July 14th Saturday Rush Center->Hudson

Another beautiful ride, hot and muggy but no headwind. I actually don't mind the heat and humidity. My skin is rehydrating a bit. Yonah hates it. He was dismayed to read that we are still in the semi-arid part of Kansas..."ugggh,if this is the semi-arid, I am going to die when we get to the humid part of Kansas".
Solomon is beside himself with joy over the toads. There are millions of them in the fields, hopping across the roads,etc. He is out catching them whenever he isn't on his bike. We rode to Hudson (home of the famous Hudson Cream Flour)part of the way with two guys from Oakland, David and Zach. They were cool, funny, cute, and under 40 but they can't be in the study because they aren't riding solo. I took a picture of them anyway...just because they were so cute and funny. We rode with them until we had to turn off the route to meet Daniel and Catherine who had been in e-mail contact with us since the beginning of the trip and wanted to host us at their house near Hudson. Daniel (the only Jew in Stafford County)arrived in a truck he borrowed from his neighbor that had a front license plate that said "Jesus". He poured us cups of ice cold Recharge (the healthy alternative to Gatorade and the very same thing I buy at the Co-op). He then loaded our bikes into the truck and drove us to his house where Catherine greeted us from the porch, overlooking 10+ acres of pristine wetland prarie. It was just beautiful. There were toads galore and Gracie, the golden lab, played outside with Solomon while he spent the first hour of our arrival catching toads and lizards. Catherine and Daniel made an amazing dinner for us with all kinds of sauteed vegetables (from the local organic farm)and tofu, fresh guacamole, spanish rice, black beans, etc. etc. It was all so delicious. It was like being home. They also had a wonderful woman named Shiela who is interning with them for a few months, working on this "Green" commmunity rebuilding project in Greensburg..which was recently decimated in a tornado. She is actually studying sustainable communties, in SF and is very interested in Village Homes. It was such a pleasant evening. They were such wonderful people. Food for the belly as well as the soul. The next morning Dan took us in the Jesus truck, back to the spot where he had picked us up the day before, and we started on our way to Hutchinson where we had a 3pm appt. to speak with a reporter from the local paper.
More about THAT tomorrow, or sometime when I can write about it calmly. It was the most disturbing experience of the whole trip so far.
I'll just end on a more cheerful note.
Another nice thing about Kansas; if you flag down a truck, to ask directions or something, you have about an 80% chance that the driver will be a shirtless, Brad Pitt look-alike (albeit with a big ol' wad of chew between his cheek and gum). Of course the other 20% of the time you flag down the men these same guys become in about 20 years...which is less like Brad Pitt and more like John Goodman.
Love,
Djina