Left in the fog again, and it stayed foggy all morning. So nice. It stayed reasonably cool. Only had the hot sun for about an hour. I rode the 81 miles in about 6 1/2 hours. I just went for it to try to beat that heat. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday, and I think tomorrow might be a few more degrees cooler.

The first half of the ride had corn fields on both sides of the road. There was a bird, only in the corn fields, that sang “suit tsi tsi.” Never did see him, but he/she was very talkative. Made my day.

Eight miles before halfway, I came to road construction. There were four miles of fresh ‘rice size’ gravel, thick, some of it in piles on both sides of the road. So unstable. And the stupid cattle trucks never slowed down a bit. I got splattered with dust and grit. And poor Eby is a mess. The last four miles only had gravel in the other lane, and the trucks still sprayed me. I had grit in my mouth, and my whole body was covered. Eby has never been this dirty. Even his spokes are coated.

After that disastrous ride, I turned into the Flint Hills. Nice rolling hills and no crops, just grass. Only a couple of small herds of cattle and very few farm houses. Really pretty area and interesting to ride. Long gentle hills and no stupid gravel.

Long day but a good riding day, weather-wise.