Day 47-Olathe KS to Sedalia MO

We had a change of schedule for the morning because our breakfast was being provided to us by The City of Olathe from Panera but we left before they opened so we circled up and got right on the road while our crew chief, Zack Wiles, ran to Panera to pick up bagels and cream cheese and met us back on the road for a roadside breakfast. Riding the first 15 or so miles with nothing in my stomach was not fun but the cinnamon crunch bagel hit the spot just right to give us some fuel to keep going. After that it was a relatively easy ride. For being 110 miles it was pretty leisurely, we didn't have a very tight rack point to make and the terrain was somewhat mild, rolling hills but really not very long or difficult so we. I rode with Preston and Dylan, I hadn't been with Preston in a while but his knees have been bothering him so Dylan and I pulled a bit more and we didn’t move too fast. It was fun riding with the two of them, helping out Preston gave me a lot of motivation to ride hard and keep pulling to give him a draft.

Right after breakfast we were supposed to hit the Missouri border but we got up to the mileage it was supposed to be at and the route turned into a gravel road and no state sign in sight, just an intersection with corn fields in all directions. Turns out a section of our route was through this gravel road and we had no idea that was the case so we hung out there and waited for all the pace lines to arrive. While we waited some of us went exploring in the corn fields which was very entertaining. Finally we all racked our bikes and drove down the gravel road until we hit pavement but sadly we never saw a state sign so we didn’t get a state line picture for this one, I guess Missouri isn’t cool enough for one. The rest of the ride was fine, more farms, didn’t smell as awful as Western Kansas which was good, and we passed some incredible houses on huge properties with giant ponds and yards surrounding them, If I could pick up one of those houses and put it in Washington I would in a heartbeat, they were gorgeous. In the beginning of the ride we passed some really cool little towns, beautiful homes and architecture and small downtowns with local shops, I wished we could have stopped just to check them out.

We also had a sponsored roadside lunch from a Pi Alpha who cycled in 2008 and now lives East of Olathe just off of our route. He came out with a giant box full of Chipotle burritos, chips, salsa and guacamole. It was the perfect roadside lunch and could not have been better timing because I was starting to fade and feel the exhaustion on the bike right before we came over the hill and saw lunch waiting for us. The guy was really funny, he was telling us stories about his ride when they had a lot less rules during the trip but equally as impactful friendship visits. One thing he did say that kind of scared me was that after St. Louis which we arrive at on July 12th time flies and suddenly we are riding up on the capitol steps. It is crazy that we are that close already, but for now we still have a lot more miles and friendship visits to go to.

6 and a half hours on the bike later and we arrived at The Center for Human Services in Sedalia. Our showers were at the pool next to the center so we went over and chilled out in the pool and flipped off the diving boards a few times before we headed back to lodging. One of our sponsors is good friends with the owner of a bike shop in town and after the guy in Olathe messed with me derailleur it wasn’t shifting well, it would skip gears and wouldn’t hold a gear and slip down to the next lowest one, we brought in a couple bikes and the guy took some time after the shop was already closed to get us back in working condition and now I’m shifting smoother than I ever have before, plus he didn’t even charge us for it, it was so amazing. We made it back to lodging just in time for our dinner and friendship visit and It was such a fun one, the center brought out over 100 members and we had a giant ice cream social and dance party, they had a hula hoop competition and raffle prizes all throughout the event while everyone filled the dance floor showing off their best moves. I hung out with Anthony for a while who wasn’t interested in dancing but him and I had a good time laughing at everyone’s goofy dance moves and hula hoop attempts.

After the friendship visit everyone was pretty tired, made a quick run to Walmart to get some essentials and put things together for tomorrow. Shorter ride, only 75 miles to Columbia tomorrow.