Friday June 28:  McPherson, Kansas to Abilene, Kansas
Distance:  63.9 miles
Total time:  4 hours 43 minutes
Riding time:  Unknown

Today's ride was one of the most pleasant and least stressful so far.  The distance was short - 63 miles - the road surface for much of the way was as smooth as a baby's bottom, and the wind was cooperative.  We actually rode north for about 40 miles, so the wind from the south that's been nagging at us recently was at our backs all that way.  If you look at a map of the United States you'll see that we have a lot of northbound cycling yet to do if we're going to hit the Atlantic Ocean in Rye and not in Delaware.

Because of the short day and favorable conditions we took a luxuriously late start - 7:30.  Here are Doug from Petaluma, Leonard from Ohio and Ray from Denver shaking out the cobwebs and getting ready to ride.

Diamond Dave from Walnut Creek is always anxious to beat the heat and get moving.  He also hates to stop and often bikes straight through.

Our Fearless Leader Jim hates to open the van early for packing the luggage.  When he says 7:30, he means 7:30.

It's finally time to load.  That's Andy from the UK and Diamond Dave in the foreground.  Steve from the UK signs in - we have to sign in when we load, at each SAG stop, and again at the hotel so that the organizers know everyone is accounted for.

Once we headed north today the scenery changed a bit.  Rather than huge agro-business fields it looked more like the family farms we're accustomed to back home.

At the 23 mile mark we passed the halfway point in the entire journey - 1930 miles to that point.  We took some time for self-congratulation and pictures.  Here's a self-satisfied selfie.

The three amigos marked the occasion as well.

Here are the Brits - Chris, Andy, Allan, Steve and Sean.

It's an America by Bicycle tradition to celebrate the halfway mark with half cookies, in appropriately patriotic colors.

But the euphoria never lasts for long on the road.  After the high of passing the halfway mark, we suddenly ran out of road.  This part of Kansas has been inundated by rain for the last few weeks, and this section of the highway got washed out.  So not for the first time we had to portage our bicycles and jump across the chasm.

And here Chris from the UK leans over to peer into the abyss.

After the hard work of passing our bikes across the gap, and mindful of the near-100 degree temperature, we all stopped for refreshment at a general store.  Leonard, Doug, Sean and Mike share a laugh.

We got to the hotel in Abilene early enough that we had time to go to the Eisenhower Presidential Library.  Ike grew up in Abilene, and is buried on the grounds of the Library.  It's extremely well done and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  Here is Ike's boyhood home, which has only original artifacts and furnishings inside.

And here I am with the great man.

I promise if you visit you'll like Ike as well.

A thought on being halfway home.  I wondered if I'd feel like "I'm only half done", or if I'd feel like "wow, we're already half done."  It turns out it's the latter.  My wife Kristin used to say about raising kids, the days are long but the years are short.  That's how I feel now - the days are long, but the weeks are flying by.  I'm very conscious that anything can happen, but now I feel like we can do this.  But I'm still looking forward to the Kansas - Missouri border.

So, everyone is worried about tomorrow.  It has the potential to be the toughest day of all.  It's over 100 miles, it's hilly, it's brutally hot, and the wind doesn't appear to be in our favor.  We'll try to get an early start and power through it.  And we pick up another milestone - 2,000 miles since we left our hearts in San Francisco.