Going from Seneca to Washington Kansas. Another long day- 76 miles and 2700 ft elevation gain. Fortunately we had a bit of a tailwind so not too bad. Plus it was cloudy for most of the day, so nice relatively cool weather for riding. What a thunderstorm we had last night! Wow- impressive. Very gusty winds and a lot of thunder and lightning lasting an incredibly long time. I’m used to thunderstorms in Virginia which last 10-15 minutes. This was HOURS of nonstop lightning and loud thunder, much of it uncomfortably close by. As the rain was pelting my tent and the wind gusts blowing it this way and that I was thinking of what I was going to do if the rain fly was ripped off, or massive hail tearing holes in it. I guess I would have fled to the covered pavilion nearby…. But fortunately the tent held up nicely and kept me nice and dry, but I didn’t get much sleep! In the morning fortunately the rain stopped and when we headed out around 8 AM it was not raining, cool and cloudy with a nice Easterly wind to blow us along our route. We stopped in Frankfort for lunch and another rest stop in Blue Rapids. The towns were all fairly unpopulated- where is everybody?? No real cafes to get some coffee, or diners to get a sandwich- we are relegated to stopping at a Sinclairs gas station that has a small store with drinks, snacks, etc, or a Caseys which is much the same thing. Folks will stock up on Gatorade or some munchies/candy to eat during the rest of the day. Certainly beautiful wide open spaces with large farms, massive grain/feed storage tanks. There was a bit more traffic on the road today, being Monday, but cars and trucks for the most part give us wide clearance when they pass, as there was usually no shoulder for us to ride on today. We are staying tonight at the City Park campground in Washington, which is basically a public park. We fortunately have access to the showers attached to the public pool which doesn’t open until Memorial Day weekend. There is an odd looking concrete bunker nearby which is a tornado shelter. In the event of a tornado warning, a siren will sound and we are all supposed to go there for shelter.
Here are the RidewithGPS stats:
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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