Right near the end of our ride in Kansas, I met a father and son who were biking across America heading from east to west.  They were really nice guys. Andrew had recently graduated from Purdue University in Engineering and his Dad was very proud of his accomplishment.  Both were celebrating this milestone in Andrew's life by sharing the adventure of biking across America together.

As we got to talking, Andrew's Dad said "Hey, did you meet the guy going east up ahead a couple of miles from here?  He's a bit unusual but very nice.  He's a big time biker, that's for sure!"  I said I hadn't seen him yet but maybe I'll get to meet him later.  Andrew then said "He said he was from New Lenox".  "New Lenox?", I said.  "Was that New Lenox, Illinois?"  "Yes, it was" said Andrew.  I had a classmate from high school who lived with her husband in New Lenox.  During part of my training for this trip I did some rides in Illinois and I stopped in and visited them.  They treated me to a very nice cookout with a nice Moscato wine to wash down the excellent meal.  New Lenox has a population of about 30,000 people so the chances of this guy knowing my friends might have been a bit small, but you never know.

We parted wishing each other a safe and happy trip and I started thinking it would be interesting if I bumped into this guy as maybe he would know my friends.

As I kept pedaling, I thought maybe I'd catch him, but the guys did said he was a 'big time' biker.  After an hour of riding went by and my hopes of catching him dwindled, I looked up to see a biker about a quarter mile ahead of me checking out a map.  I sped up to visit.

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Talk about traveling light!  In the picture above he has all of his camping gear, water and food.  This guy was the epitome of efficiency.

"Let me guess", I said, "you're biking across America."  "Why, yes I am!" he said.  "Are you from New Lenox, IL?"  I hadn't even asked his name yet.  His jaw dropped.  "How did you know?"  "Do you know Tom and Wendy Kaun?"  "Why, I know them very well!  We're neighbors, I live a block down the road from them.  I worked for Tom on a few projects for his company and I taught Sunday School to their kids!"

Wow, what a coincidence!  Wendy was the salutatorian of our class and I went to Tom and Wendy's wedding over 30 years ago.  Since our last class reunion, Wendy and another classmate of mine, Pam McAllister and Pam's mom Ruth Bongey try to meet every couple of months just to have lunch and catch up on what's happening with our other classmates from Verona High School and people we know from our past in general.

Finally, I found out the name of this big time biker.  Ralph Krause is a professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering from Prairie State College in Chicago Heights.  He still works for the college but is gearing up for retirement.  He truly is a big time biker and was in a race with others to cross America.  He had a tracker to tell him which place he currently was in relation to the other participants and has done many rides all over the country.  And...he was riding a Cannondale Synapse, practically the same as mine.

We were comparing bikes about the time Jaine pulled up in the sag wagon.  All three of us had a great visit, and Ralph even pulled out his video and conducted an interview of Jaine and I that he was planning to send to Tom and Wendy.  In the interview, I basically invited ourselves down for a cookout (Tom is excellent when it comes to grilling out) and I think I said I'd bring the Moscato wine.

Jaine, Ralph and I parted with high fives and we all went back to our mission...to get across America.  America is a big country...but sometimes it's a small world.