Day 21

Mileage: 94

Total Mileage: 1721

Riding in the wake of a thunderstorm makes for a very pleasant day!

I considered doing another early start this morning, but the air was cool outside after last night's storm, and I remember yesterday's morning dilemma. When I kicked off before 5a yesterday, I remember wanting insistently to beat the heat, but feeling that I hadn't given my legs enough time to rest on only 6 hours of sleep. So I slept in all the way till 7:30 today and rolled out at eight, with 12 hours sleep under my belt.

And my what a glorious day to be riding! The wind is blowing up out of the south, but it's fairly calm and the sky is overcast. I pulled for 8 miles before stopping in a small town called Walnut (pop 219), where my maps indicated there was a diner. Unfortunately, the real diner in town was shut down and the only food to be had was biscuits and gravy at the convenience store, or else some of their bacon egg and cheese sandwiches. As I was paying for them, the clerk asked nicely, like most clerks do "Would you like me to fill your wattle bottles up as well?"

"Sure, that'd be great" I replied
"Alright, that'll be an extra 25 cents apiece"

I don't know why that was so strange to me, to charge for water, but it made me a little sour about that stop. I told her not to fill them and then just topped them off from the bathroom sink before I left.

For almost all of the ride today, I was cruising along next to big, open fields of corn. I've wanted to take some pictures that capture the sheer size of the agriculture I'm passing through, but I can't find a high spot to give any kind of vantage point. This is the best I could do.

For the first time so far this trip, I've been forced by practical considerations to start planning things out 2-3 days in advance. There are big open stretches here of 40-60 miles with almost no houses, no gas stations and nowhere to get food/water. If I'm not careful, I can end up facing a choice between riding a super short 70 mile day or crossing a long stretch to hit a 130 mile day. For that reason, I ended up taking a fairly easy day today with only 94 miles, finishing up before 5pm so that on Sunday I can start by jumping out across a 60 mile gap.

I've found that no matter where you go, the locals will warn you about the hills. Today, although I was riding in KANSAS, the owner of the place where I ate lunch warned me about some big hills coming up. I must have been a little dismissive, because she reemphasized by clarifying that they were real gradual hills, but they went on for miles and miles! That made me really happy to hear, because the best hill is a long and gradual one, not a short and steep one. I told her as much, which stymied her for a moment before she changed direction of attack. She then gleefully informed me that it was supposed to be a real scorcher; over a hundred degrees!! It seemed that she really wanted to impress on me how difficult my afternoon was going to be, so I didn't point out the fact that I'd been riding in 100 degree heat for a week, or that it was 3 in the afternoon and the hottest part of the day was already over. I just nodded sagely and griped with her for a while about how tough Kansas riding is. (*eye roll*).

I took a picture of the downtown main street in Eureka, KS, where I'm staying tonight. Every Kansas town seems to have this western styled main drag and I find it really cute. I stopped in at the Half Dollar bar and hung out for a while with the local farmers, learning about cattle farming and hearing about how things have changed in the last couple decades. It's the same story here as everywhere else; small independent farms are being consolidated everywhere into huge ones, because nowadays one family can just tend so much land. Regardless, most of the old timers have found some other trade to supplement their income. I chatted for a long time with a guy who makes specialty knives and learned a fair bit about the process.

Before I went to find food, I headed to City Park where I'm sleeping. They had a pool there, which was supposed to be closed after 5p, but there were swimming lessons going on. The lady in charge let me go ahead and jump in, which I did in full biking kit. I'd normally swim in my spandex, but they're unusable in public (due to recent modifications) and I wash my chamois out every night anyways in a sink, so I figured this was no different.

Cooled down, cleaned off and with all my stuff hanging out to dry, I headed over to Benny's bar and grill to get supper. I stuck around for a while after the dinner rush ended, talking to an old farmer named Dan and the bartenders/waitresses Trienne (right) and Yvette (left). I'm always curious what young people do for fun in these small towns, so I ask whenever I get the chance. The answer here was pretty much similar to what I've heard across the midwest. They spend most of their spare time just hanging out, drinking and driving around, doing nothing in particular. They didn't sound particularly excited about it either.

Tonight I'm on a picnic bench in the park. I finally broke down a few towns ago in Hartville and bought some bug spray, which I'm really thankful for tonight. I've learned to use the fireflies as a decent gauge of how thick the mosquitoes are, and tonight there's a veritable fireworks show. It's gorgeous and I'm hardly getting bitten thanks to the spray. Also, even in the middle of this town, the light pollution is so minimal that I have a full sky of stars above me tonight. I've got a long pull ahead of me tomorrow so I'm getting to sleep around 9. G'night!