Friday 17^th April, Best Western Hotel Larned, Kansas

21.00

There was a special event in Hutchinson this week . As part of the “Revitalise Main St. Campaign” you could but a $15 ticket which entitled you to visit and sample food at ten different restaurants downtown on Friday night. It seemed a great idea but unfortunately was sold out by the time we arrived on Wednesday. So, last night, we saw lots of groups of people walking around with yellow ribbons showing that they were taking part. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves but you would have to say that the one thing that quite a few of them didn’t need was an introduction to new restaurants.

We ate in Marcella’s, a more basic Italian than Gillian’s the night before, and I liked it better. Spaghetti and meat balls and a bottle of the house red. We were a bit worried about the latter because it cost $10 and the next cheapest wine was $30 but it turned out to be perfectly drinkable (our definition of drinkable is quite loose).

I had dreaded today. A 70 mile run with nowhere to stop for food and drink after the first ten. Weather forecast of rain and a strongish NW wind. I thought of hiding under the bed but knew it would do no good. To cap it all we had had little sleep as it sounded like a gang war was going to kick off outside our room during the small hours.

The first few miles were exactly as I had feared, with the wind blowing us all over the place, but then the bad weather just seemed to die away. The rain stopped and the wind veered round and was almost behind us. It was still pretty miserable but we averaged 11.4 mph which was good going. We did 70 miles in just over 7 hours with regular ten minute breaks. Four weeks ago that would have nearly killed us. We are learning to eat and drink lot more on the road and to eat before you get hungry. Today I got through a litre of Gatorade, 2 bananas, two Danish pastries, a Snickers bar and several handfuls of cranberries. Strangely, we don’t seem to be losing weight.

It helped that for once it really was a long straight flat road. The only diversion was when we saw an old combine harvester lying by the side of the road and Mike insisted on having his photo taken in the driving seat. I was a bit alarmed when he said the key was still in the engine but I managed to lure him back down with a banana.

We reached Larned at just after 2 and had lunch in a weird sort of gift shop/cafe There were five women serving but the only customer was a cuddly old boy who seemed to drink gallons of coffee. They fell on us with a quiet air of desperation and we felt obliged to have the dish of the day (i.e. it was the only dish) Brisket in a bun and potato salad. It was pretty good too. The old boy told us that a group of enthusiasts were going to re-enact part of the Sante Fe cattle run tomorrow out at Fort Lander. He didn’t make it clear if they would actually use cattle. It might lose a little dramatic tension if they don’t .

After lunch, we checked into the Best Western and spent the afternoon writing post-cards and taking it easy Dinner was across the road in Patrick’s restaurant. Hamburger steak and a jacket potato. A difficult thing to do badly. Wouldn’t you think?