St Joseph, MO

This photo was taken just as we were leaving Topeka, KS. Not long until we started saying: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore"!
Today was an 85-mile ride that went smoothly. Made it into Missouri! We went through the town of Atchison, KS - hometown of Amelia Earhart.
Fairly busy roads, and had to keep the eyes peeled due to rough road conditions for quite a bit of the time. A few narrow bridges with no shoulder and only a concrete wall to get pushed into, so we got to "take the lane" a few times. (Getting out in the lane enough so a car won't attempt to pass, since that would not be safe). Love that!
Crossed over the Missouri River. Very interesting quality to that road surface. Lots of slots in various directions (for expansion, I guess?). So the song changed from "yellow brick road" to "Good Vibrations" - at least that let us smile as the teeth were jarring.
One of the highlights: free ice cream!!! A rider who lives in St. Jo area and did this tour previously had coordinated with an ice cream shop in St Jo to provide us with all the free ice cream we wanted when we stopped in. Isn't that awesome!!?? Of course, as we climbed a long hill after the ice cream, we wondered if maybe it was kind of a cruel joke, but we'll assume the best of intentions.
One glitch today: poor Champ went over the handlebars. Wouldn't you know it, it was after he completed the whole ride, then took a little short cut out of the hotel to find some chocolate milk. He thought he'd just go down this short little concrete path, but at the bottom of it there was standing water that disguised a sharp curb horizontal to his planned direction of travel. That is all it took. Nancy came along shortly and found him lying on the grass. Willie also arrived and activated EMS. Staff was on the spot to make sure he got taken care of. He is OK, but pretty banged up. He did go to ER, and got cleared to ride tomorrow. Hank's wife is visiting, so she had a car and was able to do a lot of errands as far as getting him a new helmet and picking up the pain meds. (If you are like us, you are wondering if he ever got chocolate milk for recovery after the ride, and the answer is no). :(
It is a very good thing he had his helmet on. Good lesson here for those folks who don't wear a helmet on rides that are "just errands", or "not fast", etc.