The travels of the Rambling Roses: April 30...Iola, Kansas to El Dorado Springs, Missouri

79.24 miles in 8:22...ascent...1742 ft...descent...1795 ft...average speed....9.5 mph....max speed....23.7.... Total trip miles...1309.81....trip ascent....29,290...average milage per day...72.77 miles

I got out the door early today, because the wind was going to be out of the northeast, which was the direction I was traveling, of course. It wasn't supposed to be strong, but it was going to be a factor. The other factor was that my legs are a little tired, and that is a bad combination. It was about 50 miles to the Missouri state line, and I was looking forward to crossing that, but Kansas was starting to get a little more serious with their rollers as I get east. I would say that at least two of the rollers in Kansas qualified as real hills, and there was going to be a lot more of them in Missouri. Kansas stayed true to its character for those fifty miles, grasslands, cornfields, cattle grazing, plenty of small streams and rivers I've never heard of. Fort Scott was the largest town I would go through in Kansas today, but US54 missed most of it. I think I just caught the east end of town, and I stopped at a convenience store and bought an ice cream bar, refilled ice, and stripped down a layer, because the weather warmed up nicely by noon, to almost 80. I left Kansas with a serious climb out of Ft" Scott, and Missouri met me with a hillier topography, and a reduced wind, because there were more and more trees. Twenty miles into Missouri i bypassed a town of 12,000, Nevada, pronounced ne vay da, where I had considered staying for the night. High school had just let out, so traffic was sort of heavy, and the spring hormones were flowing, as I had cars honking, passengers screaming out the window, people burning rubber at stop lights, and generally just stuff I'm not used to on this trip. I decided to put down another 20 miles, and got to El Dorado, pronounced dor ray do, where I knew there was only one motel in town. US54 had times of nice shoulder today, and times of narrow shoulder, especially in parts of Missouri, where there were some real rough spots. I've been spoiled by 54, but tomorrow will be the day I leave it for the first time since Tucumcari, New Mexico. When I got to the motel, there was a McDonald's closeby, but I just couldn't do McDonald's again. I went to Dollar General and bought two cans of chef boy ar di ravioli, a container of cottage cheese, and a bag of Cheetos for supper. Sounds appetizing, huh? Fuel for the road takes strange shapes when you are me.