School is back in session and my travels on The Kindness Bicycle and Bus takes me past many schools. All schools will be on my radar along the tour. I have Kindness Certificates which I will deliver to principals which are in direct opposition to the Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse some school children witness in their homes. My puppet show which will address these issues without mentioning them is being created in my spare time and will be ready by the start of 2012. Today Nathan and I visited 11 schools to deliver kindness Certificates. I stopped at the Robinson Education Center which makes most of the decisions of what is taught in schools in Riley county, I’m hoping One Million Acts Of Kindness Certificates become something they approve for all of their jurisdiction.
Another day over 100 degrees, 103 to be exact, was looked forward to because it will hopefully be the last day over 100 that I will have to experience until well into next summer. Daily riding of a bicycle in the heat for such a duration of time was a struggle at times but the weather just around the corner is going to be the payoff.  Western Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California will be the states I travel through in the next 4 months. Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming.

In three weeks fall begins and none too soon. The bubble of heat in the central part of the United States is finally about to burst, but not before it has one last hurrah. With lightning in the skies just before dawn, we had to wait to ride our 40 miles for a couple of hours. We finished just before noon when the temperature reached 100. Riding in the country it is essential to make sure to bring enough water for the entire ride on a day as hot as this. Not even to our half-way turn-around we both realized we were in trouble with very few houses or businesses to fill our containers with water. Parched, aptly described our condition. A farmer a few miles from our end-point took care of us. Thank you to them!
It is less than 6 months until I begin Ride for Wounded Warrior and Officer Down. This short 3,600 mile ride will begin in February and end in late June. It will take a west to east direction stopping at various VA hospitals, law enforcement facilities, memorials, etc… Today’s photo from the Kansas State University campus is of a memorial to all 5 armed forces. The soil beneath the middle portion of the memorial was taken from several military cemeteries across the nation.