Kansas!

We've had some beautiful days recently. We road through Missouri in three days, and have spent the past few nights in Lawrence, Kansas, where we just completed day two of working on a habitat for humanity house. Missouri was just beautiful. We crossed the Mississippi to enter the state, and enjoyed coasting on the flat terrain in the northern part of the state. We were educated on our Mark Twain history, and some of the riders went to explore the caves. We spent fourth of July in Richmond, MO where the kind folks at the church that hosted us, let us light off a few fireworks in celebration. It was so cool to be in a state where fireworks are legal! Every backyard had a professional fireworks show.

We left Richmond and entered Kansas. On our last of three 90 mile days in a row, we entered Lawrence. What a place. Reminds me of Asheville a bit, it's got a good crunch to it. Instead of our usual church basement accommodations, we're staying at a Marriott! So good! And since we're about halfway across the country (seriously!) we're feeling like it's a little spring break.

Best part about Lawrence... the build site we worked at. On our first night in town, we ate at a restaurant with the family that will live in the new house. We also worked side by side with them at the build site. They're unbelievably excited... and chatting with them really makes me feel like this is exactly what I should be doing right now.

Check out some of these before and afters! We showed up to four walls, and today we finished up the roof! It's about 1 month of work, in two days! Thanks for checking up on the blog, hope everyone is really well. I'm really loving Bike and Build. Tomorrow we've got a 95 mile day into Manhattan, KS.

-rob