....across Missouri and into Kansas, it's windy & lightning!

An early start from Macon MO gave rise to yet another immediate US, London, Scotland encounter, before we could even leave the Motel. In commenting to the lady in the Office Reception about how good value the Motel was ($50 all in with small breakfast) and how much more expensive it would be back home in the UK, she then continued to agree by telling us that her friend who travels to the UK thought that the prices were four times higher in London and Scotland! We left the Motel smiling, and chasing a daily encounter that has no connection with London and Scotland.

Back to the riding, the early start from the Motel proved to be a good idea, the forecast temperatures of  low to mid 80's soon passed and by later afternoon, crossing the Missouri river bridge at St Joseph the temperature had been in treble figures all afternoon.

The two photo's show what the full riding course along Highway 36 West was like, what should should have been an easy(ish) day was made harder by the heat and towardS the end the rolling profile towards the Missouri - Kansas border, the temperature and strength of the sun even seemed to get the better of the P20 block, which until today had coped well with over 10 - 12 hours on the bike.

 

As with everyday so far, and probably more so today in riding so close to the growing number of 18 wheel trucks that use this Highway, there has not been one moment or situation of feeling unsafe or threatened on the road, the truck drivers in the US are superb, even when riding well into the wide shoulders that flank the carriageway (not shown in the photo's) the trucks always pull into the outside lane, the furthest possible point from the bike, it's quite incredible really.

Riding all day long, again burning over 10,000 calories, meant reaching St Joseph mid afternoon to cross over the Missouri river and into Kansas, from then on it was a further push until jumping back into the car through roadworks and into a slighlty different overnight stop to that planned, Sabetha instead of Macon, due to Motel room availability (there's really not a lot out here at all).

 
In the seconds it took to stop on the Bridge to take one photo I was pass by the only other road cyclist seen on the open road in the past five days, he swept by, off the bridge and right along a different route, it would have been good to accompany another rider for a few miles, maybe tomorrow.

At the time of writing this post, 10pm local time, the sky over Kansas is magnetic, fork lightning and thunder, gail force wind and dust storms, tomorrow's sun rise start promised to be interesting.

Only other thing to report is an iphone that has succumbed to the challenges and gone dark in the past hour, we're trying to figure out how I can get photo's from the road without this. With James in the car often 30 - 40 miles away we also rely on the cheap cell phones bought in WDC, if these go on the blink communication on the road will prove very challenging.

More of the same tomorrow, continuing along the 36 West, it's not pretty and not that interesting to ride but it's functional in getting us across quickly and safely ever closer to Colorado and the Rockies.

More tomorrow........