"Amphibicide" Turtle and Frog massacre from Topeka to St. Joe

Day 26
Topeka KS to St. Joesph MO.
85 miles, slight crosswind.

Today started out wet. Last night when we arrived to the hotel the thunder and lightening started and the rains came down. We continued to have thunderstorms throughout the night and when we started the ride this morning we has warm wet roads. The rivers were running high and were full of debris and all the ponds were full or over flowing. St. Joseph was getting rain at the rate of 1" per hour for a few hours.
I suspect that this is what sent the turtles and frogs into some sort of party mode...the road was full of victims of the over celebration that our amphibian friends were having. You know how it is, a celebration starts and then there are always those that don't know when to say when. The turtles and frogs that over indulged last night paid dearly, the death toll was 38 turtles and 147 frogs due to partying outside the ponds and into the road. Frogs shouldn't let Frogs hop drunk.

OK, the ride...besides being wet early and dodging lifeless turtles and frogs the ride was really uneventful today with the possible exception of my rear tire blowout. Very early in the ride we had a very bad section of road and I hit something, not sure what, and my tire blew. When we checked th tube we found a wide horizontal slice in the tube and then found that the tire was sliced full width across the crown as well. I have never sliced a tire like this but was able to replace the tube and I used a tire boot to make the tire safe for a short ride until I could get to the SAG truck. At the sag truck I replaced the tire and continued on. This set us behind the group by about 30 minutes but Dave, Adrianne & Penny waited until we could continue on together...good ride mates.

We're not in Kansas anymore:

Hello Missouri, we crossed another state line today. Every time we cross a state line we sprinkle some Pacific Ocean sand at the base of the state sign, this is to keep us out of bad weather, I think we need a new ritual.

The weather when we were getting closer to St Joe started heating up, 93* with high humidity, being from Portland I can handle the rain but I don't think I will ever fond of being hot and wet when it isn't raining. The air is just "thick" and it looks like it will be hot for the next week.

So, I'm backing up a couple days to Abilene..I ment to include this quick story. Above is Country Mart, I went in to buy a new book and was sent back in time to the good old days at Kienows in Portland. The cashiers were talking with all the customers and they knew them by name and the customers were helped to their cars with their groceries. This "home town" store had a great feel and it really brought back great memories. I rode across the street to grab a quick lunch at McDonalds and was shocked by what happened.
I walked up to the counter with my helmet in my hand and the first thing that the young lady said to me was "Hi, you must be hot riding your bike, would you like a glass of ice water while you brouse the menu?" I was shocked and delighted. As much as I hated the winds of Kansas, little things like this from these friendly people make the ride memorable.

Russ from Lake Oswego Oregon joined the ride today and will ride to Boston, it is nice to have another Oregonian along.

Tomorrow we ride to Chillicothe MO.

Dream Big, Jeff