Sunday 11th April , The Guest Inn, Chanute Kansas.

17.00

Dinner in a Mexican place last night near the hotel. The waiter was getting very shirty because he thought we were asking for pears when we wanted beer. Laughter all round once he understood, but this grew a bit thin when he deliberately kept “mishearing” us all evening. What a wag.

Today was much more like it. We left the hotel at 7.30 and knocked of the 60 miles to Chanute in just under 6 hours. It really is like Norfolk, here except that we saw some bison grazing in a field and an extremely large, dead possum on the side of the road. And like Norfolk, you find out when you are cycling that it is not actually flat. I’m not complaining. These really are gentle rolling hills and they suit me fine. With no serious hills to worry about I passed the time happily compiling lists; Desert Island Discs, A-Zs of Poets (Ok apart from X and Z ), Novelists (X?), Composers (struggled here L, Q U X, Y, Z), British Films and US Films – Just started this one. The miles fly by. Mike is concerned that he will get bored with long straight flat roads. I am in my element.

We reached Chanute, just in time for lunch. It is another handsome little town that has been eviscerated by the out of town spread of malls and fast food joints. What was once downtown was almost completely deserted. There is a once-grand old hotel in the centre but when I tried to get hold of someone in reception it proved impossible. Inside, the place looked like it was slowly dying of neglect.

Just around the corner we did find a very good restaurant on Main St, where I tucked into liver, onions, mash and gravy accompanied by a beer. Almost like being in an English pub except that all the little booths had their own TV on the wall. and the waitress came up every 5 minutes to ask "And how are you two guys doing?". I have become steadily more British when this happens and reply to these questions with things like "Splendidly thank you". "Cracking" and Absolutely top hole". The reaction is no different.

After lunch we drove a mile or so, past rows of pretty little houses, to the edge of town and booked into The Guest Inn, a cheap but perfectly decent, motel with Wi-Fi, reasonable-size rooms and absolutely no character. Nearby there is a Pizza Hut and a MacDonald’s There are a few shops and offices, all pre-fabricated, a couple of garages and a liquor store And then you are out of town . This has been the great disappointment of this trip for me. I expected the small town world of Diner and American Graffiti, but this has now almost completly disappeared. Those town centres that do survive tend to be full of antique shops and kitsch little cafes and boutiques. Much the same as as county towns in England.

Finally Happy Birthday Hannah!!!!