Velowander

Day 35 (Emporia, KS) afternoon & evening

(photo: A dramatization of my emotional state after seeing the size of the Emporia Tyson beef facility. see below for more details)

After Mag and I got out of Mike's neighbor's pool, we parted ways for a while to do our own things (read her blog to find out the stuff she did).

I cleaned and adjusted my bike and caught the news on TV (I was most interested in the foiled household chemical airplane bomb terrorist attempt).

Mike spoiled us again with a steak dinner with all kinds of fixins like corn, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms & potato - enough food even for the likes of Mag and me. Between you and me, sometimes Mag and I are embarrassed when we stay with host families to eat our full appetites because we'd eat more than the family members. If the family is generously providing us with food we don't want to feel like we're mooching (we are mooching, we just don't want to FEEL like we are).
Granted, that applies to me more than Mag but that woman can eat, believe me.

After dinner, Mike took me in his car to the Price Chopper grocery store so I could do the shopping for tomorrow while Mag used the big computer to finish her blog. On the way I passed the huge Tyson beef slaughter and processing center. I was stunned and fascinated by the size of what was effectively a concentration camp for cows, realizing that all of the 2,000 cows there would be slaughtered and proceessed in a single shift. (They run 2 shifts a day, so slaughter 4,000 cows and bring hanging meat from elsewhere because their processing capacity exceeds the slaughter capacity)

Looking back, today was both productive and restful because we got up early and got some miles in, but we were done by 11 AM and had plenty of time to do other things and rest. So, it seemed like both a riding day and a rest day. Yet we still "moved the football forward" for the day.

Labels: Bike Touring

posted by David @ 7:36 PM