Kansas. Dirty Kanza finish, home to Iowa.

Oh, the land and wide skies call!  

Driving south, the herds. 

Art on the ranch.  Metal cutouts of rancher and cattle

Getting closer to Emporia, heading east. 

Hay storage system 

Back in Emporia and the day's not over yet!  almost 30,000 steps and 3,000 calories. No wonder I was starving.

Gorgeous clouds  tinted by the setting sun's colors. A few riders are coming in for their finish. 

The Mike at the finish. 

The Mike didn't finish before sunset. He said he'd been feeling well up to the last town stop and then the the energy departed.  He finished well, and truly worn, with dirt attaching to his sweat and sunscreen.

He has his Jimmy Johns unwich in his hand--the shop is right across the street from the finish!

Dorm room pics :-)   Race shirt --in my favorite colors. 

We headed over to the community center in Emporia for the after race breakfast and award ceremony. The local Lions club was hosting the breakfast--biscuits, gravy, and o.j.  Mike's ticket was included in the race, but we paid for mine. Had known of the sign below ahead of time,  I would have taken along some other items to eat. 

After the awards ceremony, we checked out of the dorms and headed to a local restaurant on Route 50 south of town, near the factories.  We'd been here a few years ago at 1am after a race finish, and knew they had good food. It's under new ownership now, friendly service, and they were fine with my request of butter, not oil for the eggs, and both waitresses offered to toast my UDIs bread I took in.  ( I didn't have them toast it, but it was the thought that counts). 

Good food. Omelet, hashbrowns and jelly for my UDI's bread! 

I spy- a face in the clouds

Hello Missouri!
Via Highway 36

Old school -retro-vintage hotel sign art.
Highway 36 west of Cameron, MO a few miles.

My reward for a half marathon with a finish time longer than I expected---my first bruised toenail in three or four years.  

Last weekend in DC my sister took me to get a pedicure. I warned the guy about my still tender toenail 19 days after the fact.  He wasn't too gentle at the start, but when he removed my nail polish and saw the purple under the nail, he was much more gentle with the toe! 

Friday night I realized my toe nail was no longer next to the bed and that there was just air in there. Instead of having it possibly get caught on something, or have my sock/shoe combo when I run pull on the nail, I decided to trim it off. ta-da:  9 nicely painted toes with OPI's Purple with a Purpose nail pols

nail-less