Day 19

Mileage: 76
Total mileage:1534

Last night I discovered that the favorite pastime of the local youth is to get into loud pickup trucks without mufflers and rev them noisily up and down main street. Apparently the game starts around 8 and continues on until after midnight.

Unfortunately, I was sleeping on the lawn outside of city hall last night, which happens to be the hub for this activity. I slept intermittently from 9 till midnight at which point I sat up and yelled across the parking lot 'How late do y'all usually do this? '

In response I got a few seconds of stunned silence, followed by one kid timidly yelling back 'Sorry, we'll wrap it up!' Oops, I think I just ruined the one fun thing they have to do in town for tonight. They stopped about 15 minutes later.

Since I didn't get a ton of sleep, I decided to sleep in until 7:30. When I had packed up and hit the road, I saw another cyclist coming my way through town, headed west. I whistled hello and he responded by yelling the last thing I expected, which was 'Carl?!'

Enter Steve. He's been hot on my tail for about a week now and apparently I've left an impression on a few of the cyclists I've passed. He specifically mentioned Greg and Maura from Virginia and Kevin from Utica, who both told him that I was ahead and might be catcheable.

Steve deserves some describing, because I really admire the way he's doing this trail, even if it's not for me. If I'm a fast touring cyclist, he's a slow racer. He has a bit of gear, just strapped in aerodynamic panniers on his frame and no saddlebags. He's got a Garmin with the whole route programmed into it, giving him turn by turn directions and elevation information. It even had a radar on the back that senses oncoming cars.

Steve is a high school history teacher who's recently married, with a kid on the way, so this was his last shot at a big hurrah for a while. He has every day planned because he's riding from motel to motel and had to hit his reservations. On average I guess he rides about 90 miles, with stretches of 130 and even 150 on flat days, and does every day in one long extended pull, eating the food he's carrying on the side of the road. I rode a couple hours with him to Marshfield, but I needed to stop for breakfast and library Wi-Fi, so he continued on to Ash Grove.

In Marshfield I ran into Alexis and Travis! They stayed in the city park last night and rode out before me this morning, which explains why I didn't see them. They're also headed to Ash Grove so I'll see them there tonight as well.

Riding conditions were hot, hilly and windy, the triple combo. I took a picture from the top of one hill, looking over the next four you can see in that single frame. Fortunately they break soon as I cross Golden City into the mythical land of Kansas. I'm gonna have to start riding some weird hours to beat the heat. Today was 105 and humid and I never want to do that again. Steve is riding out tomorrow at 3a. I'll be behind him around 4.

A weird and unforseen problem is that I sweat so much, my chamois (that's bike shorts) get literally drenched. If I start to dry out at a rest stop, the salt crystallizes out, turning my pants into sandpaper. As a result I get chafing on the inside of both thighs. One way to beat it is to wear spandex underneath, but that had the downside of holding your butt in one stiff conformation, leading to some very focal saddle sores.

Today I think I found the solution. At one of my stops, I cut the back out of my spandex leaving me with what I call, for lack of a better term, my assless chaps. I wore them under my chamois today and it prevents the chafing without giving me saddle sores. And since it's under my shorts I don't even look ridiculous. I skipped that photo for you guys though.

Tonight in Ash Grove, I'm staying at a little house that the city maintains in the park for cyclists. Everyone I met today was here, along with a few others going east. For dinner, I was riding around the one main street to try and find an open restaurant and ended up checking out a hopping place called Soulfire. Turns out it was actually a Christian ministry and I was entering just as their service was starting, but they pulled me in and gave me all the hotdogs I could eat, so I stayed through the whole service which was very enthusiastic. Lots of rock music and 'Amen's' with some 'Can you feel me's!?' thrown in there. I met a bunch of people afterwards and they were really cool.

Full, I'm going to sleep for the night. Tomorrow I'm going to try to do a long morning pull from 4 till about noon and then see where the late evening can take me. G'night!