Osage City to Ottawa, KS

40.5 miles. We awoke to thunder and lightening, a storm that lasted for a good hour. I thought at one point that we were going to have to shelve the ride today, but the storm finally wore itself out, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. The scenery was similar to what we've seen the last few days, but there was a lot more traffic as we are now within commuter range of the Topeka, Kansas City metro area. We still had one nearly 20 mile stretch where we were almost completely alone and able to ride in the middle of the lane again. We nevertheless stopped to help a turtle cross the road; the thought of it being crunched under the wheel of a pickup truck was too much to bear.

We've reached an unscientific hypothesis that Bud Light is the beer of choice in Kansas, based on the high percentage of Bud Light cans, cartons, etc. in the appalling amount of roadside litter we've observed. Maybe we are just spoiled living in Colorado, but one does not see 1/10th of the amount of garbage alongside a Colorado highway that you see along Kansas roads. That is really a shame because, as you can hopefully see in the pictures, Kansas has its own beauty.