Well as good as yesterday went, today, not so much. Our farewell to Kansas turned out to be wet, windy, cool, and a tad dangerous. At about 40 miles into the ride we rode into a severe thunderstorm with hard rain, a small bit of hail, and lightning. The Tour organizers scrambled to load the riders into their vans and eventually shuttled us to a nearby convenience store to hopefully wait out the storm. But the storm was large and after an hour and a half of waiting an executive decision was made. Approximately ten of us were told for safety reasons to take a "bump" in the van for the final 40+ miles to the hotel in St. Joseph.
The remaining eight riders were given special permission to try and wait it out to hopefully finish the ride (at this writing I'm not sure what the outcome will be). Those eight riders are still "EDI" (Every Damn Inch) alive. Unfortunately, my dream of being EDI ended the second day of the ride in the desert between Palm Spring and Indio CA when after stopping for a quick on-bike break in the excessive afternoon heat I actually fainted and fell off my bike 12 miles from the end of that ride. True story. I wasn't given a choice to finish that ride. Excepting that event, I was EDI so was a bit disappointed to have to take a bump today. But getting into the hotel early for a long warm shower was a nice consolation.
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| Above: Prelude to a storm in NE Kansas |
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| Above: Even more ominous skies |
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