days 23-29

Day 23

I took a few days off in Hesston KS and then another in Yoder KS at the King farm. When me and Neal started riding again it was the 3erd of June. It didn’t take long for us to start moving, but within two hours of riding that morning we were almost hit by two cars. One car started turning into a parking lot without checking for cyclists and nearly ran over my friend Neal. The second vehicle was a huge truck. We were riding through a construction zone and the truck started coming down the one lain road. It simply didn’t stop coming, at the last minute me and Neal had to ride into the ditch to avoid being squashed.

When we finally arriving in Larned Kansas we found the library and the librarian told us about the public pool and told us we should go check it out. It turned out that the pool was free for cyclists so we got a free shower and a swim before heading over to the park to camp. That night we met two guys from Briton who were riding across the country for a “fucking charity” as they put it.

Most of the day, more than 50 of the 80 miles we rode was on a single straight road. Western Kansas is a little boring. Neal complained a lot about his ass hurting and I just laughed a lot as I am used to the pains of riding long distance by now.

Day 24

We rode about 100 miles today and ended up in Dighton Kansas. It took a little while to get on the road. I have a camp stove now so cooking breakfast slows things up a bit. But its worth it. It was a pretty boring day, nothing to exiting happened. That night we met a man named Gideon who was riding from CA to Chicago. He was much nicer than the Brits, but not as funny. Dighton has a public pool as well so we got to shower again. This was simply splendid as I didn’t think I would get to shower until some time around Denver CO.

Day 25

Today was planed to be a short day because after Tribune Kansas (our destination for the night) there is a 58 mile stretch of road with nothing on it. That means nothing. We were about 8 miles out of Tribune when a car pulled up to us and informed us that the tornado sirens were going off in town. We kept riding thinking that by the time we got there the storm would be passed, but the wind picked up so fast that we couldn’t ride any more. We pulled off the road next to a culvert that was big enough for us to climb into just in case the tornado came close. When we finally got out of the ditch to ride into town when the wind died down a truck pulled up and asked if we wanted a ride, and we did. On the ride into town we got to learn more about farming in Western Kansas from the farmer that picked us up and we found out that the tornado touched down 14 miles a way from us. It was also nice to be in side a truck because it started hailing rather large chunks of hail. The farmer and his wife drove us to the park we were going to stay at for the night. It was at this point that my day began to get really fun. We rode to the store to get some food and I got cold, very cold. It was odd because it was 68 degrees. By the time I got back from the store I was shaking uncontrollably. I put on all my warm clothing and I was still shaking. So I got into my sleeping bag and then I started to feel ok. Needless to say I was concerned. Neal went to get some meds for me at the drug store down town and a thermometer. I only had a temp of 99 but I was still shaking. Later the shaking got much worse and we decided to go to the hospital in the morning if I was not better by morning and then we went to bead.

Day 26

Some time during the night my fever went a way so we decided to keep riding when I woke up. It was going to be a short day so I figured that I could make it without to much trouble. After all its very flat out there in western Kansas and eastern Colorado. It ended up not being quite so easy. It was flat, but it was also a wasteland. There was nothing out there besides sand and cacti. We also had a 20 mph cross wind. All in all our average speed was a little less than 10 mph. It took more than 6 hours to ride the 58 miles to Eads Colorado. I just about thought I was going to die. Once we were in Eads things got a little better. We got to go to a grocery store and get food as well as do laundry at a launder mat. It was heavenly. That night we stayed up way to late talking about life and what we both plan on doing in the near future. The general thought was to just live through this trip and then worry about it after that.

Day 27

I was still not feeling real well, but we were both ready to get out of the desert and we had a tail wind so today we decided to push through. We rode 122 miles to Pueblo Colorado with an average speed of 15 mph. That is by far the longest day I have had yet. Most of the morning was spent flying at more than 20 mph because we had such a strong tail wind. We reached Arlington Colorado and sat down for a quick snack and then set off again. It was simply amazing when we crested the first hill leaving the “town” we finally got our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. It had been sense Golden City Missouri sense I had seen anything besides a flat horizon line.

Later about mid day we stopped at a truck stop for some power bars and an old man flagged us down and asked us if he could buy us lunch. It turned out that he had done the bike trip a few years ago and while riding he got up early and took extensive bird watching notes. Now he is retracing his steps with his wife in his car and recording all the birds he heard before to make a book. He has his PhD in “Birds” is what he told us. He was a really nice guy.

We continued to ride to pueblo and I developed a saddle sore (that’s a huge lump on your butt that hurts really badly). Once we got to Pueblo we decided it would have been better for us to try and skip the city all together because it was not a safe place, but there was not much we could do about it then. We found the park we were going to camp in and were warned by many people that it was a bad idea. Then we found the public swimming pool in the park and asked if we could use the showers. They were already closed and said we would have to weight for the manager. It had been sense Dighton Kansas sense we had been in any kind of shower. It had been sense the Kings farm that we had had a real shower. The manager got there and said, “I can do you one better, why don’t you just jump in the pool. But make it fast.” So we did. It was simply wonderful. We got to shower and it felt so good. I don’t think I have ever been so happy in all my life. We had about four days worth of sun screen and sweat on us. That is one reason for the development of my saddle sore. After that we eventually found a picnic aria that was in closed that blocked us from the wind and we moved all the picnic tables to form a wall before chaining up our bikes and sleeping with our heads next to them as a precaution. That was the scariest night of the whole trip. Even Neal slept with his mace in arms reach.

Day 28

Today was heavenly, not because of the ride, but because we had a place to stay that night and we got out of that hellish desert in eastern Colorado. We rode up to Monument where the parents of Melissa Barns took us in for two days. It was simply splendid. We rode that day on more than 25 miles of dirt roads and bike paths, but it was nice to avoid the traffic. We also climbed to above 7000 ft and didn’t really fell it to much.

Once we were in the Banrs’s home Rick and Teresa opened up a bottle of wine for us and we had a splendid evening talking and eating before I went to bead at about 9:00. I was simply wiped out and couldn’t stay a wake much longer. It was so nice to sleep in a house, in a bead, and to be clean and showered. I simply couldn’t believe it.

The next day, our day off I cooked a pizza for lunch and relaxed all day. Me and Neal sat out on the deck and ate lunch and talked for a good wile before we realized we had both gotten sunburned and should go inside. We decided to do laundry but when we went into our room to get laundry we both instantly laid down on the beads. I think that was a good sine that we were both still very tiered.

Day 29

Today was a breeze. We were both rested up and ready to go. Not only that, but it was mostly down hill to our next destination, Denver. We dropped about 2300 feet in about 50 miles so it was a pretty lazy ride. Of the few hills we did climb we could defiantly tell we were at a higher elevation today. Our breath was a bit shorter and we didn’t recover as quickly. We broke a record for fasted average speed today and that was 16.5 mph. We could have gone faster, but the ride was so beautiful that we didn’t want to rush it. Once in Denver we found our place of residence for the next few days where we would weight for the 12^th when we would go to Brandon’s wedding by AmTrack. After all is said and done we will have about 7 days off for the wedding because we got to Denver so much quicker than we thought we would.