2 Rivers And The Shunflowers

This morning we trucked the bikes to the big city and rode the Arkansas River path for a total of 22 miles. The temperature wasn’t bad and it was overcast which made for a nice ride for this time of year.
Once back home and after lunch we were looking at the weather and the high today was only going to be 93 so we took off from the house and rode down to the Ninnescah river like we had done last weekend.
Once we reached the river I suggested we ride on to check out a field that I knew was somewhere a few miles further South where our state flower is being grown. We found the field full of sunflowers but they shunned us and refused to look our way. I didn’t want to ride the extra miles to get on their good side so we stared at the back of their heads while they all looked East. We then turned around and retraced our path back towards home.
93 sounded cool in comparison to 103 which we’ve had lately, but far from cool it was and the morning’s cloud cover was gone. It was miserably hot. The only shade on the ride was that which was cast from utility poles. I found myself trying to ride in the shadow of the wires. On the upside, the majority of the ride was on gravel which is cooler than asphalt. Last night’s rain kept the dust down but the humidity up. Once back in town we stopped at the c-store for cold water, Gatorade and an Icee. Our odometers showed 50 miles for the day.

Click or mouse over the photos for captions.

This morning’s ride…

This afternoon’s ride…