Osage City to Cottonwood Falls, KS.

Got a late start this morning because I stayed up late (after 10pm!) talking to another guest at the b&b. He had long hair! First long-haired man I've seen for weeks. He was really into music and he had a laptop with a whole lot of music he liked, and we swapped and listened and talked about music. He was in town working for a company that paints water towers, so we talked about that too of course.

This morning I saw a badger cross the road. Long, low, pudgy-looking animal, with a sort of shovel-shaped head with obvious black-and-white markings on it. Why it crossed the road I don't know. :)

This evening I talked (but mostly listened) to one of the hotel owners where I'm staying. He is a talker, but very interesting and funny. He used to run a laundry service in Galveston Texas, he used to assemble big machinery, lots of stuff. Told me all about the hotelling and landlording and laundromatting businesses.

I'm a little chagrined that I always need to bow out of these conversations to go to bed because I have to get up early. Ah well, during the hot part of the day I know it's important.

Saw some fun stuff today. Another nice ad for dead animal flesh.


These three horses came running up to check me out as I passed.

Wow, please don't get me a job in the noxious weed warehouse!

I think stuff like this antenna tower is beautiful. Is it just me? I love the mathematical precision and the thin, spindly tautness of it.

I got passed by this house today. Freaked me out... I was cycling along near the right side of the right lane and a truck honked at me. Usually trucks just change lanes and go around me, so I looked back and saw this HOUSE bearing down on me. It took up all 3 lanes of that 2-lane road, so I rolled down into the grass and it basically went over me.

This is just a picture to give a flavor of the typical scenery I rode through today. It was soon after dawn, fairly cool out. Those hay bales are pretty big, maybe as tall as I am.