Chanute

The night before we got into Chanute we stayed at the Crawford State Park.  We rode 72 miles that day!  A record!

The park was beautiful and we saw a stunning sunset and awoke to a sunrise that took our breaths away.  Sleeping with just the screen tent (pic below) lets us feel the breezes, see the stars, and open our eyes to the sunrise. 

 More rain kept us here by the lake for two nights.  The second night we had to put the "top" on the tent and it was hot and stuffy inside.  We woke up early the next day and headed into Chanute.  It was another great day of riding.  We hit a detour though:

Luckily getting around it wasn't too bad.  We just headed down the road 6 miles to Hwy 39 and headed West again.  My dad had called and said he was on his bike and headed our way to meet us.  I thought that was so sweet of him...  Especially since it was so hot out!  

Dad rides a recumbent too, but his is different than mine!  I rode his for awhile:

Wobbly!

Then a woman from The Chanute Tribune stopped on the side of the road to take our picture.  She asked if we were local and when we told her our story she told us she was a reporter and that she was very interested in doing something for the paper.  My parents dropped off a press release containing all the facts about our ride at the newspaper office and the article that appeared in the paper the following day was outstanding.  Accurate, informative, and inspiring.  I don't have a link to it yet though.

We followed my Dad to the Safari Park where we set up camp.  Camping is free there for two nights.

I like this picture very much.

Our campsite at the park was nice until this happened:

Yikes!  The sky got so dark and the lightening and thunder went on non-stop for hours and hours.  There was a Tornado Watch for awhile and they said we got 5 inches of rain. Ken, Simon and I braved it out and stayed nice and dry in our trusty tent.  It was AWESOME!

The next day we saw Heinz again!  We first met him in Golden City, MO and since Heinz goes about the same distance as we do each day we have shared several campsites and meals with him since then.  Heinz is from Germany and has ridden his bike all over the world.  He is great fun to be around and we really enjoy sharing a part of our adventure with him.  Here he is:

We all had a tasty dinner in Chanute.  Thanks Mom!