Day 22 in the Big Brother House

ok, well Kansas actually. Lovely, flat Kansas. Flat, flat, flat , flat , flat. And a bit wet. And not that hot. Which is all good. America is still having unseasonal weather so Portland, where I should be meeting Alex, was 102 degrees yesterday, Denver, where I'm meeting mum and dad was 59 (bring a jumper!! I think it was 72 today though) and it's still in the early 80s in Kansas, which is great as far as I'm concerned. It seems the Americans are as obsessed about the weather as much as the Brits. If you go in a cafe with a TV they nearly always have The Weather Channel on.
I wasn't so happy with the weather when I was crossing a relatively high bit of Kansas yesterday during a thunderstorm. Me on my bike was the highest thing for miles and there was nowhere to take cover, so I just carried on, thinking I was going to get hit by lightening, which obviously i wasn't, which was a relief. I ended up sat on the porch or some church for half an hour then when i set off, discovered a cafe 100 yards up the road.
After that, the sun came out and it was gorgeous. Massive prairie, lots of cows, big, big sky and nothing else. It was fab. I like this end of Kansas. Got to the city park in Cassoday and found Chris and Chris again who had had a late start so hadn't made it any further. Sat around eating pizza with them for a while before we set up camp on a bandstand. They were off by six this morning but we should all be in Nickerson tonight. I couldn't face that early a kick off. I've started listening to the radio so I'm sitting around more and taking longer to do things. I did an hour of a classic country station this morning - quality.
Met 5 or 6 cyclists heading east today, all part of the same gang but spread out. They've met each other along the route and decided to ride together. A couple of them are planning on 200 miles today, aiming to finish around 2am. Seems a little extreme. One of them is a film student so he's filming everything and going to edit it all when he starts back in August. I gave him your address Beth so he might give you a call.
I had to laugh at the white line down the side of the road. They must spray the line on as at one point they had sprayed a white line over a big bit of tyre that was lying in the way and further on, they sprayed some dog or cayote turd that was on the route. They must have been in a rush to finish.
I met a Sheffield guy called Paul Davenport who must be a professional cyclist - he writes for the cycling press, cycled all over the world. He was very chilled, limiting himself to 60 miles a day so he didn't finish early and end up having to wait in Yorktown for a week for his flight home.
I now have money again having come very close to running out - thanks mum and dad. I got one of the Thomson Travel Cards which you load up with currency, then you can use it whereever the mastercard sign is etc. I was told by the Thomson person I could load it up electronically, which you cant. Then when mum went into the Thomson shop with cash, she was told you had to load it up using a credit card, which you don't. They are f***ing idiots. Anyway, it's all sorted now.
Lots more miles to go today, probably in the rain, so better go. I like the way the locals here see you and laughingly say 'you're gonna get wet'. Yeah, great, thanks.