Rush Center to Nickerson, Kan. - July 18

It is really hot here. When we finally arrived in Nickerson, the temperature was 102 degrees, at about 2:30. We had ridden 91 miles to get here, and at the 82-mile mark, dad lay under a tree and said, "I'm done. I just don't have any juice left."

The riding itself wasn't actually that hard once we got past a 19-mile stretch right away that was straight into the south wind. The wind actually later took on a south-westerly inclination, allowing us to cruise along at 15-18 mph. But the heat was slowly draining us.

Plus, we had a nearly 60-mile stretch without any services. I packed three 32-ounce Gatorades into my packs, filled both my bottles and even had another Gatorade bottle full of water for the trip.

Dad wasn't drinking as much Gatorade and that may have been why he conked out. When we were under the tree, we could have either gone off route about two miles to one town to stay, or gone ahead, on route, to another town nine miles away.

What do you think we did?

Well, I was in favor of going farther, but dad was against it -- at least until the owner of the tree we were under came out with a pitcher of cold water for us. That seemed to do the trick, and we went ahead.

We're staying at a nice town park.

Tomorrow we will have about 50 miles to Newton where we'll be staying with some friends of mine from EMU. We're ready for a short day that will avoid the riding in the afternoon heat.