Tour de USA | Stage 20 Liberal, KS 42 miles

Welcome to my 6th state and 5th stateline crossing.  What another beautiful day!  There were major storms that blew through OK last night with a lot of rain and hail, we missed it all.  The good news was it changed the winds and we had a slight tailwind today that pushed us on our northeasterly direction to Liberal, KS.  But before we get to KS I have to tell you that my morning started off great.  I got up at 6:00 and did some emails, facebook, texts, and everything else, then went to breakfast.  When I came back I started to pack up and get ready for my ride today, which had a late start of 9:00 because of the short distance (42 miles).  That’s when I noticed that my rear tire was FLAT AGAIN!!  To say I was not happy is a slight understatement. I called Paula, the owner, and told her, and we decided to replace my rear tire.  Not the most cost effective option, but clearly the best for piece of mind.  I rode 50 miles yesterday on that new tube and old tire and it was fine when I got to the hotel last night, and then in the morning it’s flat.  Simple decision for me, new tire!  If you aren’t a biker, trust me when I say no one likes to fix a flat 4 days in a row!  So hopefully we are good to go.  I brought some extra tubes with me, but I am now out, although I bought some more from the tour company, and I brought an extra tire, so no big deal.

But before we got to Kansas, we went through Hooker, OK. Not a lot in Hooker, except the Chamber of Commerce selling funny T shirts.

All of my friends are Hookers

And Tom couldn’t pass on this gem.

Today was a great day of riding as well, because of the low mileage, wind conditions, and because I rode with my new friend John G. ( pictured above with me at the Kansas welcome sign). Usually John leaves with the early group, and I leave later, so I usually just pass him on the road at some point.  But I told him that I wanted to ride with him today, and we rode the 42 miles together, went to the air museum and lunch together.  He is a very interesting man, and I told him that Dos Equis beer will be calling him to be the new most interesting man in the world.  He has started and run many different companies, used to fly planes, lives in Argentina 3 months each year, his wife is a world class ballroom dancer, and they compete as a couple as well.  Not to mention that he has picked up golf and biking after he retired.  Great guy.

In Liberal, KS there is an air museum, for a former 4 star general that was chief of staff for the Air Force and he was from this area, General Welch.  Here are some of the 99 planes that they had inside.

In case you didn’t know Dorothy lives in Kansas, and here is her house and the yellow brick road.  

Here is the map today.  Not a lot of miles were accumulated in the panhandle of Oklahoma. We will spend a lot of days in KS, so we should start to head a little more east.

This is an interesting look at the map of the US. The red “X” is where I am currently and all of the marks are the cities that I have been to to the west and the ones I am still going to to the east.  Look at how much ground I have ridden already.

Here are some of the data numbers from today.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.