We left a 90 degree Emporia this morning and drove to Wichita — less than two hours southwest — to visit Cynthia Chauhan, who is a Mayo clinic survivor of breast and kidney cancer. She feels she is alive because of Mayo.

Cynthia is the author of Incidental Finding, a compilation of personal stories told by kidney cancer patients. Cynthia started a kidney cancer support group in Wichita, at Victory in the Valley. Victory in the Valley is a nonprofit cancer support agency. They do not accept funding from the government or organizations that will impede their mission. They support cancer patients in every way possible — all cancers. Cynthia and her husband have three rescue cats (one that is 20 years old from Japan), three rescue dogs, and almost an acre of flower gardens.

I offered her some milkweed seeds, and she knew all about the Monarch butterfly’s dependence on milkweed (their caterpillars only eat milkweed, which is disappearing). She showed me three sections of her yard that she would like to dedicate to milkweed, so I gave her the entire supply that I had in my purse, the end of the 2,000 I’ve been spreading around. We’ll compare notes in a couple of months to see how it goes in CT versus KS with the seeds.

I have a lot of photos to share from today in Wichita. I want to tell you more about Victory in the Valley. We’ve been invited to play there NEXT YEAR!

And tomorrow morning I’ll tell you all about our drive from Wichita to Denver (another very, very long drive).