Day 29: Kindness in Kansas

Today's second breakfast took place at a Subway in Larned (they have avocado now, have you been watching TV lately?). There, we tried our absolute best to find a place to stay 60 miles down the road. After finding scant motels, I decided to call the Nickerson First United Methodist Church in search of well-known hospitable folks. This is something I am sure would never work in the northeast, but after having been in Kansas a few days, I had the impression that the local economy depends very much on knowing everyone in town, and being superhuman-ly kind. The lady I spoke with gave me the name and number of "June". Turns out, June and her husband Jim had hosted something like 80 exchange students and 800 cyclists over the years. She is a retired teacher, and he is the town mayor. Really. They let us shower, gave us beds to sleep in, and insisted on waking up at our ungodly hour and cooking us pancakes. I was overwhelmed by the gentle, comfortable generosity of our hosts. June was facile with the vivid life details of all her past guests. We will certainly pass their info along to next year's riders so they can have the privilege of a warm home to stay in as well.