Apparently during the night Hutchinson got hit by a bad storm. We were tucked away in the basement of the church and did not hear a thing, but the next morning some streets were lined with standing water. It was evident lots did come down. Before riding this morning we were off to visit the salt mine. The three of us, Lotte, Sue and I rode our bikes the 5 miles to the salt mine. Took a 2.5 hour tour under 650 feet of land to see where salt was mined 40 or 50 years ago. There is still active mining occurring 1.5 miles away from the mine\/museum. The salt is primarily used for road salt and not table salt because of the impurities. It is only 96% pure and not 99% which is typical for table salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After getting back to the church hostel Sue and I packed up. We still wanted to ride over 60 miles today and go across a 53 mile section without services. Before we left, Joel arrived. We had seen Joel before in a couple of different places along the route. Nice guy he is. He could not understand why we were leaving so late and when it was the hottest part of the day, but the winds were good and there is lots of sunshine riding this time of year. We stopped to get lunch and ice cream before the serious riding started. It wasn\u2019t after 2:30 that we really started our ride for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing about riding with Sue is that not only is she fast and a strong rider but she has to cover every square inch of the TransAmerica route. There are no shortcuts. This meant we had to back track to the exact location where we got off the trail. Once back on the route we encountered road construction. There was a 4 or 5 mile gravel detour around the construction site but it was poorly signed. It appears that the state is building a new highway and directly in front of us the construction was for a new bridge over new road. Our route was completely blocked. We could have taken another road out of Hutchinson and we would have avoided the construction all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After stopping for a few minutes and trying to figure out the best way to get around the construction a person emerged from behind the trees and said we could take our bikes immediately around the construction site but not over the new ramp. Now it rained a lot last night so it had to be muddy but this person assured us that it was not bad. Maybe not bad if one is driving a 4 wheel pickup truck. Our bikes were coated in mud as were our feet. Before getting on the bikes after passing the worst of the mud we had to remove a few inches of mud from the wheels. It really wasn\u2019t that bad, but we could have done without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next town of Dickerson we were able to use a spigot at the town park to get the rest of the mud off the bikes and shoes. Now we just had to travel 53 miles to the next town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parts of the road were desolate but it was flat and the winds were in our favor. It was not too hot but it was still warm. We made it to Great Bend in good time, but it was still after 8 pm. It could have been worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s stats: total mileage 77.82 miles, average speed 13.5 mph, elevation gain 397 feet, elevation loss 233 feet, maximum speed 24.2 mph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently during the night Hutchinson got hit by a bad storm. We were tucked away in the basement of the church and did not hear a thing, but the next morning some streets were lined with standing water. It was evident lots did come down. Before riding this morning we were off to visit the … <\/p>\n

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