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Monday 12th July 2004

Golden City to Walnut City Park. Today was hot and sunny. We headed through Girard at one point, where I got to the library and typed "We are heading for Walnut, or somewhere there abouts, in Kansas. At present I'm typing away in Girard Public Library, Girard. An excellent public investment and full of teenagers playing war games on the computers. It's a very hot day and I'm intending to refill the water bottles in the library! Will write more soon." The ride to Walnut was fine, the landscape becoming quite flat - though there's a slight undulation. At Walnut we met a cycling Mennonite family, Charlene and Ken Schildt with their two very impressive cycling offspring - wonderful group of people who seemed incredibly together after cycling so far in a group (from San Francisco) - I'd have thought most families would be a bit frazzled after cycling so far together, if not in the throes of divorce!!! They helped us understand the Amish, which we have been puzzled by - we have seen buggies, with Amish people in them, leading their non-infernal combustion engine life. But why the long trousers, the beards (for men, that is!), and no sign of cycling (surely an ideal thing for the Amish). We'd also wondered if we could photograph them - it turns out we'd best not! Photography is, they reckon, a making of a graven image, so no photos please. There's logic there. As for bicycles, the situation was not clear - it seems to hinge on the presence of a bicycle chain - which seems to be a negative thing. Anyway, we feel positive about the Amish because they certainly have opted away from the motor engine, and in doing so offer something that is parallel in some ways to us bikers. Walnut City Park was liveable but basic, and with an amazing number of creepy crawlies. I lost a significant amount of blood to the mosquitoes! The spiders seemed extra large too! The toilets are, err, not quite the nicest we've come across. Walnut does have a very pleasant cafe - "Boots and Saddles" - which fed us wonderful pancakes in the morning, and where also I had my blood pressure taken (after eating the pancakes, perhaps it was wise). The community nurse was looking in, so why not? The National Health Service in England hasn't bothered to take my pressure for about a decade, so it's nice to get it done in the USA. "Boots and Saddles" also offers some super drinks - ice cream floating on coffee, hot chocolate. Fond memories, remarkable friendliness. The photo show the usual road scene at the moment - a nice little mirage of water in the distance.

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