Hello Kansas

Next few days look to be stormy. Maybe we'll see a tornado? Prolly not, but that would be pretty B-A.

Knee killed me even worse today. I think it's because I slacked off with the stretching for a little while. I've already begun stretching obsessively. I'm going to try some ice, too. I've refused a couple generous offers of Ibuprofen by me fellow riders. I don't believe in them dagum drugs, and besides, I think if my body is going to freak out and send stabbing pains through my knee, it's a sign to back off. I wouldn't want to miss out on that.

We're officially in the plains. Well, mostly. I guess it'll get flatter, but this afternoon was extremely flat. And windy- try 30 mph or so out of the Southwest. Reduced my speed to around 10 mph on the flat. 5 miles of road headed due north to Golden City: even with the bad knee, I was pulling 20 on the flats, it was awesome.

Met some riders coming East from SanFran to NY. They said Kansas was sweet- lots of 100 mile days, sidewinds out of North and South. I hope they didn't mean NW/SW- sometimes it's real easy for a tailwind to go unnoticed.

REST DAY TOMORROW. Hopefully I can pick up some chamios butter, stretch the crap outa my knee, read some Kerouac, watch a movie or three, and be totally ready to rock by Friday. I really hope so.

Best wishes,

Steven
Pittsburg, Kansas,
06-02-08


The adventure that was Yesterday:
A note on yesterday- turns out I wasn't the only one who suffered. Quite the opposite, actually. Everybody had lots of trouble with the gravel, which I didn't even notice that much because of the kneeness. Did i mention it was a 95 mile day? That's the farthest I've ever ridden in one day. I was actually the first person into town.

One of the dogs that chased me (and was thwarted by some water to the face) ended up gnawing on Shawn's pannier, scaring the crap out of a couple people, and ended up getting hit by an oncoming truck while running after the last pack of people. The old Chevy truck never slowed, and our riders could only stand and stare as the dog breathed its last and twitched as it died. Apparently it didn't split open like most of the roadkill we see, so they placed it in the owner's yard (they rang the doorbell, nobody home), and wrote a note explaining the incedent. The whole deal really kinda sucked. Dogs.

Ive seen tons of crushed turtles in the past 2 states. Today I stopped to help one across, and realized that it had been killed without any obvious signs of damage, only some blood running out of it's mouth. Others will have their intestines and shells spread over a few yards of the road. Cars.

Oh yeah, Telula left her wallet at some restaurant and didn't realized it till 10 miles down the road. Somebody was ridiculously nice enough to pick it up and drive it to our campsite 20 miles away. The gravel wreaked havoc on the girls' skinny-tired road bikes, and they got a ride in a pickup for a couple dozen miles. The guy had a pistol on the floor of the passenger's compartment, and seemed amazed that Becca was from the United States and not some far off country.

Aaron and Walker got stuck behind a paving truck on some hot asphalt, were enveloped in a cloud of paving-goodness, and freaked out when they thought their tires were melting. They weren't.