Road Kill State

Kansas is hands down the state with the most road kill, the most anti-abortion billboards, and the most people who wave at you from their cars while driving by.  You can also see your destination(typically a little clump of trees) fifteen miles before you get there, there are no bicycle shops, and the wind is always blowing.  Only 250 more miles to go, here I come Missouri.
One of the really neat things about Kansas is, because there are no campgrounds, cyclists are permitted to sleep in city parks.  All you do is give the sheriff a quick phone call and let him know your staying there.  However, the down side is, these parks often do not have bathrooms and, being little towns, sometimes businesses(or the business) have late opening and early closing hours.  So time things well. :)
I happened to be in one of these little tiny grocery stores the other day when a young, elevinish year old girl ran up to me and asked me if I was the biker.
"well. Yes. I am on a bicycle.?"
She asked me if I maybe wanted a warm meal, and a shower, and maybe to camp in her yard.  Now, being a dirty, stinky, salt covered, wind blasted cyclist lacking good, warm food, fruits and vegetables, I of course said I would love all of the above.  We walked outside, got my bicycle, met her mom, and walked to their house.  Her mom warned me that the girl's father didn't know yet that I had been invited over and that they would for sure feed me and let me shower but it wasn't guaranteed that I could stay the night.  The girl(Abigail) had spotted me and dashed off to invite me over before her mother had been able to say anything.  I did end up staying the night.  I was ogled and waited on by three little girls constantly inching closer to me as their father told story after story of God speaking to him and telling him of events to come, where his children were going to be born, or natural disasters that were going to hit.  Constantly traveling, kept away from pop culture and electronics of any sort, and being home schooled, these three girls couldn't wait to have my attention. We had a slumber party outside in their giant twelve by twelve tent they had set up just for me.  At four in the morning we hear "Abigail. Get everyone up. I've been up for hours and I've made a pepperoni and squash pizza for us all to eat. I'll be out with it in five minutes."
Abigail and I successfully wake one other girl up and we all sit in the tent together in the middle of the night eating home made pizza, and ice cream, and then crawl back into bed until morning.
The next morning when I left, all three girls grabbed their bicycles and pedaled the first mile with me giggling, babbling, and shrieking and finally waving goodbye.