Pat & Maria's Bike Blog/2024 Border to Border for Cancer Researc

(and more!!)

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 24,2024 72° to 88°, Thursday, cloudy to sunny.

Final day of biking! 🚴💖🚴

Well, we did it⭐️😎⭐️‼️

The day started in Rocksprings and 42 miles later we were in Del Rio. It was a far warmer day than when we started this trip in Antler, North Dakota back on September 30.

As has been true with every day we have been in Texas, we had either a headwind, or a crosswind, or both! 😵

Maria led off again today and we alternated every 10 miles. About 25 miles north of Del Rio was a border patrol station. I was riding the bike while Maria was behind me in the car. I waved at the agents and they waved back and we continued towards Del Rio. Maria biked us in to Del Rio, and we stopped there to take pictures in front of the city limit sign. This was such a HUGE moment for both of us‼️ I think that moment was a combination of joy and relief that we had made it. 😃

We then journeyed to the United States/Mexican border for some additional pictures.

After that, we loaded the bike onto the car and headed north for the long trip back to Iowa.

As required, we stopped at the border patrol stop 25 miles north of Del Rio where we visited with Officer Hightower. He asked if we were out for a bike ride, and we told him, “Kinda.” 😁 We then told him it was a bike ride from Canada to Mexico and he congratulated us. He asked us if we had peddled past their station an hour or so ago, and we told him yes that was us. He said he had been in the building at the time and did a double take because he doesn’t see too many bikers come through this station. Maria wanted to take his picture but for security reasons he declined. She did not press the issue as being in the back of a police car once this trip was enough.🤣

We then headed to our overnight stop of Waco, Texas, which was a drive of approximately six hours. 🥱 It’s our plan to spend some time here Friday doing some sightseeing and then finishing our trip back to Iowa where we hope to be home sometime Saturday. As always, thanks for following along and for being so supportive of us (and so generous) on this border to border trip. ☺️



[46yearsonwheels]

I just donated to your bike ride, but is there anything else I can do to help support you? My daughter, currently in hospice care, had a very similar diagnosis (lung cancer in brain and spine) so I will do just about anything to help fight cancer. Please let me know.

Hello, and I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. She will be added to our prayers. I think what else you can do is spread the importance of awareness that if you’re having symptoms to get them checked out by your family doctor/ healthcare provider, and to support your representatives in congress who support cancer research , that is how newer treatments will be developed that actually work better than previous therapies. Thank you for your comment! 

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 23,2024, Wednesday

62° to 88° , mostly sunny ☀️

Our ride today started in the Ghost Town of Telegraph. Today, Pat led off as I was nervous about the terrain to start the day. The first 10 miles of today’s ride was treacherous as we had the steepest hills and sharpest curves of the entire ride. (but I was just as nervous watching him go around the steep curves without a shoulder… 😵) We BOTH were greatly relieved when he put those 10 miles in the rearview mirror. 🙏🏻 One of the benefits of this highway was that it is much less traveled, nevertheless, it was a relief to have it over with. 

Along the route today we had a scenic view overlook, and when we stopped there, we met a veteran of the Navy, Steve, who was taking a leisurely trip through Texas Hill country. It was a nice conversation and so glad we stopped, not only to view the scenery, but also visit with Steve.

One of the very good things that the state of Texas does is provide several historical markers along its highways. These markers often talk about former schools, cemeteries, first settlers, old trails, the beginnings of communities and counties, etc.

The town of Rocksprings, where we are spending the night, also has a number of historical markers around the community. One of the more interesting ones is the jail that is still on the courthouse grounds. It is no longer used as a jail, but had a unique feature in that it had a hanging room in the upper level with a trap door where executions were carried out.

Our dinner tonight was at the Jailhouse Grill & Bar. As you can see from the pictures, I took a picture of Pat standing and reading the information about the town, and in particular the jail so, if you’d like, you can read more from that picture. 

One of the things we have noticed the last couple of days is the number of monarch butterflies flying by. I’m guessing they are heading to their winter home in Mexico, and it is quite a sight to witness. Other sites included the fact that they raise prize goats here in the section of the country. However, the main industries here are ranching and hunting. In fact, the Historic Hotel of Rocksprings, where we are staying, has several full bodies of & animal heads that are from around this area, to include bobcats, waterfowl, different different types of deer and some exotic animals from other parts of the country.  I also took a video today while I was riding to give you a brief idea of what it’s like as we ride our bicycles. Also, Pat took a video of me at the end of our day, to again give you an idea of our life on the road as seen from a bicycle. 

We are now 45 miles from Del Rio and today we saw our first border patrol agents. It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be our final day of biking, and we should be at the border patrol station in Del Rio early afternoon. Thanks again for all your support and comments. We really do read each and every one of them and they have given us a huge amount of encouragement, thanks again! ☺️⭐️‼️



[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 22,2024, Tuesday

61° to 88° mostly sunny.

Eden to Telegraph, Texas☀️

We started our 70 mile ride today in Eden, which has its own Garden of Eden. 😃Maria offered me an apple from the Garden of Eden, but I declined, unlike Adam.

Our first pass through town was Menard and as we often do, we charged the battery in the lical library, while we had an early lunch. Across the street from the library was a beautiful butterfly garden, which today was also visited by hummingbirds. We assume the hummingbirds are on their migration to Central and South America, but certainly they were enjoying the flowers in this lovely garden in Menard.

Sandy is the librarian and was very welcoming to us both. I noted the sign with the dairy cows and its advice to “live like someone left the gate open!” it reminded me that we should all live with joy, sometimes unexpected! ☺️ With regards to Sandy, the librarian, we found that she had run several marathons, but now was training for her first ”ultramarathon.” She will be running that 100 mile race on Saturday. 😵👍🏼That is impressive at any age, but she is 63 and doing her first one. She has been training over a year.⭐️

We are now in Texas Hill country, a region we have been in before when we went across country east to west in 2015. When we reached Junction this afternoon, we left Highway 83 and began our southwest trek to Del Rio, our endpoint to this border to border ride.😎‼️ We have been on Highway 83 since North Dakota and could have taken Highway 83 all the way to the Mexican border at Laredo. Instead we opted to head south west towards Del Rio, as it is a smaller city and a little easier to navigate on a bicycle than Laredo. 🚴🚴

Our final stop today was in the ghost town of Telegraph. At one time, it had a population of 66, but the population now is three. The old post office is still standing and someone decorated it for Halloween, as you can see from the picture. The town got its name because trees were cut there to support communication lines to army forts east of town. It has been fascinating to read all of the historical markers along the roadways. We included a picture saying that there were rockslides. This was indeed, the case, as during a portion of the ride, the shoulder was littered with rocks of all sizes! Thankfully, nothing came tumbling down as I was riding along! I also stopped and took a picture of the road sign showing that Del Rio is only 122 miles away! That is hard to believe! Leslie, there’s a short video of me while I was awaiting that to catch up to me. Seeing a river with clear water was definitely picture worthy to me! 🤩Tomorrow morning we will start our ride in Telegraph and pedal 31 miles to Rocksprings, which is 76 miles from Del Rio. If all goes as planned, we should arrive in Del Rio Thursday afternoon. 😎 We are spending tonight and tomorrow night at the Historic Hotel in Rocksprings. We will take some pictures tomorrow to share with you. 

And one last thing, yes, we did have headwinds again today, 9-14 mph from the south.🙃

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct.21,2024 Monday, 61° to 85°

Abilene to Eden, Texas

Maria got it started again today and of course another day of headwinds. 🙃This section of Highway 83 is part of the Texas Fort Trail, as you can see from the sign/pictured, a 650 mile scenic byway that provides a glimpse into the many forts and outposts that were once situated in central Texas. Although we did not come across any of them along highway 83, we felt the history was interesting. From 1848 to 1900 the US Army built 44 major posts or temporary camps in Texas. Today these sites range from ruins to historically accurate reconstruction and in some cases nothing but an historical marker identifies their location.

The highlight of our day was our lunch stop and bike charging at the Carnegie Library in Ballinger, TX👍🏼 as we soon found out, this was one of several Carnegie libraries built in the early 20th century. The one in Ballinger was constructed in 1908 and is one of the few Carnegie libraries built back then that is still functioning as a library. We received a tour of the library from Beth and she and Erlinda, the head librarian, were kind enough to let us charge our bike and eat lunch in the library. Perhaps the most impressive part was the auditorium on the second floor, (Maria took a short video) which was used for plays and other events many years ago, and is still utilized today .

While we were there, we met Martha and Mary, two retired women from the Dallas area. Interestingly, they shared that they were doing geocaching, and we learned all about that hobby! We ended up exchanging emails and their “geocaching names.”😃They told us that national parks and trails were really good spots for tracking down the geocaching items. And it made me wonder if there were any in the Adel area. I think we might need to look into that when we get back. There is a picture of them showing us how the website works. Have any of you reading this ever done this hobby? Please fill us in if you have! 😃Also, while waiting for Pat to catch up, I stopped and explored the pull off area. I had seen pink flowers in the distance before, but never really knew what they were and was able to take a few pictures. This is called “ Upland cotton” but I did not see any of the white cottony puffs as I did in other cotton fields. 🤷🏻‍♀️

What I did see, for the first time were two different types of roadkill: of course I did not take a picture, but there was an armadillo and 2 feral/wild pigs! A bit creepy, and smelly, but unusual nonetheless! 😵We also came across an old courthouse that was built in the 1800s (see picture). It never ceases to amaze me how they constructed these huge buildings without the modern conveniences and equipment that we have today. 

We biked 81 miles today and tonight are in Eden, Texas. Though we have been in Texas for a week now, today is the first time we have seen any police officer. He was on the side of the road, probably looking for speeders. As I biked past him, I looked in the backseat and did not see Maria so went ahead and kept going. 🤣 We ended our ride at the Trail North Ranch, established in 1881. Quite a long time to be in one family, that’s for sure! If all goes well, we should be in Del Rio on Thursday. Hard to believe that our border to border ride is quickly coming to an end. But thanks for following along and to all of you who have donated to the cause.🥰‼️

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 20,2024, 61° to 83°,

sunny Sunday ☀️😎

As we were loading up the bike to start our day, a couple of fellow guests at the motel were curious about our E-bike and our journey across the country. One of them was a retired copper miner from Arizona. They were very friendly and we enjoyed our chat.

We needed to load up our bike because we had gone past our last overnight town and started midway at a rest stop along Highway 83 and learned a couple things. First we learned that Highway 83 is officially known as the Vietnam War Memorial highway, and second, where we stopped was the home of a town called Rath City. It grew pretty rapidly due to the international popularity of buffalo skins. But as so often happened in the west, as the buffalo herds were decimated , the hunters left to go elsewhere, and Rath City disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.

Maria was the leadoff rider today and did the first 10 miles of the trip. We had lunch in a town called Anson. Our lunch consisted again of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and vegetables. We used the courthouse steps as our eating spot as it was shady and quiet. 

It was a light wind this morning, that gradually increased as the day wore on and the temperatures rose as well, climbing into the 80’s.

As you can see from one of the pictures, we noticed some pear cactus today, along with some solar panels, which makes sense given the number of sunny days in this part of Texas. 😎☀️

Navigating a bicycle around a big city, such as Abilene, population 125,000, is always a challenge. We completed our 53 mile ride today south of Abilene. Though it was not one of our longest rides, the heat and heavy traffic took its toll on us and we were certainly glad when the ride was over. I know many of you have noted that we are always smiling. Obviously, Maria was not in a smiling mood, but she asked me to take a picture because this was her reality today as she finished up. 😃🤪

We then checked into our hotel, cleaned up from the day and ordered dinner online. Pat graciously drove to get it and we ate it in our room. Then we left to attend mass in Abilene, which was a bilingual mass at St. Vincent’s parish. We were impressed by the number of people there and how warm and friendly they were.

Tomorrow our goal is Bellinger after a good night’s rest, which is what we need tonight! 🥱

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 19, 2024, Saturday, 60° to 84° cloudy with sunshine later. 

Our evening last night was uneventful at the Hunters Lodge: there were no ghosts or haunted, creaky sounds noted and we had a great night sleep! 😌 it was cloudy and warmer today than other mornings, but the familiar headwind continued… 💨💨

The surface also improved after the first 12 miles and it was smooth sailing at least from a shoulder perspective,until we pedaled into Aspermont this evening. We again alternated biking and riding in the car with each of us doing a 10 to 15 mile stretch. Since I know many of you following along are “foodies,” you’ll be happy to know that we are still having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches almost daily for our lunch.😄 I will admit, I do miss riding both of our bikes along the same route with Pat, as we were able to experience the landscape and other interesting sites together, I feel we continue to make the best of the situation since my bike was sent home last week. 😎 I continue to be amazed and humbled by the number of donations to the American Cancer Society Cancer action Network, that we continue to receive. Our total is nearly $7,000‼️🤩🤩

A few nights ago, my cousin Ed, from Kansas, was having trouble with the link & messaged me. I then sent him a copy of the QR code to use and he said that works great. So I am including that in our pictures today if you have had difficulty with the link that I’ve shared previously.

🚴As I bike along, my thoughts often go to this cancer journey that I’ve been on with my amazing family & wonderful friends ☺️….. I have met so many amazing people and have been touched by the kindness, support and prayers of each and every one of you. It is appreciated more than you know. 🥰 so thanks everyone ‼️

We started our ride today at a church called Midway, a name it it got because it’s halfway between Paducah and Guthrie.

Paducah, Texas was named after the Paducah, Kentucky (where there happens to be a famous quilt shop ). An early settler told the town leaders he would give his land to them if they named it Paducah. They accepted his offer, perhaps the first naming rights deal in America. Professional sports teams now sell naming rights for their stadiums (stadia)and arenas so Paducah, Texas was way ahead of its time. 😉

Our first pass-through town was Guthrie, an unincorporated town of about 160 people. However, for such a small town, they had quite a school gymnasium complex. We were able to take a break and plug the bike in at an outdoor plug-in, which was helpful. Across the highway there was a championship calf roping contest, according to the website, but it did not start while we were waiting. Had it been a real Texas rodeo, I (Maria) would’ve had a hard time moving on as I would’ve found it fun to watch. 

Another unique aspect of Guthrie is that almost none of the residents own their houses . Rather it is a “company town” with two large ranches plus the school district providing the housing. Another interesting thing that we saw were the different “brands” that the rancher used to identify their cattle carved into an underpass, along with a small pond of water. This is the first water we’ve seen as most of the rivers have been dry. Today we also passed over the Salt Fork of the Brazos River which lived up to its name: as you can see from the picture, there’s nothing left of that river, other than salt deposits. 😵

Despite the headwinds, wehad a 59 mile ride today, putting us about 280 miles from Del Rio, our final destination. Hard to believe that we should be getting to the Mexican border in less than a week from now!!  thanks for following along and your support of ACSCAN 👍🏼☀️‼️

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 18,2024 Friday, 57° to 82° and cloudy all day.

A rinse and repeat day of hills, headwind, and rough road surface. Today was a bit unusual in that I decided I would start bicycling first thing in the morning. I biked about 15 miles and then turned it over to Pat.

After I had dropped him off, I noticed the TNT two for one deal off the side of the road. , as most of you know, most people sell “fireworks “however, apparently in Texas they do things big here and they sell TNT to blow up a mountain or something. 😱😄We exited the Texas Panhandle today, but the scenery did not change much as we moved into SE Texas. I agree with Pat in that perhaps there were more trees and little more cotton growing, but still lots of sagebrush , cattle grazing, and not much green. The ground is more red here in this part of the state as well.We also saw a lot of mesquite trees.

Another interesting thing we both noticed is that we have crossed over several rivers and creeks in Texas, and almost none of them have any water in them. It has been dry here, which is typical, and not much rain in the forecast.

Another interesting item was that they use natural materials (tree branches), to use for fencing, as the picture shows.

We had lunch today in Paducah at the Crossroads Café. As is typical when strangers enter a small town restaurant, we got plenty of stares and looks. One thing we have noticed the last couple days is that gravy seems to be served with most meals.

We biked 61 miles today and are now about 100 miles north of Abilene and should get there on Sunday.

As you can see from the video, we are staying in an older hotel, that I thought seemed like it could be haunted! 😵🫣Maybe it’s their decorations, or the time of season, but I’m hoping we have a quiet night tonight! As we were both quite tired from the headwind rides today, we thought we should have a little happy hour, which was great with Coronas and Doritos! We are living large here in Texas! 😂Since we had lunch on the road while we charged the battery, our evening meal consisted of famous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some fruit and veggies , and cookies for dessert. We are so grateful for this time together and we are really working as a team ✅to make this Border to Border ride happen! Our route continues to take us mostly south, but in a few days, we will make a turn to the west to get to Del Rio, which is our endpoint. Thanks again for following along! 🚴😎🚴

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 17,2024, Thursday

42° to 77° & ☀️☀️ 💨 💨

We started the day with breakfast in the motel, and I had a waffle in the shape of the state of Texas, it was a surprise, but kind of fun. I will admit I’ve never seen a waffle at a hotel in the shape of a state before, so I thought it was picture worthy. When we checked in to the hotel last evening, as you can see from the picture, there is caution tape on the door and a sign telling us that we were NOT to enter….😵😱

So…… what was going on? Was this a crime scene? Remodeling? The aftermath of a party gone terribly wrong?? Let us know your thoughts 🫣

OK, back to today….Today’s biking conditions were very difficult. The road surface from time to time was very rough, as you can see from the picture. It was if they asphalted it, and then decided to throw pebbles on top of that, 😝it made no sense whatsoever to us either from a biking perspective or even a driving perspective. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Once again, we had a strong headwind most of the day, gusting between 17 and 25 mph straight out of the south. And if that wasn’t enough, the Texas Panhandle presented us a number of hills to climb.

Texas does have some nice rest stop along Highway 83, and we took a picture of one of the statues in this park, which was formerly a hunting ground for indigenous peoples. There were also a few stops that we noted some beautiful fall flowers growing along the roadside. 😎

We stopped at the library in Wellington, and did some reading while we charged the battery for the final leg of the trip. It was our plan to make it to Childress, Texas but we finished about 15 miles shy of Childress so tomorrow we will backtrack and ride that 15 miles before we head for Paducah, Texas. It’s hard to believe that we have less than 400 miles before we reach our endpoint, Del Rio, Texas‼️

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 16,2025 37° to 68° 😎

Perrington to Wheeler, Texas.

We got an early, and very chilly, start today, right around 8 AM. The reason for this, was that it was to be a windy day and we wanted to get a start before the winds got too strong. We are in the Texas panhandle, an area of the state known for its dry landscape, extreme temperatures and wind. It is mostly treeless and its main “crops” seem to be gas and oil. We did see some cattle grazing but generally the landscape is sagebrush.

As usual, Maria found a way to take a video of the cattle galloping along. 😃 🐄 They seem very curious and stare at us from behind the fences as we bike along.

It was a windy day with winds out of the south, meaning a headwind for us. 😵 We did manage a 72 mile ride and tonight are in Wheeler. Once again, we alternated biking every 10 to 12 miles, but after lunch, the terrain became quite a bit more hilly. 

Lunch today was in Canadian, TX, named after the Canadian River that runs through town. We decided to eat a restaurant called The Boot. Although we had packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, after four days of eating that for lunch, we decided to mix it up a bit.

You just never know when it’s gonna get wild and crazy for Pat & myself on this cross country journey!🚴🚴🤣 Now I realize that “wild and crazy” has different definitions for SOME of you, but this is what it was for us today‼️

We charged our bike battery as we ate, which always seems to work well. It was a cute Mom and Pop type place and our waitress graciously took our picture. ☺️

It was a really good idea that we charged the battery, as we needed every bit of boost to finish the ride.

Wind is predicted to be strong and gusty over the next few days, all from the south.

I (Maria) will admit that I felt pretty exhausted after today’s ride, but thankfully, as usual after a shower and some food, everything seems better. 😊We are planning on getting to bed early tonight, however.

Lastly, while waiting in the car as Pat rode along, I had time to do some thank yous for the donations on the ACSCAN donation website. I am so humbled and appreciative of all of you who have been so generous to this cause, words hardly seem adequate.🥰

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 15, 2024, 47° to 70°☀️

Garden City, KS to Perryton, TX

This was our third 100+ mile day of this ride as we biked through 3 states‼️ We left Kansas in the morning, got to Oklahoma early afternoon then arrived at the Texas border just after 5 PM 😵 With a strong tailwind, we thought we had a chance to make it to Texas, though it took us until 5:45 to get here to Perryton, TX.

Highway 83 in this section of Kansas was the Santa Fe Trail back in the 1800s, so an important part of American history. Most of the harvest in Kansas appears to be completed, but we did see two new crops, cotton and sorghum. Cotton surprised us as we did not know that was grown in Kansas. After talking to my mom on the phone today, she reminded me that both my grandmother and great grandmother picked cotton in Kansas in their youth. At that point in time, all of this was done by hand and they had to pull heavy bags stuffed full of cotton behind them down each row. It was tough because the cotton is surrounded by sharp thorny leaves, so thankfully the commercial machines these days are much more efficient. My dad worked for John Deere for 28 years and I recall him talking about trying out the different cotton picking machines that were made. He also used to visit with farmers that were using the machines to ensure that they were working properly. 

There were times today when the wind was so strong it was blowing the cotton across the road and tumbleweeds as well.

Before leaving Kansas, we came up on this facility with the big white globe on top and were not sure exactly what it was. So if one of you out there knows what it is, please fill us in! ✅There were a couple trucks there, but the gates were locked, and there was no identification as to what it was.

We got to Liberal, Kansas this afternoon, a city known for its Wizard of Oz museum. We did not have time to tour the museum, but did take some pictures with the Tin Man and Dorothy‘s house plus Toto’s dog park. We purchased a children’s book of the story of the Wizard of Oz to share with our grandchildren when we get back💖. In addition, Pat‘s sister Becky is a huge Wizard of Oz fan and we knew we could not pass up at least stopping for a few pictures as you can see. ☺️‼️

Next up was Oklahoma as we peddled through the panhandle part of the state. Oklahoma seems to embrace wind energy here as we saw 100’s of wind turbine after win turbines. It was only a 35 mile stretch through Oklahoma before we entered Texas. On our first cross country bike ride nine years ago, we traversed Texas from east to west and of course, this time from north to south. It is one huge state and we will be here for the next week and a half. In fact, 40% of our ride is in this state .

Tonight we will experience our first frost of the fall as a freeze warning is in place for Perrington.

It was a great day and we both loved zooming along the smooth shoulders, even getting as high as 30 miles an hour going downhill, but 20 miles + mph on the straightaway. We’re grateful that we didn’t have any bicycle mechanical issues. We are also SO grateful for the multiple donations that several of you made to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network site. We have topped $5,000 at this point 😃and, once again, we are incredibly grateful for your generosity. 🙏🏻🥰

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 15, 2024, 47° to 70°☀️

Garden City, KS to Perryton, TX

This was our third 100+ mile day of this ride as we biked through 3 states‼️ We left Kansas in the morning, got to Oklahoma early afternoon then arrived at the Texas border just after 5 PM 😵 With a strong tailwind, we thought we had a chance to make it to Texas, though it took us until 5:45 to get here to Perryton, TX.

Highway 83 in this section of Kansas was the Santa Fe Trail back in the 1800s, so an important part of American history. Most of the harvest in Kansas appears to be completed, but we did see two new crops, cotton and sorghum. Cotton surprised us as we did not know that was grown in Kansas. After talking to my mom on the phone today, she reminded me that both my grandmother and great grandmother picked cotton in Kansas in their youth. At that point in time, all of this was done by hand and they had to pull heavy bags stuffed full of cotton behind them down each row. It was tough because the cotton is surrounded by sharp thorny leaves, so thankfully the commercial machines these days are much more efficient. My dad worked for John Deere for 28 years and I recall him talking about trying out the different cotton picking machines that were made. He also used to visit with farmers that were using the machines to ensure that they were working properly. 

There were times today when the wind was so strong it was blowing the cotton across the road and tumbleweeds as well.

Before leaving Kansas, we came up on this facility with the big white globe on top and were not sure exactly what it was. So if one of you out there knows what it is, please fill us in! ✅There were a couple trucks there, but the gates were locked, and there was no identification as to what it was.

We got to Liberal, Kansas this afternoon, a city known for its Wizard of Oz museum. We did not have time to tour the museum, but did take some pictures with the Tin Man and Dorothy‘s house plus Toto’s dog park. We purchased a children’s book of the story of the Wizard of Oz to share with our grandchildren when we get back💖. In addition, Pat‘s sister Becky is a huge Wizard of Oz fan and we knew we could not pass up at least stopping for a few pictures as you can see. ☺️‼️

Next up was Oklahoma as we peddled through the panhandle part of the state. Oklahoma seems to embrace wind energy here as we saw 100’s of wind turbine after win turbines. It was only a 35 mile stretch through Oklahoma before we entered Texas. On our first cross country bike ride nine years ago, we traversed Texas from east to west and of course, this time from north to south. It is one huge state and we will be here for the next week and a half. In fact, 40% of our ride is in this state .

Tonight we will experience our first frost of the fall as a freeze warning is in place for Perrington.

It was a great day and we both loved zooming along the smooth shoulders, even getting as high as 30 miles an hour going downhill, but 20 miles + mph on the straightaway. We’re grateful that we didn’t have any bicycle mechanical issues. We are also SO grateful for the multiple donations that several of you made to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network site. We have topped $5,000 at this point 😃and, once again, we are incredibly grateful for your generosity. 🙏🏻🥰

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 14, 2024, 37° to 70°

Scott City to Garden City, Kansas

Happy Monday to all! ☀️Today marks our third week of bicycling toward the Mexican border and we appreciate all of you following along.💖 It’s still unbelievable to me that we are halfway done with this border to border ride! We have raised almost $5,000 for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network☺️ and I truly appreciate all of you who have taken the time to donate to this worthy cause ‼️🥰

I will again post the link for donations at the end of this post for those of you have not yet had the chance to donate. 

Today was a windy & chilly 41 mile ride into a 15 mph headwind the entire trip. 😳 We also encountered road construction, so today was one of the more difficult rides thus far.

Because of the headwind each of us would ride about 10 to 12 miles and then let the other take over. We got into Garden City, our overnight town, around noon and ate our standard lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and red peppers & fruit at a local gas station parking lot. Restrooms along the way are always a great addition to have!We did ride a few miles after lunch to get a little closer to our destination tomorrow of Liberal, Kansas. 👍🏼 After that we did laundry, which was handy at our hotel. We then had a wonderful dinner and evening with Maria‘s cousin Jackie, and her husband Shawn. They drove three hours here from Wichita. 💞We had talked about them meeting us here in Garden City, back at our annual Meyer reunion in August and we’re thrilled that it all worked out! 🥰An added bonus was that Jackie had thought that since they had access to a great bike shop in Wichita, they wanted to bring us not only an extra tire, but an additional tube as well‼️⭐️⭐️

It was SO of thoughtful of them and we had a fun evening together!

Hopefully we will not encounter another flat tire, but if we do, we are now well prepared thanks to them.😄

So far the boot patch that Ethan, our fix-it friend in Nebraska, did for us is holding up.⭐️

Tomorrow we are supposed to have a tailwind so we are hopeful that we can make it into Liberal, KS, the home of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. 👠 👠 

Here is the link for those of you who would like to donate😊

https://acscan.donordrive.com/participant/mariaandpatsteele



[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 13, Sunday, 48° to 70° 

Oberlin, KS - Scott City, KS

We got off to an early start today as we planned to do a very long ride. As you can see, we had a beautiful sunrise to greet us! And, it ended up to be what we were hoping, a whopping 107 mile ride, to be exact‼️😎

The first order of the day was to attend mass, which we did in a small unincorporated town called Leoville. The town was founded by German Catholics back in the , 19th century, and one of the first things the early settlers did was to build a Catholic Church. The first church was destroyed by fire and the church you see in the pictures was built back in 1895 and completed in one year.

After 8 o’clock mass, Pat took off around 9:30 under clear skies and a wonderful tailwind of 10 to 15 mph. Thus, he made very good time. ⭐️There were not many pass through towns so we had lunch in the car (the last of our peanut butter and jelly supplies), and then Maria resumed our journey south.

One of the more interesting towns we saw today was Oakley, the home of the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center. Unfortunately, it was closed, but there were some display boards giving information about Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley. Buffalo Bill was actually born in Iowa, but spent his youth in Kansas. We always knew Annie Oakley was a gifted shooter, but had NO idea she was also a bicyclist because she loved the outdoors.‼️🚴☀️

As we cycled through Kansas today, harvesting was going on, and some of it already completed. Maria shared a few videos about oil, drilling, and agriculture and is hoping to hear from her more knowledgeable Kansas cousins with regards to what was going on. 

We finished our ride about 5:30 and are now back on track with our schedule. Though we would prefer riding together, tag team riding has helped us move much faster.

If all goes well, we should exit Kansas sometime on Tuesday and move through the panhandle of Oklahoma and then Texas that day.

For those of you wondering, after a flat tire yesterday, the “boot patch “ held up GREAT today and we hope that continues.

Lastly, for those of you wondering, it has been enjoyable for us to listen to music as we bike along, typically the oldies for me, and occasionally baseball for Pat, depending on the time of

day😎. Until next time… 🎃

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 12, 47° to 79°

North Platte, NE to Oberlin, KS

It was another day of highs and lows, but all ended well. Starting out this morning we were about 45 miles from the Kansas border. Pat started the morning ride as he typically does and completed 29 miles before we stopped for lunch in McCook, Nebraska. We were able to find a roadside park and it was nice overlooking a little pond and playground.

Maria then took over and did the honors of getting us into Kansas, the home of her ancestors, as both her parents and grandparents are from the NE corner of Kansas.

Just a few miles across the Kansas border, I was greeted by the largest number of cattle in one spot that I have ever seen in my life. I decided to do a quick video which is included in the post. I then completed my days ride in Oberlin, Kansas after 30 miles. Pat found a great hotel for us to stay in and then he took over to get some additional miles in for the day. 

He had planned to ride another 20 miles, but once again the dreaded flat back tire occurred at 2:30. 😵🤬 He came to a spot on the shoulder that was filled with glass and was unable to avoid it due to a narrow shoulder and traffic coming up behind them. The glass punctured not only the tube, but the tire as well.

We obviously did not have a spare tire so we scrambled to see if there was a bike shop open where we could get it fixed. Fortunately in McCook, there was a fix-it shop that was still open until 5 PM . We called and the owner said if we got the bike there before 5:00, he would be happy to fix it. 🙏🏻⭐️‼️

The name of the shop was Tinker Tom’s, and not only did they fix bikes, they fixed a variety of small appliances - things from vacuum cleaners to lamps and other small appliances. Those of you old enough to remember the Andy Griffith show, may recall a character named Emmett who ran a fix it shop. Tinker Tom’s shop reminded us of this. The name of the owner is Ethan and actually it was his father Tom, who started the shop and he has carried on the tradition. 😄

He did not have a tire that would work for my bike but did say he would be able to patch the tire with a “boot” patch. He indicated that this was temporary, and didn’t know how long it might work, but it was our only option. It took him about 30 minutes to get everything done and then we were on our way back to our overnight town of Oberlin, Kansas, 27 miles away.

The only dining spot open was a place called Re-Load which is a typical small town bar/restaurant. It so happened the Trinidad College (Colorado) volleyball team was there eating and celebrating a birthday. The coach of the team came by and asked if we wanted some of the birthday cake and we gladly accepted. Never did we expect to be eating birthday cake with a college volleyball team in Kansas on a Saturday night. The other shocker was that they had draft beer for only $2.50 a glass! 🍺

Tomorrow we hope to do a long ride, weather ☀️and bike 🚴 permitting, and Monday pick up a spare tire in Garden City. 🙏🏻



[46yearsonwheels]

Oct. 12, Thedford, NE to 30 miles north of McCook, 57 to 76° today. 

It was an epic day of bicycling today as we peddled a total of 100 miles. ⭐️⭐️‼️We started the day in Thedford and ended it about 30 miles north of McCook. The reason we could do 100 miles was a tailwind all day long, 10 to 15 mph!! The picture of the flag says it all! Also, south of North Platte, we came across a preschool that had an art installation with giant 🖍️!

Our granddaughter, Penelope, really enjoyed it when we sent it to them ☺️ it’s fun finding things that you know others will enjoy. This was just one example. 💝For the most part, the shoulders were good to ride on, but we did have some construction we had to maneuver around south of North Platte. Once we were able to bike around the construction cones, the shoulder had been recently asphalted, and it was silky smooth!😃👍🏼

We enjoyed biking in the sandhills as they are a unique geographical feature. With us splitting the biking, one of us will drive either staying behind or just ahead of the person who is biking. Maria was able to go to a scenic overlook to take some great pictures of this unique area!

Also, while Maria was waiting for me alongside the road, a state trooper stopped by to see if she was okay. (I didn’t even notice that he pulled up behind me with his lights on as I was researching small motorhomes😎 as one would have been perfect for this trip we are on‼️)That was a nice gesture on his part and Maria took the time to get a picture with Officer Justin. (he wanted to make sure he got his car in the picture)😁

We opted to do the 100 miles today to try and make up some of the time we lost earlier this week with our bike mechanical issues. This is something we will try to do over the next few days to get back on schedule. It looks like we will have a tailwind again tomorrow☀️🙏🏻😎‼️whoo Hoo‼️

We will exit Nebraska in the afternoon and head in to Kansas. So that will be three states completed and three states to go. However, 40% of our rides will be in Texas, ending in Del Rio, which is on the Mexican / United States border.

We have been told by a couple people that route 83 is a popular cycling route. To date, we have not seen any other cyclist on this route, but perhaps more people bike this highway in the summer. We had considered doing it then, but chose not to because we thought the heat, particularly in Texas, would be oppressive. 🥹Doing this route in the fall seems the best time as the days have been warm, but not too hot and not much rain so far.

To celebrate our century ride today, we went to a brewery recommended by Pat sister, Jane, called Pal’s Brewery, which was a great recommendation! ❤️

The pizza and beer were great and once back in our hotel room, we ended our day with ice cream and baseball! Pat picked out two different kinds and you’ll have to guess who picked which treat!😃

Thanks again for following along! 😎

[46yearsonwheels]

Oct 10, Thurs. with temps today 47°.- 86° 😎

We are in the Nebraska Sandhills, a unique part of the state. There are no towns between Valentine where we started and Thedford our destination.

Pat started off on the bicycle at 8:15, and I headed to the grocery store in town to get some groceries to make everyone’s favorite, peanut butter and jelly, along with some other snacks.  I also packed plenty of ice water since we knew it was going to get quite hot today, and again, no places to stop along the entire route today. As you can see from the picture, I made sandwiches in our Valentine motel room. 😁

The first part of the ride for Pat was cool with almost no wind. However, by late morning, the winds increased and the temperature rose. The shoulders of the road were very bumpy so when traffic permitted we rode in the car lane, switching back to the shoulder when a car came.

We stopped for lunch near a ranch house. As we finished lunch, a couple stopped by and we chatted with them a little bit. Their family actually has been in the Sandhills since the 1880s and the family’s first house was made of sod. There was evidence of an older house, close to the road, but then their newer house was set back from the road. Like most homes, they were few and far between. It is difficult jfor us to imagine not having neighbors close by, and being so isolated. 

There’s almost no crop agriculture in the Sandhills, but lots and lots of cattle as the grass here is good for grazing.

We passed an historical marker today that outlined an early settlement here of an African-American community. The historical marker is quite interesting!

However, with the soil not able to support crop agriculture, as it is so sandy, the many people left after just a few years. The population here remains pretty low. For example, Thedford where we are staying tonight, is the county seat with a population of 230.

We rode a total of 65 miles today and tomorrow we head to North Platte.