July 16th Hutchinson->Newton->Cassoday

Sat on the steps of the gazebo in the public park, sweating at 9pm, and watching gazzilions of fireflys and Solomon, running around in his underwear chasing them.
We left Hutchinson at 6:30am after eating a huge hotel breakfast. We had the wind at our backs and it quickly became almost unbearably hot and humid. We are all getting a little sick of Kansas. I think we need a rest day. We for lunch in Newton, which is the first semi-affluent town we have seen. It was almost cute. It had a great library with a huge kid's section that occupied the whole bottom floor. We met up with our new Pets Of The Week, David & Zach and spent some time laughing with them. Then we ate lunch on the grass outside the library and I found a tic on my leg behind my knee. I pulle it off with some tweezers. I'm sure it hadn't been in long and it wasn't in that deep. I hope I don't get Lyme's disease. No bull's eye yet.
Then we went with the two pets to this great health food store and deli called something Harvest. I wished I had known about this place before I had stocked up at Wal Mart. But, we had some desserts and cold drinks and then set off for Cassoday. The pets were taking an unscheduled day off, having eaten some hotdogs, at a basketball game, that didn't agree with them. Then ended up in an Amish Community on a Sunday morning and EVERYTHING was closed and the only food to be had anywhere was the hotdogs at the game. I'm sure they will overtake us tomorrow though.
We spent the night in another city park. No hose this time, so we just filled our nalgene bottles from the pump and poured them over each other. Even Solomon did it this time, that's how hot and sticky we were. The mosquitos are horrible and after 10 min. you are all sticky and sweaty again. We would get into our tents just to get away from the mosquitos but it would be like a sauna (even at 9pm) so we would get out again and watch the fireflies, like little dancing diamonds all over the grass, for awhile. NOT my first choice for lodging but sometimes, when you are on your bike, that's the best there is.
The other nice thing, besides the fireflies, is that there is a gas station nearby, that opens at 6am, with bathrooms, hot water, coffee, milk, etc. so we can make oatmeal, hot chocolate, and cereal with milk for breakfast. LUXURY!!!!