July 18, 2016
Jean-Marie cooked us an amazing breakfast and sent us on our way. After leaving her place, two big white dogs came out at Bob and me. Luckily we were going downhill and out pedalled them. At this point there were quick Hills..... meaning up, down, up, down, up, down. 2 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour, 2 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour. Guess what?.... the heat index was above 100 again! As usual Leah was ahead of us again. We came to a turn in the road and we weren't sure which way Leah went so I tried her cell phone and there was no signal. I tried the radio and nothing. We lost Leah! We had told her to stay on 105 which turned right. We needed to go to Coyville which went straight. A young girl pulled up in a smart car and we asked her if she had seen a cyclist and she said no. We turned on to 105 which was hilly and went around the lake. Then a car came up behind us and beeped its horn. It was the same girl and she said I found your daughter in Coyville. I said bless you and thank you. We could have been hours looking for her but instead we only went 2 miles out of our way. We never asked this girl to do this. She just did it out of the kindness of her heart. We took a very short detour to go into Benedict to a convenience store. There was a sign on the door with a number to call because the guy was mowing. We had no cell service. It was like stepping back in time. He had an old radio playing. When we got there, we discovered we had lost the map. We could lose a lot of things but NOT the map. So we were trying to figure out when we looked at it last and thought it was probably 5 miles back. (10 miles round trip) Leah immediately offered to go back and look when two more cyclist rode up and the owner of the store walked up. We asked Quinn and Mike if they had seen a map and they had. Yay! And they said it wasn't too far back. The owner gave us free ice cream, something to drink and filled our water bottles with water and ice. Leah came back pretty quickly and had the map in hand. What a relief! Then the guy gave Leah another ice cream. When we got to Chanute, Kansas Leah was waiting for us at a convenience store. I was trying to call the contact to stay in the city park but they kept transferring my call. A gentleman came up and started talking to us. He was surprised to find out we were a family. He told us He is a pastor at a local church. Then he invited us to his home. Once again we had a bed, and air conditioning. We had a wonderful chicken meal with Tom and Terri Eastman. Then we are able to swim in their pool. How refreshing! Also another night with a shower! Later in the evening he made 3 minute ice cream. It was absolutely amazing! We had a nice time of fellowship before bed. Also we would like to say a big thank you to their daughter who let us park our bikes at her house because she lived in town. They then drove us to their house which was several miles out in the country which meant we didn't have to ride there. We went 44 miles.
Jean-Marie cooked us an amazing breakfast and sent us on our way. After leaving her place, two big white dogs came out at Bob and me. Luckily we were going downhill and out pedalled them. At this point there were quick Hills..... meaning up, down, up, down, up, down. 2 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour, 2 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour. Guess what?.... the heat index was above 100 again! As usual Leah was ahead of us again. We came to a turn in the road and we weren't sure which way Leah went so I tried her cell phone and there was no signal. I tried the radio and nothing. We lost Leah! We had told her to stay on 105 which turned right. We needed to go to Coyville which went straight. A young girl pulled up in a smart car and we asked her if she had seen a cyclist and she said no. We turned on to 105 which was hilly and went around the lake. Then a car came up behind us and beeped its horn. It was the same girl and she said I found your daughter in Coyville. I said bless you and thank you. We could have been hours looking for her but instead we only went 2 miles out of our way. We never asked this girl to do this. She just did it out of the kindness of her heart. We took a very short detour to go into Benedict to a convenience store. There was a sign on the door with a number to call because the guy was mowing. We had no cell service. It was like stepping back in time. He had an old radio playing. When we got there, we discovered we had lost the map. We could lose a lot of things but NOT the map. So we were trying to figure out when we looked at it last and thought it was probably 5 miles back. (10 miles round trip) Leah immediately offered to go back and look when two more cyclist rode up and the owner of the store walked up. We asked Quinn and Mike if they had seen a map and they had. Yay! And they said it wasn't too far back. The owner gave us free ice cream, something to drink and filled our water bottles with water and ice. Leah came back pretty quickly and had the map in hand. What a relief! Then the guy gave Leah another ice cream. When we got to Chanute, Kansas Leah was waiting for us at a convenience store. I was trying to call the contact to stay in the city park but they kept transferring my call. A gentleman came up and started talking to us. He was surprised to find out we were a family. He told us He is a pastor at a local church. Then he invited us to his home. Once again we had a bed, and air conditioning. We had a wonderful chicken meal with Tom and Terri Eastman. Then we are able to swim in their pool. How refreshing! Also another night with a shower! Later in the evening he made 3 minute ice cream. It was absolutely amazing! We had a nice time of fellowship before bed. Also we would like to say a big thank you to their daughter who let us park our bikes at her house because she lived in town. They then drove us to their house which was several miles out in the country which meant we didn't have to ride there. We went 44 miles.