Kansas Pics

Oooh.
Uck.
Sorry, terrible photos. Dunno how I managed that one.

There's no way to capture the beauty of this place in a photo. It doesn't even look that nice with sweat-smeared sunglasses on. But when you take them off, and see the unframed landscape, it's nuts.

Crosswinds ctd

Shawn, John, Helen, and I played hearts at this restaurant in Rush Center, where we slept last night. I didn't ever figure out what the place was called. I had to conceal my French accent, for obvious reasons. This was probably one of the least friendly places in Kansas, yet it was more friendly than most of the places in previous states.
Today is cloudy. It's not a gloomy cloudy, though (photo's underexposed). It's actually really relieving to not worry about the sun for a change. Kansas is still sweet.

We ran through some irrigation spray that was drifting over the road (thank you crosswind!). Didn't know if it was just water or if it had some wonderful pesticides in it, so I held my breath. The mist felt amazing in the 98 degree heat.
Ran into this guy yesterday, his name is Steven with a V (Hi-five!!!). He was smoking a cigarette on his way to Oregon. (Not so hi-five!!!) His daughters just graduated college, he divorced his wife, quit his job, and hit the road. (Can't say I've been there!!?) I wished him luck. I'm sure we'll meet again. He was not as creepy as this picture makes him out to be.
Gas station. Only in Kansas.

These guys made like we wanted to talk. We were kinda preoccupied with the whole riding across the country thing. Sorry guys.
Sunrise on the road

Tourist shot. This photo was taken right after splitting up with Shawn and John. They went ahead after I took that photo of le turtle.

The Adventure that was Yesterday, continued (but it was really the day before yesterday, you feel me?)

Aaron had told me that they'd prolly get a late start: roll into Hesston no later than 9.

I woke up at 6 just to get out of the church premises before people started showing up in the morning, and I somehow packed everything on my bike in 15 minutes flat. It normally takes me 30 or 45 to get all the stuff rolled up, stuffed in, and bungeed to the bike. I felt like superman.

I went back to the park and ate, read 50 pages of On the Road, stared wishfully at the now dormant ring of water, and did some sketching. Aaron called me before 9 to let me know they'd be running a little late, and that they hadn't left the house of some TransAm vets that'd put them up for the night.

By 10, I was getting a littly impatient, especially because the sun was starting to get really hot, and I was sitting in my tight clothes, so I wouldn't make them wait when they arrived. At 11, I gave them a call to see where the heck they were, but again, nobody answered. By 1130, I decided to roll. I didn't have a clue where they were- they might still be on their way, or they had passed through and hadn't been able to reach my phone or something. Either way, it was getting late, I had been up for more than 5 hours, and I didn't want to have to ride too late.

I got on the bike and rode a couple miles down the road before realizing that I had probably missed my turn. I cussed a little bit and turned around. It was almost 12, and I didn't have much food, so I decided to wait till 12 at the grocery store for it to open.

5 minutes to open, sitting on the curb reading, Shawn and John roll up. Aparently they had gotten some flats and had some trouble getting ready and whatnot, and hadn't left until 11. The rest showed up shortly, and we left half an hour later.

Lesson learned. Don't get split up. I type this now, after riding ahead of the group to the Library in Ness City. The others said they'd be coming. We shall see yes?

Road to Sterling. Not supremely interesting. Sterling was pretty sweet, though. The last 5 miles were straight North, with the wind. We flew. 28 on the flats, 35 on the not-really-downhills. Got there JUST as the pool was closing, so we surveyed the lake for "No Swimming" signs, saw none, and jumped in.

John was on the shore when a woman came up to him, told him about the $300 fine for swimming, and he yelled at us just as a cop rolled up, smoking a cigarette, and walks up to John. We drag ourselves out, trudge over to the cop, who's now jotting some stuff down on his pad-thing. He got our names and info and gave us a warning.

He really didn't care, he actually swam in the lake when he was a kid. Aparently all the poop and stuff gives people infections when they go in it. Shower, cook, rogue sleep in the shelter. Up at 4AM to catch up with the rest, who had ridding until 2AM, 50 miles down the road. Crazy kids.

Steven

07-08-08

Ness City, KS

60 more miles to go.

Hello Crosswinds

note: finished off captions for previous post. checkemout.

Ah, so lots of cool stuff. I've been trying to write stuff on my hand so I can remember what to talk about when I get to a Library, but lately there's too much sweat and grime on me skin and the pen just clogs up. Gross.


The Adventure that was the other day

Sooooooo, I last posted from Newton, KS. Well, before that post, I had called a few people and left em messages asking them to call me back when they got into town. I wasn't quite sure if we were stopping in Newton, or the town 10 miles down the road. After the Library closed, I still hadn't gotten a call, so I called the rest of the crew. I called 7 people in total, and only got voicemail. I was getting kinda worried, because it was definitely possible that they had gone right through assuming that I had done the same.

I figured I might as well tour town, so I pulled back out onto main street and my heart jumped when I saw a few bikers half a mile down the road. I couldn't make em out real well, but I thought I saw some panniers, and Aaron's red jersey, so I started sprinting in my cargo shorts and flip-flops.

They made a left turn (like the maps instructed) and I followed, but when I went around the turn and found myself on a residential thru-street, they were nowhere to be seen. Vanished.

I rode about a mile down the road, hoping to see them, and pulled over in a high-school parking lot in frustration. I made a couple more phone calls, to no avail, and tried to figure out what I should do. I didn't know if it was them, but if it was, I should go to the next town. If I waited in Newton, I might have to play catch-up the next day. I had no idea if they were going to call me.

I finally decided that I should go to the next town, which was much smaller. I figured I'd have a much better chance of finding them there, than in Newton, which was 5 times the size of Hesston.

11 miles down the road: Hesston, KS. I had ridden 110 miles thus far. Gas station attendant hasn't seen any bikers. Neither has grocery store. Crap. Phone finally rings, it's Aaron. "Hey, we just got here." "Where's here" "Newton" Crap. I decided I would ride back to Newton and have dinner with the crew. After trying to ride a few feet into the headwind, I changed my mind.

I ended up cooking in a SWEET park. Real big, see-saws, tall slides, some crazy gyroscopic astronaut training device, water cannons, A RING OF WATER. My eyes water just typing about it. I prolly woulda looked kinda funny running up in front of all the parents, shoving their children aside, and jumping gleefully through the beautiful ring of m ist. I will regret not doing so for many years to come.

As night fell, I was talking on the phone (one bar signal, yaay) to the one and only George, when I was viciously assailed by some ridiculous mosquitos. They were getting me through my shirt. I had to hurry up and finish the phone call, frantically pack my tent, and race out of the park, past a few young folks who didn't seem to be having any mosquito troubles. Dagum kids.

It was mostly dark, so I scoped a little plot of gras behind a United Methodist Church, tented up, jumped in without any mosquito buddies, and fell to sleep at ten.

Well anyways, it's not over, but we are about to roll out of the Library at Larned. Did 51 miles by 9 oclock. I'll wrap it up later, promise. Purty pitchers, too.


Talk to ye soon,
Steven
07-07-08

Happy 4th!//Kansas r0xorz

He didn't wave. What a jerk.
Soooooooo, these are not roads.
Nice one, Walker. I've only gotten one flat so far, a super slow leaked that lost about 30 psi a day. Caused by a tiny little sharp rock. So much for flat free.
There are hills in Kansas?? WTF?

A not so flattering picture of Telula, Helen, and Becca.

4th fireworks, shot by the locals. There were no official fireworks in Pittsburg, KS.

But they did have a sweet street party. Lots of bad country music covers and some Will Smith rap!?!? It was fun, though, talking to all the locals. Many of them were quite befuddled when they learned that the girls were from this country. I was taking pics with my big camera, and some semi-wasted girls come up and are like "Oh my gosh, are you a proffessional photographer?" "No." "Oh my gosh, if we take off our shirts will you take a picture of our boobs?" "Ummmmmm, no." "Are you gay?" The funny thing is, that really happened.

The past couple days have been super sweet.

A few naysayers of my decision to ride East to West cited the fact that the winds would be blowing in my face the whole time over the planes. According to adventurecycling.org, the wind mostly comes out of the south. Well, for the past two days, it's been blowing SW or NW. What does that mean? Fast rolling, no wind in the ears, long miles, super fun.

We've covered 200 miles in the past 2 days.

Other great stuff:

• Me knees feel a LOT better. I've been able to hammer away (with a little restraint) all day, without anything more than a hint of pain. I'd call it pressure. I hope it's due to the overtime stretching I been doing. I've also been giving em a little ice. No drugs, though


• My butt feels a LOT better. Before the trip, plenty of friends insisted that Chamios Butt'R was freakin awesome. I quietly disagreed. My idea of freakin awesome has never been rubbing squishy cream on my ass and inner thighs. Turns out it's not squishy, it's a lot like moisturizing cream, and it is FREAKIN AWESOME. The chafing was becoming unbearable at the end of long rides. For the past two days, it's just been a little unconfortable towards the end. Plus I get to wierd people out by making a big deal of butt lubing time.

Peter Gabriel. In your eyes. Stuck in head. I hate you Aaron.

I must go! Library is kicking people out. Also must find rest of group. I'm ahead today!!

Uber-quick shout out to Mrs. Bishop! Linda told me you are my most dedicated fan! I'll be sending you an autographed Steven blow up doll right away!!!

Fare thee well,

Steven

06-05-08

Newton, Kansas

Yippeee! Hmmm, no Colleen. At least I'm welcome.
They dropped a couple names o towns I'll be going through (Big Sur, Sacramento) so I'm ever so slightly worried. But not really, I'm a lot more concerned with just getting to CA. Recent bodily malfunctions have got me worrying if the Aug 6 San Fran deadline is realistic. The group has been going faster lately, so I really don't think their pace will be an obstacle, only my abilities.
Went to get some food and find a can opener in Pittsburg. I coudln't stop thinking about how much I hate these city strips. I snapped a picture to remind me of the sick feeling in my stomach. Am I the only one that finds em disgustingly impersonal and wasteful? I dunno if me bum is ready, but I'm sure ready to be out in the middle of nowhere again.

I didn't find a can opener and the guys at Ace were jerks. What the deuce.

On the plus side:

The library is FREAKIN SWEET. In my cross-country library tour, I've never seen a library so schweet: public, university, hole-in-the-wall, or otherwise. They have an entire shelf of graphic novels, a totally relaxing reading section, and some friendly (and chatty) front deskarians.

I've been reading the main stories (Columbian hostages rescued, 600 Starbucks closing, fireworks-related home destruction, Witchita teenager murdered over a car honk), checking out the Rolling Stone interview with Obama (pretty sweet). I also remembered that the radio that I brought with me (thanks Aunt Jean-Jean!(no that's not her name, but I can't type in Mandarin, sorry) is also an MP3 player, so I loaded up some NPR podcasts. Prarie Home Companion seemed appropriate, as well as some BBC World News to keep me up to date, and some Car Talk to counter the car-hate.

Bike shop here is kinda sad. Have yet to come across a nice one. The closest one was in Charlottesville, but the employees were kinda jerktastic.

Steven
07-03-08
Still in Pittsburg, KA.

OH YEAH!! Missourri is MO. I don't know how I didn't figure that out sooner, MoDOT trucks were all over the place.

Last tidbit, FYI: While I love the fact that gas prices are at record highs (for obvious reasons) it also kinda sucks for many of the people in the areas we visit. Rural drivers have to drive farther to get necessities, and gas costs them more because the trucks that deliver the fuel have to burn more fuel to deliver the fuel. Super.

Okay, time to go rest.

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.

Picture time!!!

Have I mentioned Im in Missouri? Have I mentioned I don't know the abbreviation?
We braved the mighty Mississssip, a really narrow scary bridge, 30 mph winds, and thats about it to get to the big M-whatever. You had to lean your bike into the wind, and then lean out just at the right time when you were passing a girder. The speeding commuters were a sweet bonus. Please observe the road leading into what used to be a field.
Home o Popeye. Chester.

Would you like a beer? What kind? Beer. No seriously, whats the name. It's just called Beer, well, Beer 30. Shut up. No really, I'm totally for serious. Seriously? Totally for cereal, dude. Wow.
Look! A pretty spring! 81 million gallons a day. Thats nuts.

Don't worry, the spoke in your derailure helps with shifting.We all thought Shawn was a genius for taking advantage of the passing thunderstorm to wash his nether regions. He quickly learned that roofing tar does not help with chafing.

Seriously.

The route took us on some roads that were under construction- tons of gravel. The speeding cars and construction trucks threw up TONS of dust. It was mighty scary on the downhills too, little banks of gravel popping up to throw you off. And it was super fun with all this stuff happening with a roaring engine on your back.

The dust got my throat really dry, so I went to take a gulp of water, and a freakin giant bug flew straight into my mouth along with the water. I spit it out everywhere and half laughed, half gagged for about a minute. Then I took this picture and climbed a monster hill.

Post rain windy road. Hit 43 mph on the hill before. The guys ahead hit 48.

On.
Today was a very hard ride for me. After 10 days without a rest day, the chafing is becoming a bit severe, my left knee is killing me, and the heat didn't help. Plus I got a sweet stabbing stomach ache of pure nastiness when I tried to go too long without eating, and it's still sticking with me (I gotta go lay down for it to go away). We are resting on the 4th, however, and I'm wery excited.

I wasn't too busy suffering to enjoy the scenery however, and I was able to help this little guy cross the road.

Guess whoooooo. Even my shadow looks dorky. Oh well.

Ash grove tonight.

Bendavis last night. (thanks random gas station guy!)

Emimence was Beer30 night.

Chester was Popeye night.

Now I go wash road grime off meself in the library baño. Oh yeah, and find people. We got split up (and by that, I mean, I was super slow), and nobody's answering cell phones. Thanks guysssss.

Steven

07-01-08