towards the east, that could create a wind from the west.  I digress, here's the table. By the way if you click on the table it will be easier to read.

TOMORROW

Our goal tomorrow is to do another 100 miles and end up east of Hutchinson.

AND ONE MORE THING

Yesterday when I wrote about the most enjoyable part of the trip, I left out the most enjoyable. On days like today where we are finishing at an agreed upon rendezvous location, Claudia is always there to greet us with a big smile as she is waving at us. It's great!. Don't think she is waiting outside all day. We have Garmin Live Tracker activated. Claudia always knows where we are and can see on her phone when we are approaching her.