Day 39 - Hutchinson, KS (2068 miles)

I woke up in my hotel room to find dark, overcast skies. I checked my phone and it said that there was a severe thunderstorm warning in the area. Sure enough, in a few minutes, dark clouds enveloped the sky and there was heavy thunder and rain.
I decided to sleep in until it passed, secretly hoping that the bad weather would be around for a while and I would get a rest day (or at least half a day rest). But it cleared out by about 9:00 AM, though there still was heavy winds. I didn't get out until about 11:00 AM.

I first went to the AT&T store in town and got my SIM card cut so I could put it into my HTC phone. Now hopefully I can have my phone online even in small towns (T-Mobile doesn't work in many places except the biggest cities).

I then got some lunch and headed out at about 12:30 PM. My knees were not doing well at all. They hurt every time I pushed hard while trying to accelerate. It was clear that I needed a rest day. Both my body and mind were tired from all the back-to-back long days.
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I decided to push 30 miles to Lyons anyways and see how I felt there. It was a hot and humid ride, and it reminded me of the kind of weather in Kerala, my hometown. I got to Lyons at about 2:00 PM, and my knees were feeling much better, so I decided to keep going. The rest of the ride was largely the same. There were some very narrow roads near Nickerson. Some parts of it had no shoulders at all with just one lane for each way. Scary! But I made it to Hutchinson without any issues. I called up a WS host and he was very nice and let me camp in his lawn for the night. So I am at his place now. I will probably take a rest day tomorrow and rest up.