Bike Across Kansas

Hubby decided he wants to enter the Bike Across Kansas ride in 2010. I tend to think in terms of my schedule and not other people’s schedule. Because this is important to him, I have made a point to get Hubby and his bike in the car a couple of times a week to go to a trail so he can ride. Sometimes I shop and eat my way through downtown Lawrence and have him meet me at Starbucks. Sometimes I drop him off on the bike trail and drive to the other end and wait for him. He needs to be doing twenty miles regularly this year and 30-40 miles next year. To ride Bike Across Kansas he has to be comfortable riding 60-70 miles a day.


When autumn came around, which is my favorite time of the year, I got tired of watching him have all the fun or waiting for him. So I bought a bike of my own. I am up to ten miles now. That is where I can still make it back to the car and am not sore the next day. Tom will have to go with his cousin on the Bike Across Kansas tour, though. I will happily stay in the air conditioned Subaru with the spare bike parts and repair kit and follow them. We are checking out a Katy Trail vacation next spring. The Katy Trail is a rail trail across Missouri. We can take the car to the train station in Kansas City. From there we can get on an Amtrack train where we will travel 60 miles east. We will depart the train and ride the bikes back. There are Bed and Breakfasts all along the trail. I love going out on the trails to ride bikes. Tom named my bike Helen because I am hell-on-wheels on my bike.

I am still working on the Smokey Westford novel. It is excruciating and slow! I have to figure out how to add the chunks of the books that create the mystery. I am confused about putting in the technical stuff. I love books with technical information. I can’t put them down until they are done. When peers edit my work, they keep asking me to take out the technical stuff. They are usually romance novelists and their books are supposed to be light in substance. I don’t know if I should put my tech stuff in or not. I call myself a Chick Lit novelist, but that is because I don’t think I can pull of the larger technical aspects of a thriller.


I am signed up and ready for the November National Novel Writing month. I plan to ditch all the technique issues and just get some writing done. It is so much fun creating characters and making them come alive. My character, Lena, is the person I would love to be. She has more guts to live life to the fullest than I will ever have.



The Shawnee County and Topeka Library Friends of the Library had its' annual book sale in mid September. The sale raised over $55,000 during the 16 hour three day sale. Even though I sort books once a week all year long, I still brought five bags of books home.