Miles 1570 to 1674, 104 miles (2nd back to back century), 1000 feet of climb, max speed: 22 mph, avg speed 14 mph, crossed into Kansas from Colorado, and later into the Central Time Zone.
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| Another State Line! |
I was totally worthless today, so tired after the mad dash to close out yesterday’s ride to beat the storm. I rode the morning by myself, too tired to talk, and after breaking a spoke on my back tire, rode with only the coyotes and the wind for the rest of the day. Everybody else was miles in front of me. The only pressure on me was to get a shower before our 5:30 rider’s meeting. After losing another hour to the time zone, this still was a big challenge. Nature helped immensely. The gnats were bothersome yesterday, but harmless. The flies today were carnivores and even bit through socks, shorts, and shirts if you didn’t outrun them on the bike. Stopping was done only when absolutely needed. There is also another certain motivation in the air when one came upon a cattle feed lot, and there were many of them.
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| Over 500 miles of US50 since Utah |
Mark, our mechanic was very helpful with repairing my wheel. We could not fix it on the side of the road so he went to Plan B, which was to remove the cassette (gears) from my back wheel and put it on a spare one. This fix allowed me to keep riding. More on Mark later, but he, like me is on vacation from work to do this challenge. Another ‘more on this later’ event was watching the ‘Build and Bike’ kids ride by the other way across the country. About thirty energetic teens and twenties were riding their bikes east to west with build days once a week on Habitat for Humanity homes. I wish I had taken a picture, but they went by quickly. One of the staff got a group picture of them. They were so chatty going down the road, a stark contrast to my condition.
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| I love stopping at historic markers. |
Left to myself I didn’t have the pressure on to refrain from stopping at all the historical sites. The one that particularly interested me was the wagon ruts from the pioneers’ wagons traveling the Santa Fe Trail. The rest areas, as well as the roads in Kansas, are well suited by bicycles. I am convinced that my broken spoke had much to do with the horrible tar-and-pea-gravel boneshaker roads of Colorado. Those early pioneers must have traveled before there was blood sucking flies in Kansas. If there had been flocks of man eating flies, all those folks would have turned around and gone home.
Bottom Line: I’m too tired to think today. I am going to bed. Tomorrow is only 50 some miles, which is almost like a day off. The AbB staff is great.
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