Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for the ‘Kansas’ Category

Departure on May 26, 2009 from Yorktown, VA

Thank you to those of you who made donations to support Multiple Sclerosis as I rode across the country this summer. I have ridden in 12 MS 150 Bike Tours since 2000 and this marked my 13th ride to support MS.

The trip was a success as I completed over 4,263 miles from Yorktown, VA to Portland, OR and then down the coast to San Francisco, CA between May 26, 2009 and August 19, 2009 (86 days). I met lots of amazing people along the way and pedaled through 13 states and saw lots of beautiful scenery. I feel like I’ve now seen some of the United States, but I still would like to see more!

I have many memories from the trip and I would love to share them all, but that would be impossible. The easiest way is to skim through my lengthy blog over the past 86 days as I kept a daily journal for all that happened and all those people we met along the way.

The first few states were pretty ‘familiar’ as far as scenery goes – I hadn’t been to Kentucky before, but western Kentucky was quite similar to Virginia with lots of horse farms and open fields and such. Eastern Kentucky was a little more poverty-stricken and lots of trash on the sides of the roads, poor road conditions with holes that you had to be really careful not to hit! I picked up a staple from the road in eastern Kentucky and wound up with my first flat tire of the trip. We only briefly saw Illinois (I think we spent 2 days biking through southern Illinois), but we met some really fun people, namely two motorcyclists who invited us to their home to camp outside, grill, and play in the lake. Also, we saw Superman in Metropolis, IL which was off-route and not planned. As it happened, we had bike problems that day and had to hitch-hike 70 miles to a bike shop to get a new chain for George’s bike. Missouri was humid as anything and had lots of hills as we were crossing in the Ozarks.

About 40 miles outside of Springfield, Missouri, my shifter cable broke and I wound up hitching 40 miles to a bike shop to get a tune-up and get that fixed. I also had seen civilization for the first time since I started the trip – Springfield was the largest city I’d come to since I left the Northern VA area in May. We pedaled through Missouri in 6 days and then reached Kansas where we switched our sleeping and biking habits and started sleeping during the day at fire stations, libraries, and churches so that we could bike during the night to avoid the 115 degree heat and humidity. It worked fairly well, except that I biked the entire state of Kansas carrying a viral infection, only to find out my second day in Colorado.

Just 70 miles east of Pueblo, Colorado in a tiny hamlet called Arlington, I found myself extremely sick and unable to continue pedaling. I stopped and told the guys I was with I wouldn’t be going any further. This was my last opportunity to find someone who could help me – there were approximately three houses and a few trees for shade. I stopped, rested, and when I wasn’t feeling better, I walked to a house to see if someone was home who could drive me to a doctor. A nice man, by the name of C.D. Anderson said he’d give me a ride to Ordway, CO (25 miles west). We rode there and the clinic said I needed to get to a hospital, but the next closest one was in Pueblo. He gave me a ride further, another 45 miles or so to the hospital where I got sick again and admitted myself to the Emergency Room. There I spent the next five and a half hours on a bed in the ER receiving saline and anti-nausea medicine. I slept on and off but it was nearly impossible since it was the ER and there were plenty of people there making noise. By 6:30pm or so, I was released from the hospital and told they couldn’t keep me – however, I was so lucky to have distant relatives come and rescue me and take me home with them to Westcliffe to spend some days recuperating.

A few days later, thanks to the generosity of a complete stranger (Cindi) from Westcliffe, I had a car to borrow and found myself driving to Denver to visit a friend from college. I unfortunately got sick again and at this point was very frustrated and didn’t know what was wrong. This was the only point in my trip where I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to continue if the virus didn’t get out of my system. I slept and rested for another day or two and then went whitewater rafting (already had reservations made) and then drove to Estes Park to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains and take photos.

Riding dirt bikes with Chase in Colorado.

I finally got on my bike again almost two weeks after getting sick and started to pedal by myself for a couple days to meet up with Chase, my biking partner for the second half of the trip. I found myself spending a couple unplanned days in Salida, Colorado where I met Mike, who showed me around town, and then guided me up my first 14er, Mt. Elbert. It was incredible being on the highest mountain in Colorado and one of the highest in the lower 48 states! Afterwards, I climbed 26 miles up and over the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass which was at 11,312 feet! At the top of the pass, I was greeted by Chase who randomly found me and I rode down the other side of the mountain and then hitched back to Pitkin where he and his family had rented a cabin for a few days. A few days were spent in Pitkin and Ohio City, Colorado with Chase’s family before we hit the road again July 14^th.

The adventures really picked up once Chase and I met and started riding together – we found ourselves first riding a short-cut from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT in two days and meeting a really nice woman by the name of Lauren. As it turns out, she invited us to have dinner with her (grilled steak and peppers along with pickled asparagus) and sleep in her camper van just outside of Paradox, CO. We then met Wayne, who gave us a lift from La Sal Junction to Moab and then into Arches National Park, where we wound up touring the park for four hours together. It was a great time and nice since Wayne hadn’t had an opportunity to see the park before so we all benefited! After Moab, we rode down to Monticello (I had to pick up mail) and then onward to Hite, UT (Lake Powell). This was one of the worst days (from Blanding, UT to Hite, UT) as the heat was on and the 88 mile stretch of no services didn’t help. We had to each carry 1.5 gallons of water and pedaled all day to get to Hite where we both felt like collapsing.

Long story short, we ended up catching a ride with Jack and his 7-year old (they were from the L.A. area) from Lake Powell in Utah all the way up to the Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of Wyoming! We were basically on their family vacation for 3 days and it was amazing. We had such a great time! Once we parted from Jack and David, we left to go to West Yellowstone where we ran into 5 guys that Chase last biked with in Missouri! Who knew we’d end up on the Transamerican Route in Montana weeks later and run into them! They were 5 guys who graduated this year from JMU and were doing the full Transamerican Route.

So a few more mile of pedaling we rode through Montana to Missoula where I bumped into my best friend’s ex-husband in a bike shop, saw my last chiropractor of the trip (6^th one), got my second flat tire, and did my last long uphill climb of 46 miles over Lolo Pass into Idaho! Just into Idaho, we met a great family from Frederick, Maryland who invited us to eat dinner with them and camp with them. We checked out some hot springs in Idaho before sluggishly reaching Washington where Chase wound up with another flat tire. Thanks again to nice people, we camped with a couple from British Columbia at a campground in Washington, camped on someone’s front porch in Walla Walla, Washington, and found ourselves chased out of a campground after we spotted three large snakes. Needless to say, we camped on the side of the road that night only 6 miles from the campground and exhausted we were after covering 106 miles in the blazing heat with some headwinds too!

Arrival in Oregon!

Finally into Oregon, we were getting exciting for reaching Portland. But it wasn’t over yet! We hit horribly strong headwinds in the Columbia River Gorge (apparently the windsurfing capital of the world), yet no one forewarned us of this! We battled the headwinds for a good 100 miles or so (on and off with the intensity), but once we were within 150 miles of Portland, the winds were really terrible! Chase wasn’t liking it and nor was I. We agreed to hitch-hike the last 90 miles into Portland so we wouldn’t pedal away for 2 more days to get there and instead could enjoy seeing Portland before having to continue down the coast (or in Chase’s case, before he had to fly home).

On August 9^th, we reached the Pacific Coast at Cannon Beach, Oregon. I had 3,570 miles at this point. Our last evening of the ride (coast to coast), we had to camp in a city park as all the campgrounds were full and the motels/hotels were all booked up. So to make our story more fun, we were awoken at 5:55am by two police officers saying “Police Department” multiple times outside the tent. We had camped illegally and they came to ask us to leave and well to check out whether or there were any warrants on either of us. We checked out okay and packed up and went on our way. We hitched back to Portland and spent a few more days there with Alina and Josh (high school friends).

The last leg of the trip consisted of me biking down the coast by myself from Nescowin, OR to San Francisco, CA. It was somewhere around 690 miles that I covered from August 11^th to August 19^th with no rest days. I met a lot of really nice people along the way and rode with several groups of riders as well. I met four motorcyclists from Victoria in British Columbia in Bandon, OR and then met again in Brookings, OR the next day, 100 miles later. It was fun to see the same faces again on several occasions and we really had a great time exchanging stories and hanging out at the campsites.

Arrival in San Francisco, CA - End Destination!

At last, I reached San Francisco on August 19^th around 6pm after riding 72 miles my last day. The ride was pretty easy with a few hills, but nothing major, and the sun was out for the majority of the day – only once I got into the bay area did the fog really begin to surround you. From August 19^th until August 25^th, I spent the time in San Francisco sampling some of the most delicious ethnic food while hanging out with one of my best friends — Iman, who flew out to meet me! We departed on August 25^th on a train back across the country which was just an amazing experience filled with meeting many more people, hanging out with Thane and Brenda from Sioux Falls and playing cards, and joking around with the Amtrak staff. Arrival into DC was mixed – the trip was officially over and I would have to re-acclimate to life back home with a full-time job and deal with the other surprises in life.

Thanks to all of you who helped me out along the way or supported me in one way or another to make this trip happen. The messages of appreciation and congratulations really meant a lot to me when I finished and I’m very grateful to the friends, family, and co-workers who encouraged me, supported me, and helped me make this a reality. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Thanks to you all!

Monday, June 29th – Tribune, KS to Haswell, CO

We’re about 14  miles till we reach Colorad. We stopped and took some photos – our best yet, I think. The road changed instantly as we crossed into Colorado – the road became rough with bumps every 20-30 feet in the road which were a bit annoying.

Stopped for lunch at the one and only place in Sheridan Lake (about 30 miles into the day’s miles). Chris and I shared a large Pepperoni pizza and I had Arizona Tea (Raspberry flavored) for the first time, and it was actually pretty good! For some reason, I’ve always felt like I wouldn’t like tea, but maybe I actually do like it – I’ve had lipton ice tea in the past and definitely didn’t like that and guess I figured most ice tea was similar in taste? This though didn’t have that ‘tea’ taste and it was refreshing and yummy, especially since it was Raspberry iced tea! Anyway, so we had lunch and then I got a snicker’s ice cream bar (more yumminess) and then we continued on.

We have another 28 miles till Eads, where we stopped at the library to do some couchsurfing research for possible places to stay in Pueblo. I also exchanged a few messages with Cindi, a friend of Eugene’s (from back home at the climbing gym). She’s offered to let me borrow her car to go up to Denver for a few days, so that would definitely be very nice, since all the car rentals are sold out for the weekend. I had a bit of stomach pains for the last 23 miles but figured it was just due to something I ate again that didn’t agree with me. We pushed on and made great time, arriving about an hour and 10 minutes after leaving Eads (23 miles ago). I set up camp (the guys worked on another tarp shower) and made dinner. I had spanish rice, the guys had penne pasta with tomatoe sauce. I went and took a few sunset pictures and then called it a night and went to bed early, around 8:30 or so.

Citypark in Haswell, CO

Sunset in Haswell, CO

Another photo of the sunset in Haswell, CO

GPS Stats:
80.8 miles
05:41 moving time
14.2 avg speed
28.5 max speed

Computer Stats:
81.84 miles
05:39:55 moving time
14.5 avg speed
29.0 max speed

P.S. We also had our highest average speed for our entire trip today, averaging 14.5 miles per hour!

Sunday, June 28th – Dighton, KS to Tribune, KS

We just crossed over 2,000 miles today! We’re more than half way done with the trip and  we are now into our third time zone, Mountain Time! We are about 14 miles from the Colorado border as well. Lots of big things happening and only 2 days from Pueblo, CO. I’ll be taking a break there to go up to Denver and visit Chelsea and hopefully a couple other people as well and hope I can find some means to explore a bit while I’m up there. I’ll be leaving my bike in Pueblo at a bike shop and having the derailleur tuned-up since my new cable has since stretched and things are skipping now.

Today’s ride wasn’t too bad – we just did 73 miles from Dighton to Tribune. We got up at 6:30 and are back on our “normal” daytime riding schedule (we rode during the night this week because of the horrible heat wave that came through Kansas with 115 degrees with the heat index…awful). So anyway, we’re back on daytime riding, which is good and bad. I think the winds are worse during the day than the night, so that’s a major con. The plus is getting back to a normal sleeping schedule.

The ride went well — we did 3 sections of 24 miles or so each and each of us led for 8 miles then switched and after one rotation of that we were in Scott City, then Leoti, and then our final destination of Tribune. We stopped in Leoti for lunch at a restaurant and the waitress told us her mom does massages in Tribune, so we stopped by there when we arrived and she’s going to give us massages tonight, so we’re heading there shortly for a 30-40 minute massage.

Nothing too exciting today – met more cyclists passing going east bound – a group of 3 and then another group of 3, all guys.

GPS Stats:
72.1 miles
06:06 moving time
11.8 avg speed
19.8 max speed

Computer Stats:
73.07 miles
06:03:54 moving time
12.0 avg speed
20.0 max speed

Snake count: 4
Dog chases: 0

Saturday, June 27th – Larned, KS to Dighton, KS

We woke up again early, around 3:30am and headed out just before 5am on the bikes. We intended to go to Ness City, 66 miles for the day. There weren’t any places really to stop for food, so we just had poptarts along the way and then in arrived to Ness City around 11:30am. We stopped there for lunch and around 1:45 continued on towards Dighton since it was only another 32 miles and that way we wouldn’t have to do a 103 mile day the following day.

Along the way we ran into 6 other cyclists going from the west to the east. We passed a group of 3 from England, met Steve, who is cycling from Yorktown to Oregon. He was staying in Ness City though. And between Ness City and Dighton we ran into 2 more cyclists, a couple from Indiana. They were sporting all Novara gear from REI and had the 2009 version of the Novara Randonee, which is what I have, but from 2007.

So we pulled into Dighton around 4:30 or so in the afternoon and did our mandatory ice cream stop at the dairy bar. I had a snickers Tornado which was yummy and then some people there told us about this ranch rodeo that was going on tonight and that we should check it out. So we left the dairy bar and went to the city park to set up camp and go for a quick dip in the pool, then showered there and then went back to the dairy bar for dinner. On our way back the guys bailed on the rodeo and said they were tired and wanted to go to bed, so I went and checked out the rodeo alone and saw a really nice sunset. I also met a really nice family at the rodeo and they were telling me they also hadn’t seen a ranch rodeo before, so I’m glad I wasn’t the only unexperienced person in the audience. It was fun and different – teams of cowboys or cowgirls competed against one another in finishing tasks, like herding a calf into a ring and then into the back of a trailer along with their horses. They had to race to see who could do it the fastest. I stayed until about 9:30 and then headed back to the city park to turn in for the night.

GPS Stats:
96.2 miles
07:13 moving time
24.8 max speed
13.3 avg speed

Computer Stats:
97.59 miles
07:12:15 moving time
25.0 max speed
13.5 avg speed

Snake count: 2
Dog chases: 0

Friday, June 26th – Hutchinson, KS to Larned, KS

Today we got up at 2am and made pancakes at the Zion Lutheran Church and then we rolled out around 3:45am. We had 70 miles to do and 58 of those miles with no services whatsoever – in other words, no gas stations, no general stores, nada. We rode 10 miles to Nickerson which is the last place with services – and they even had a gas station open at 4:30am or so when we rolled through. We didn’t stop though since we were full on water and food and all. We kept on riding and then the sun started to come up shortly thereafter. I snapped a few photos as the sun rose and we continued on the very straight road for 60 miles to Larned. We stopped about 40 miles into the ride this morning at an intersection with the one and only house we’d seen in 30 miles. The lady was just leaving for work, I presume and she stopped and asked if we wanted water so we took her up on that and then the guys made pasta for their morning brunch or lunch or whatever you want to call it. I just had pop tarts since I didn’t feel like pasta that early in the morning.

Just about to head out and finish the last 30 miles, we were stopped by a guy in his pickup. He’s from Oregon originally and said he always dreamed of riding across the  country, but hadn’t found the time yet. He wanted to take a photo of us, so he did. Just as he was finishing we saw two other cyclists (Cindie and Tim Travis) going west to east so they stopped and we talked for a bit. Their plan is to cycle the world over the course of several years – however, they’ve already been at it for 7 years (since March 2002)!!! They have been all over the place – you should check out their website at http://www.DownTheRoad.org.

We arrived to Larner just after 11am after about 12 miles of grueling headwinds causing us lots of frustration and slowing us down to 9-10mph for that portion. There was another nice long section of road where you could see as far as the eye would allow you and the road just continued into the horizon. Fields of corn on both sides of the road and all you see is blue sky above the horizon and green corn on the lower half of your view. It was incredible how much open space there is in Kansas. Photos don’t capture what it really looks like, but it’s my best effort to do so. We biked past many oil fields as well – LOTS of oil fields are out here it seems.

Now we’re in Larner waiting to find out if the Methodist Church will let us sleep there tonight – they’re letting us relax there this afternoon until 4:30 at least (when the office closes), but hopefully the pastor will have returned by then and be able to tell us if it’s okay or not to stay in the church. If not, we’ll be out looking for a place to camp or stay indoors (preferrably). We went to Pizza Hut shortly after arriving to Larner and after dropping off our gear at the church so we wouldn’t have to lug it around anymore. We all did the all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Hut for $5.99 and boy did we eat! I ate so much as I was so hungry from not having had all the calories the past couple of days that I usually have. I was a bit worried about upsetting my stomach more so was careful with what I ate.

Just for those who wonder how many calories you need to eat to keep biking… at Pizza Hut, I had:

• 4 pieces of pizza
• 2 pieces of apple dessert pizza
• 1 piece of cherry dessert pizza
• 2 breadsticks
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 big salad
• 1 big thing of vanilla pudding
• 3 huge glasses of wateer

Lots of calories!

Anyway, the GPS track will be uploaded later – I forgot my cable attached to my bike (it’s the same one I use for powering the GPS from the solar panel but it’s taped to my bike frame to keep from unplugging and disconnecting on me). I just forgot it since I walked to the library.

GPS Stats:
68.9 miles
05:24 moving time
21.0 max speed
12.7 avg speed

Computer Stats:
69.70 miles
05:22:22 moving time
21.0 max speed
13.0 avg speed

Snake count: 1
Dog chases: 0

I’ve finally had a chance to upload a slew of videos – 11, I believe. I just threw them up on my YouTube page, so you can find them here: http://www.youtube.com/jmukikster.

I also added some photos of Kansas to my picasa web albums page: http://picasaweb.google.com/transamericanride09/

That’s it for now – must go back to the church to sleep till 2am!

Thursday, June 25th – Cassoday, KS to Hutchinson, KS

So we did it again – another night ride. This time we left just before midnight. The first 40 miles were relatively fast, but still felt long. It took about 2 hrs and 45 min of riding time to reach Newton where stopped at the one and only open place to eat (since it was like our “lunchtime”) – we stopped at the truck stop restaurant. I got a breakfast burrito which later made me really sick with horrible stomach pains… never again! I think burritos are off the list of food to eat along with any soda (I had a coke the night before and felt really sick afterwards). I’m not sure what’s causing all the sick feelings in my stomach, but I want it to stop. It really makes riding difficult and miserable, especially in the early morning between 4-8am when I’m already partially sleepy and then really sleepy around 5-7am. Urgh. So another morning of stomach pains and nausea.

The ride last night was pretty decent – especially since we stayed on one road the entire 38 miles from Cassoday to Newton. We went 23 miles before seeing a car and then the second car showed up at 29 miles into the ride. We passed a total of 3 cars in over 3 hours time and 38 miles. Pretty incredible how little traffic there is (even in the daytime, it’s not much more than that).

In Newton, we had breakfast (or lunch) and then went to Walmart to restock on a few things (poptarts, gatorade, that sorta stuff) and I had to get pepto bismol to try to relief my stomach’s weird pains… it sort of helped, but I still felt badly for the next few hours. We arrived to Hutchinson after a long 45 miles out of Newton. It dragged and was slow – I was so sleepy and the music playing thru the ipod speakers wasn’t doing me any good. Finally, around 10am we rolled into Hutchinson and went to the Zion Lutheran Church on Washington Street where we knew we’d have a nice place to stay. It’s open to cyclists as a hostel with a shower, beds (two doubles), and kitchen area and a safe place to keep our bikes inside. I showered and then took a 2 hour nap and woke up at 1pm to come out and be awake for a little bit before going back to bed maybe around 6pm tonight. We’ll wake again at 2am to head out for 70-75 miles during the night.

Now I’m sitting in the Metropolitan Coffee place using internet and just finished a blueberry pomegranate smoothie which was good. I’ll probably head out shortly and try to go back and eat and then go back to bed for the night.

GPS Stats:
84.1 miles
06:39 moving time
12.6 avg speed
24.9 max speed

Computer Stats:
85.14 miles
06:37:35 moving time
12.8 avg speed
25.0 max speed

Snake count: 1
Dog chases: 0

Wednesday, June 24th – Chanute, KS to Cassoday, KS

We got up just before 10pm and packed up and rolled out from Chanute around 11pm. We had 100 miles to go until we reached Cassoday, Kansas. We figured it’d take us 8 hours biking time and we’d take breaks throughout the night and make our meal (or lunch) at 3am or so. We biked to Toronto (41 miles) and there stopped to make pasta and rice and try and find more water. We had the hardest time finding water – and finally Chris found a house that had a spicket outside. However, the guy was still awake and sitting on his couch inside watching TV (mind you, it’s between 3-4am). So we snuck up very quietly and stole water from his spicket. He didn’t hear us thankfully!

We all made food and then stretched again and were on the road to Eureka (about 20 miles further down the road). We arrived there around 6am and I was exhausted and feeling sicker than ever… horrible stomach pains and nauseous feeling of sorts. I felt like throwing up while riding, but wanted to keep on going because the heat would be coming soon. I got to Eureka and took a 45 minute nap on my mat that I laid on the ground in front of Sonic (the drive-in fast food/ice cream place). I slept there and then some workers showed up before 7am to open the place…they must have thought I was some bum or homeless person. I mean, I guess technically speaking I am homeless, but whatever.

It’s really confusing about what day I should be keeping stats for and writing about now that we’re riding across days in the night.

The open road in Kansas

After Eureka, we had another 20 miles or so to Rosalia and then 17 from there to Cassoday. It was getting warmer, we hit the Flint Hills of Kansas (little hills here, kinda rolling). We stopped to take some photos of us standing in the middle of the road and I’ll try to post those later, maybe tomorrow. Once in Cassoday, we met some other cyclists, Moe and Alan (visit their website). They have been cycling for 9 months around the U.S. and are from New York. They got a grant to do this trip and they’re doing interviews and photojournalist stuff that they’ll compile and put together and hope to show throughout the country, I believe in 2010 or 2011. So I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for more info on that. We all went to the general store/grocer to eat and then we wanted to find somewhere cool to stay for sleeping during the day. At the general store, we also met another cyclist, Bill (visit his website) – Moe and Alan had already met him back in Hutchinson, but he’s heading from west to east as well.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much here – the church wouldn’t let us stay inside, the motel was under renovation, and the school was locked up. We thought we’d have to camp outside in the city park – at least they had a water spicket there. So I was exhausted and started to get ready to camp out at the park, but then the guys thought it’d be too hot and wanted to sleep inside somewhere. They went door to door knocking to see if someone would let us just crash on the floor to sleep until tonight. They struck luck and we’re now staying in someone’s home and got here about 2pm and slept till 7pm. We woke up when the mom came to say she was going to a softball/baseball game and the whole family was going. They told us to stay and feel free to eat whatever and we’ll sleep till 10-11pm tonight. They’ll be back by then, I imagine.

Anyway, so back to bed… we’re heading out at midnight to cover more ground, about 80 miles or a little more. We’re going on to Hutchinson where there’s a really nice hostel so we’ve heard, so we’ll sleep there during the day and ride again at night to avoid the heat.

Enough of this – time to get more sleep.

GPS Stats:
98.9 miles
07:16 moving time
29.8 max speed
13.6 avg speed

Computer Stats:
100.38 miles
07:17:48 moving time
30.0 max speed
13.7 avg speed

Snake count: 1
Dog chases: 3 (at night in the dark)
Cars at night: approximately 5 or 6 the entire night.

Tuesday, June 23rd – Pittsburg, KS to Chanute, KS

Today marks exactly 4 weeks since we set off on our bikes leaving from Yorktown, Virginia. We have had 3 rest days during that time (one in Berea, KY, another in Carbondale, IL, and our latest yesterday in Pittsburg, KS). We have nearly reached our halfway mark which seems incredible to me – just about 1,700 miles into the journey and hard to believe that we’re now almost in the middle of the U.S. and literally in the middle of nowhere!

Anyway, today we got up at 3:30am and rolled out on the bikes at 4:45am. We made good time and saw about 6-8 cars in the first hour on the road. It was empty and cool, 77 degrees at 6am according to a bank sign we passed coming into Girard, KS. We had a good pace going and switched up every 8 miles with who was leading. We only had about 30 minutes of actual darkness before the sun started to rise. It was really nice though to get in 60 miles by 9:30 or so this morning. The miles went by really fast too which was nice. We’ve still got a ways to go today – another 46 miles or so to get to Toronto, Kansas. There we’re probably going to be camping as we can’t find anywhere with AC that’ll let us camp inside. It’s going to be hot! Woohoo!

We’re just relaxing and hanging out at the public library in Chanute, KS for a few hours. We’ve been here in Chanute since 9:30 and are heading back out to finish our miles probably around 3pm. But first, I’ve got to grab some food!

Currently our average speed is 15.0 mph, but I imagine that’ll drop as the second half of the day is resumed – with heat that’s absolutely horrible, near 100 and probably more than 100 with the heat index.

Revision: So it was too hot at 3pm, so we decided to stay in Chanute until it got cooler. We went to the fire house and asked if we could sleep there until later in the night (10pm or so). They arranged for us to sleep upstairs so we took our mats and sleeping bags up there and went to bed around 4pm. I woke up 3 hours later hungry and then couldn’t fall back asleep. I tried, but was too awake, so I got up and went to Walmart to buy a new tripod for my SLR along with a speaker for the ipod to keep us awake during the night riding. Yes, it may sound extravagant, but it was well worth it and we’ll be using it for several more days while riding so we can listen to music and keep awake.

GPS Stats:
60.0 miles
04:08 moving time
27.1 max speed
14.5 avg speed

Computer Stats:
60.56 miles
04:07:56 moving time
14.7 avg speed
27.5 max speed

Snake count: 2

Monday, June 22nd – Rest Day in Pittsburg, Kansas

Here begins the fun – I slept till 8:30 this morning then got up, uploaded photos, did some web upkeep stuff to back things up online. Made a backup of my computer as well. Then I headed to the post office to pick up my new insurance card and they couldn’t find my mail. I left, then went to Walmart to buy snacks and gatorade and such for the next few days since we’ll literally be in the middle of NOWHERE for about a week, I imagine. I came back to the firehouse and had spaghetti and salad again for lunch along with some apple sauce that I got at Walmart (for some reason had been craving it). I also got zebra cakes

Look at all that clutter - reorganizing, eating, relaxing a bit. Superb rest day!

Bright red fire truck!

So shiny, just like a mirror. Me playing around with my camera for a change.

Controls on the fire truck

After lunch I organized things and worked on some more web stuff, and re-packed stuff again. I started charging all my batteries as well. Then took a 15 minute power nap and then left about 3:30 to go bike to the movies. I went and saw The Proposal which I thought was really good. Got out about 6:15 and then biked back to the firehouse and along the way saw a sign that said it was 101.5 degrees outside. Phew, it’s hot!

We just talked about doing our biking super early and later in the day to try to avoid the most horrible part of the day with the heat. So we’re going to get up at 3am tomorrow and try to be on the road by 4:30am and start biking … hopefully it’ll be a little cooler, but still hot, of course. It was apparently up to 103.5 degrees today (when the guys saw the sign earlier).

So we’ve added more photos/videos if anyone’s interested:

• Chris’ videos on his YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/SkyRunner300
• George’s videos on his YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/raGe0rge
• More photos on my Picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/transamericanride09/