Day 24 : State Number 5...Really???

From Everton, MO to Pittsburgh, KS - ~59 miles

since we had such nice accommodations last nice, we stayed up a little later watching tv and whatnot, so we decided to sleep in just a little bit. so, the alarm went off at 6 am and we were on the bikes and headed out by about 7. as we got back to the route, we ran into a number of the guys from the adventure cycling association group that we have been riding in the same area of for the last few days.

the first 10-15 miles of the morning were still somewhat rolling, with a couple of decent hills to climb. then, things began to flattened out, however, the wind began to pick up as well, which as i have mentioned before, is not terribly fun. at about 22 miles for the morning, we got to make a turn to the north, which put the wind straight at out backs for the four mile ride into golden city.

golden city, is the home of cooky's cafe...which we had been hearing about for the last couple of days. they are known for their mile high pies. we rolled into town and quickly found cooky's. we went in and found a table, and a few minutes later, jerry...the 70 year old that has already ridden the southern tier and is now riding back to the west coast on the trans am...joined us at our table. we enjoyed sitting and getting to know a little more of jerry's story...his family and home life...while we also enjoyed some amazing pie. the rumors were definitely true about the pie...they must have had 25 types of pie or more! i had an amazing dutch cherry pie, and cailyn enjoyed a rhubarb pie.

we loaded our waters as full as we could get them, as we were going to have 33 miles to ride with no services of any kind. by about 11:30, we were back out in the heat and wind, headed for pittsburgh. we had heard that the winds are the biggest challenge in kansas, and as we drew closer to the kansas border, it seemed like the wind was getting stronger and stronger. needless to say, it made for a challenging afternoon ride. the only benefit of the wind, was that it kept us feeling a little cooler as there is not a bit of shade in the middle of all of these fields of corn, beans and hay.

due to the wind, it definitely took us a little longer than i anticipated to ride this afternoons 33 miles, but by about 3:30 we arrived at the comfort inn in pittsburgh, where we will be staying with justin and his wife tracy. right after we found the comfort inn and met up with tracy...drew woolery, who i had the pleasure of performing his wedding service right before we left on the tour, also met up with us. justin, cailyn and i showered up and then we all headed over to applebee's to share some food and stories. we had some great food and enjoyed catching up on stories from the tour thus far. it was especially great to be able to catch up with drew for a while. a special thanks to drew's mom, melissa for buying us our dinner. also, a big thank you to mike and kem selman for the gift to help us along on our journey. it is a true blessing to have so many people following along with us on the blog and helping us and encouraging us in so many ways. so to all of you that are reading along, thanks!

after finishing our dinner, we returned to our hotel room to watch so you think you can dance...a show that we have enjoyed watching with justin and tracy for quite some time. it was a great blast from the past! now we are enjoying a very nice hotel room and a little more time hanging out with our great friends before we head back out on the road in the morning to begin to conquer kansas.

oh, and speaking of kansas, it is crazy that we are into our 5th state of the trip. it seems like it was just yesterday that we entered into missouri. it is going to be interesting to see what kansas brings as far as the cycling is concerned. it is going to be all about the wind...hopefully we can find some moments where the winds are down...or even better, maybe we can find a few moments where the winds are behind us. also, we are looking forward to what we have heard about kansas being the friendliest state.