(Having conquered the mountainous west, Pioneer reporter Mark Donaldson spent a week crossing the flat Kansas prairie, the midpoint in his transcontinental bicycle journey.) So Bike-Centennial chose the shortest route (still 400 miles long) they could find through the Great Plains, via Kansas. In fact, Kansas is the only state to erect a sign at its border, welcoming visiting bikers. All in all, the trek across lowly Kansas turned out to be a high point of the trail. Perhaps, I’m prejudiced, having been born and raised in the Middle West, but I must agree with the Sterling, Kansas, native with whom I shared icy beer one sweltering afternoon.