1/2 way!!

July 20: Day 45: Eads CO to Leoti KS: 80 miles Wow... We are 1/2 way. 2071 of 4140 miles behind us!! We have spent more time in motels than we thought we would. There are no campgrounds and the camping that is listed on the maps is in a city park or out behind a store, with showers at the local pool, or not. That is great for the kids but we are too old for that sort of thing ! In SE Colorado the small towns are dying. If there isn't a 'thing' like rafting, skiing, or fly fishing, often at least 1/2 of the town businesses are closed and/or boarded up. It is hard to find a grocery store and fresh fruits and vegetables are often days apart. But we did get a great breakfast for $5.25 (for both of us) and the hand laundry dries really fast. We were overtaken by a guy and his two sons from Spokane. He is writing about his experiences for the local station KREM (Joel ..his link is Wild Hare's Adventures). He gave us a great tip. Freeze you water bottles and just put one on the bike and put the others in your panniers surrounded by your clothes for insulation. They stay cold for about 4 hours and that really helped us today as it was in the 90's while we were riding. We are into Kansas and Central Time. Kansas is green and there is corn everywhere. It was a very peaceful ride along HWY 96 today. OMG!!! Just as I am typing this a huge thunderstorm broke out. Hail stones the size of big marbles bouncing off the street. The buildings around have metal roofs so it was really noisy. The TV started beeping with extreme weather warnings. Possible 60 mph winds. Rain falling so hard we could barely see across the street. This weather is crazy!! Didn't I just say we had a peaceful day?!