Day 0: Wichita to Newton KS

33.4 miles, 712 ft ascent, 2:32 riding time.
Today I ride north to pick up the TransAm in Newton KS, so tomorrow will be Day 1.  Today started with an alarm at 0400 to make a 0630 flight to Chicago and then on to Wichita.  Sitting next to me on the flight was the former Dean of faculty at the Naval Academy, Mike Halbig, and the person that hired me back in 2002.  Small world. Truth be told, neither of us recognized the other.  My plane landed at 1210 and by 1230 I was at the Biycle X-Change bike shop in Wichita.  I had shipped my bike there about 2 weeks ago.  The guys at the shop were very helpful, so by1400 I had my bike re-assembled and was on the road to Newton.  The wind was blowing at 10 mph from the East and I was going predominantly North, so it wasn’t too bad. Temps were in the low 60’s and it was overcast.  I arrived at my WarmShowers hosts, David and Elena Wiebe, at 1730.  David made pizza dough from scratch using wheat they harvested and ground themselves, and tomato sauce using canned tomatoes from their garden.  It was delicious (and I was hungry)!  They have another Westbound bicycle tourist staying with them, Johannes from Zurich Switzerland (the world gets even smaller!).  He is also a Mechanical Engineer (and smaller still!) and a pianist, so we went to David and Elena’s church for a concert after dinner. 


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