There have not been too many historical place to stop - biggest attraction was a sign that said you could stop and see wagon wheel ruts from wagons that used the Santa Fe Trail. I didn't stop - I mean you see one wagon wheel rut; you have seen them all!
One interesting point is that all along the roads you see signs for Christian Churches that are in the middle of nowhere. On yesterday's ride I probably passed 10 such signs.It is hard to image where the worshipers come from. We are taking miles away from even the small towns. A lot of the signs point to churches 5-10 miles down long dirt roads. Mostly Baptist with some Methodist's denominations.
From Sterling we made it to Hillsboro, Ks about a 69 mile ride. We stayed at Tabor College a Mennonite College in a Mennonite community. Tabor College has about 700 students and the campus is very nice.
What amazes me is that Tabor (along with Sterling) offer about 15-20 different majors. Ranging from Business Admin to Bible Studies to Pre-med and Pre-law. Not sure how they do this given the school population. Got to believe that there are only 10-15 people in each of the sections. One of the riders on the trip said his daughter went to a similar school and that 85% of the Pre-Med students get admission into med school.
They also have ever imaginable sport and it appears that every student plays two or three sports.
Of course these schools still have men and women only dorms and no liquor or cigarettes are allowed on campus. In the case of the Mennonites they are supposed to dress very plainly - but a lot of the kids had tattoos in not so obvious places.
From Hillsboro we rode to Council Grove KS - a 65 mile ride. The weather was nice and we all left early to beat the heat. It is a rest day on Sunday so a lot of us tried to book hotels - but the town only has two hotels and they were both booked. Some of us asked to be put on a waiting list and luckily there were two cancellations. So I am in one room and three guys from Vancouver are sharing another room.
Now this is not the Park Plaza Hotel. Not even the Hilton. Or not even the Best Western. We are talking rustic with a capital R. Cost per night $45.
When I rode up to the hotel the first thing I did was call the other hotel in town to see if any vacancies had developed. Seriously thought about going back and camping for the two nights in town. I checked Trip Adviser and the hotel got panned for being old and dirty. One guy wrote "saw the place and decided to drive the entire night to get home".
But as luck would have it, a new owner took over the place five weeks ago and she owns a small bed and breakfast in town and is in the process of renovating the property. While my room was not redone - it was clean and the shower was hot! And the owner (Linda) went out of her way to help us.
Case in point - At about 5 pm a huge storm came roaring into town and dumped a inch of rain. As we were on our bikes (and the hotel is about a mile out of town) we were stuck at the hotel and faced with the reality that we would have to forgo dinner and a trip to the beer store. Linda then offered us the use of her car - gratis.
With that we were able to get to town and have dinner at the Hays a tavern that was first opened in the late 1800's. Kt Carson ate there (we think).
Food was good and the beer was better. All during dinner we thanked our lucky stars that we were not camping. With an inch of rain, thunder and lightning it could only have been a horrible way to spend the night.
We are on own on in Council Grove, KS today. Day started off with breakfast at the Senor Citizen Center. As with all our other stops the local community comes out and really gives the Santa Fe riders a big welcome.
Unfortunately most of the museums, stores and food establishments are closed today (Sunday). Luckily the laundromat is open and I got to believe most of the crew will be trying to sort out from the downpour.
Tomorrow is our last long ride - 84 miles. Heat wave is supposed to break with temps in the 70's. That would be nice.
Heading to Baldwin City, KS.
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