Last night a band of heavy storms passed through the Newton area (note flooded cornfield example) where we stayed. Sally was talking on the phone to the lady biker friends in Door County, WI when the rain started. (Check Ida's blog at www.idasrides.blogspot.com.) The motel lost power for awhile and further north there was more serious wind damage. Since the motel was on the route, Bob was able to get an early start in the coolness of the morning as hot temperatures were forecast. However, it never really got too unbearable. We think the humidity is lower so maybe we are getting far enough west that the air will be drier. The route went north and mainly west through a part of the state that is called the central lowlands. There are lots of streams and the Arkansas River makes its great northern bend. In fact tonight we are staying in Great Bend, KS. The scenery looks more like western Monroe County, NY than what you might think of as Kansas in this section. During the ride there were lots of places to be seen that had flooded and all the streams were high. With all of the streams, there is eastern style farming with corn and lots of tree stands. We talked with a couple who are doing our exact route west to east so it was good to compare notes.
The ride ended today after 79 miles at the Quivira Wildlife Refuge essentially about a third of the way across a stretch of the route "without services" for 58 miles. The Quivira Reserve is paired with the Cheyenne Bottoms Refuge north of Great Bend to form a large wetlands area significant for migrating birds on the Central Flyway. We drove around part of the Cheyenne Refuge on their dike roads and saw numerous waders, shore birds, cormorants, and white pelicans. At Quivira Sally saw great blue herons, roadrunner, prairie chickens, great white egrets and cows. There were supposed to be bison, but we don't know where they were hiding them.
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