Friday, August 29, 2014

Location: - Winfield KS Miles = 51, Ave MPH = 10.9 Cum. Miles = 2638

Tuesday August 26

Quote of the Day: "The definition of the sweetest water is best conjured up by the thirstiest man."

People in this part of the country often apologize for the taste of their water. I'll tell you what when you are out there in this heat it tastes sweet no matter what. It doesn't take any time to get hot as the air flows over the bottles in their cages. What works pretty well is iced tea - when it gets hot it tastes like well .... tea.


I wish I had taken photos of all the unusual mailboxes I have seen:


The village of Danville has about 20 homes and only 50% of them actually occupied but still a church and the required grain silos:




Pipeline installation just west of Argonia - one of the locals suggested it was for oil transport:


This is Terry a resident of Argonia and a Viet Nam Vet. Thanks for your donation Terry:


Terry took me on a tour of Argonia - this home is under restoration and was the home of the first female mayor in the US - Susanna Salter:



I'm starting to see more windmills that are still working to pump water - so many elsewhere are idle:



From Pueblo the roads have been very good - mostly smooth and with wide shoulders. From Wellington to Winfield that changed. The road was smooth, in fact it had just been resurfaced, however there was zero shoulder. This coupled with hills that hid me from the drivers and an incredible volume of traffic made the riding extremely dangerous. After seeing in my rear view mirror several driver's hoods dive down as they hit the brakes just as they popped over a hill and saw me, I was ready to look for an alternative. The alternative was this pickup driven by Kurt. Kurt was pulling out of a side road and I asked him for a ride to Winfield. Kurt was happy to help out and so I road about 10 miles in the bed of the truck with the bike. Thanks Kurt - I was scared to death!!


Interesting architecture in Winfield:


The building of the newspaper where I was interviewed:


Tomorrow I head south for a while to Arkansas City for another interview and them back to heading east.


About Soldiers Best Friend ..... If you have been following along you already know that I am trying to collect donations for the charity called Soldiers Best Friend. This is a charity that provides service dogs to Vets that are suffering from PTSD. These dogs can literally be life savers for these men and women.

My blog averages approximately 175 hits per day. I think that suggests folks are interested in the trip and hopefully are being informed and entertained. I am at the half-way point of the trip at 2151 miles. I consider this my job for the summer of 2014. I am putting in the the "blood, sweat, and gears" to steal a phrase - so would you consider a donation to this very worthy cause?

I've done the math for you .... My entire trip is going to be approximately 4200 miles long. Do you think you could donate $.006 per mile (like about slightly more than 1/2 cent per mile)?? If so then that would be a $25 dollar donation to SBF. Or better yet could you afford to donate at $.012 per mile (1.2 cents per mile) then that would be about a $50 donation. And so on ....  give what you can - I know this sounds like a Nation Public Radio fund drive but come on - what a worthy cause!!

Please follow the link below to donate and include my name - just "Neil" will do or "Neal" if you like that spelling better:):)


It's time folks please.......
  
And finally please remember the cause -   soldiersbestfriend.org  I will go into this in more detail and perhaps some level of haranguing later on, but for now here is the link .... and an additional link for donation   SoldiersBestFriend - Donate Please :):)   Oh and I would be a lot more comfortable if you use the "honorarium" option vs the "memoriam" option - you'll understand when you click on the link:):).   

As you donate please enter my name in the "In Honor of Spot" so the folks at SBF can tally the results to encourage me and let me know WE are getting something done TOGETHER. I recognize we are really trying to honor the Vets but this is the only way SBF can tally the results of this drive (tour).



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