After a late start we left Newton for points further west. As we got closer to Hutchinson clouds were building in the southwest. When we were 6 miles north of Hutchinson, Hutchinson is off the official TansAmerican route, thunder and lightening were directly in our westward bound path. We aborted our original plan and decided to seek shelter from the upcoming afternoon storm and the one that was forecasted for the overnight hours in Hutchinson. We did get a little wet making our way into town but not too uncomfortably wet.
A stop at Harley’s bicycle store enabled me to get a little work completed on my derailleur and we got the key to the Zion Lutheran Church hostel. By making this unscheduled stop we also planned to visit the underground salt mine on the outskirts of Hutchinson the following morning. During one of our stops at the bike store we met Lotte, who is from Amsterdam. She was riding west to east and was spending the night camping at a warm showers host. But with the forecast of severe storms overnight with golf ball sized hail we convinced her to also stay at the hostel. Around 7 pm that night Lotte arrived. The hostel was good. It had a good kitchen, shower, AC, towels and lots of space to lay down sleeping pads and blankets. It was good to hear of hear of experiences of riding across Nevada and Utah. It sounds like she is having an amazing trip.
Today’s stats: total mileage 49.42 miles, average speed 14.0 mph, elevation gain 364 feet, elevation loss 318 feet, maximum speed 25.8 mph.