Day 49 - July 22, 2013 - Leoti, KS to Sheridan Lake, CO

Miles - 53

Total mileage - 1383

We got up on time and early today, and headed to breakfast at the Hi-Plains Motel. The motel used to have a restaurant, and the owner now offers a small menu of cooked to order items for breakfast. We ate a ton of food and left to go pick up the packages waiting for us at the post office. Erica picked up her shipment of Sheps, and my amazing mom sent us a package with camping food, GU packets, and the camera that we forgot back in Virginia. Thanks, Mom! 

We headed on down the road, hoping to make it out of Kansas before the end of the day. The weather was awesome early in the morning, with temperatures in the high 60's and only a small wind. It didn't take us very long to get to Tribune, KS, where we stopped for lunch at Burger Bar. The folks there were really nice and let us fill our water bottles with ice and water before we left. 

There wasn't much else to see for the rest of the day until we came to the Colorado state line, which we were thrilled to see.

The tiny town of Towner welcomed us into Colorado, but sadly had no services or anything to stop and look at. We had just 11 miles to our stop, Sheridan Lake, but of course, the winds picked up and blew right at us,and the temperatures were rising, as well. We took the opportunity to stop at an elementary school that had sprinklers on their lawn, and enjoyed just standing in the mist. Four miles later, we made it to Sheridan Lake, where the population is arguably 88 people, the lake has dried up, and the only place to eat is the gas station. We are staying tonight at Sheridan Lake Bible Church, with quite a few other cyclists on the same route.

Day 48 - July 21, 2013 - Scott City, KS to Leoti, KS

Miles - 25

Total mileage - 1330

Another short day, so we took the opportunity to sleep in a bit.  Turns out it was a good thing we did - there was a dense fog advisory and it was pretty chilly out this morning.

It was overcast as we left Scott City, and stayed that way all morning.  The wind was light, and almost a tailwind, so this made for some really nice riding conditions!  We even got misted on at one point.  

More of the same scenery today, but more of it for some reason - feed yards and oil derricks.  Traffic was light since it is Sunday, but we did get passed by a couple of oversize loads.  The drivers in Kansas have been the most considerate of all - almost all of them cross completely into the oncoming lane to go around us.  And almost all of the oncoming drivers wave at us.  Nicest people we've come across yet!

We got to Leoti around noon, and ate lunch with the after-church crowd at the one diner in town, The Route 96 Diner, and checked-in to the one motel in town, the Hi-Plains Motel.  Dinner came from a convenience store.  Leoti actually has a golf course, which we briefly entertained the idea of attending, but dropped that once the clouds burned off and the afternoon heat set in!

Tomorrow we will take advantage of our complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast at the hotel, pick up our mail, and get on the road early to beat the heat.  Temps are projected to be over 100 degrees tomorrow afternoon, and we would like to go about 60 miles or so to Sheridan Lake, CO.  New state, new time zone, woohoo!

Day 47 - July 20, 2013 - Dighton, KS to Scott City, KS

Miles - 30

Total mileage - 1305

Today was a perfect riding day - temps in the 70's, big puffy clouds in the blue skies, and a light cross/tailwind.  Gorgeous weather...we flew through the miles to Scott City and arrived before noon.

Along the way, we spotted an Eastbound couple on a tandem.  They stopped to chat for a bit, and found out they are in their 70's!  Way to go to them!  They shared our complaints about the terrible biting flies in Kansas, and didn't stop long to chat so we all wouldn't be eaten alive by these things...  There have been biting flies in every state so far, but by far the highest concentration has been in Kansas.

Kansas is a tough mental game...you pedal for miles and miles seeing nothing but the same old fields and pasture land. 5 miles feel like 20.  If you can't come up with other things to keep your brain occupied, it will drive you insane.  I'm tellin' ya...if this trail isn't throwing physical challenges at you, it's testing you mentally.

We were planning on doing at least double the miles we did today, until we realized we had a couple of packages waiting for us in a random small town only 25 miles from Scott City, and it was the weekend.  We have already forwarded this mail, so we really need to pick it up.  Which meant waiting until Monday morning.  While grabbing lunch, we decided to cut today and tomorrow short in order to be at the post office in Leoti, KS on Monday morning when it opened.  A tough decision to make when the cycling conditions are perfect, but we need some additional camp food that's in one of the packages for some towns in Colorado with limited services.

All we pass around here is cattle feed yards (also known as "cattle concentration camps", very sad), and those same old oil derricks.  Both are very stinky in their own way...

Day 46 - July 19, 2013 - Ness City, KS to Dighton, KS

Thankfully, the wind died down quite a bit overnight - it was only supposed to be 10 - 15 mph today instead of the 20-30 it was yesterday.  It was still a cross/head wind though, so not good can come of that!

Yesterday have us a serious beating - so much so that I (Erica) suggested sleeping in, which I never do.  We slept for probably an extra hour and a half, and I should have known better...

By the time we got ready to ride, it was just after 10am.  It was already hot, and we were worn down from fighting the wind yesterday.  This was not going to be pretty...

My bike computer stopped working a while before our trip, which is fine by me, since I am a number watcher, and each mile feels like a million when you watch every tenth of a mile tick by.  It makes the day feel incredibly long to me.  So after we had been pedaling a while, I am exhausted already, and ask Mel how many miles we have gone already.  We had no services for 31 miles or so to Dighton, and had planned to go 54 into Scott City today.  When she gave me a number that was less than 10, I nearly dropped my bike right there and put my thumb out to hitch a ride.  I was not doing well at all today...

We got about 15 miles in, and stopped at a historical marker for George Washington Carver's farm that he owned at a point in his life.  That was the line tree we saw today - our one piddly break from the blazing Kansas sun.  I laid down with my cooling towel on my face and really, really had to will myself to get back up.

About 5 more miles down the road, we see more cyclists in our mirrors coming up behind us.  It's always a treat to break up the monotony by chatting a bit with other cyclists while you pedal on.  These guys didn't chat long though, they were in tip top cycling shape, and doing long days, so they were quickly out of sight.

The last 7-8 miles into Dighton were a low point for me.  We didn't eat a proper breakfast this morning, just a protein bar, and I'm sure that had something to do with it.  I had my emotional breakdown, and uttered words I didn't think I'd ever say on this trip - "I just want to go home".  Yep, that decided it folks, Dighton was to be our new destination for the day.  Better get there before I do something really rash like tossing my bike into a  ditch, hitch hiking to the nearest regional airport and begging a ride from some crop-duster pilot to the nearest real airport to catch a plane home.  Yep, that thought obviously crossed my mind a few times...

We arrived incident-free into Dighton, and pedaled past the "Bowl and Diner" in search of other food options, but had to turn and come back when we found nothing but that and the Frigid Creme open.  No joke people, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.  So I ordered a salad in a bowling alley/diner.  It was surprisingly delicious.  The other two cyclists were also there, passing the afternoon eating and journaling, and there was a group if elderly ladies celebrating a birthday with homemade angel food cake.  The only thing they ordered from the diner was coffee (eww, coffee in the heat of the Kansas afternoon?).  The bowling alley was sadly not open for whatever reason.

We ate, then decided we would enjoy  some frosty treats at the Frigid Creme.  Then we found The Heritage Hotel, got a room, and laid down for a good long while.  They had an awesome laundry room, and when I went to put our closeted in the washer, there was the sweetest black cat in the lobby!  I told Mel she had to come out and per the cat, and that's when the cousins of the hotel owner came out to chat in the lobby.  They also brought out their other cat, a Siamese named Ted, and later their 3 dogs - 2 Daschunds and a Yorkie.  They were all so cute, and the lady and two guys running the hotel while the owner was out helping with the harvest were the nicest people.  

We chatted with them and enjoyed the company of the animals for probably a good hour, then finished some blogging in our room.  It was nearly 8:00 by this time, so we decided to see if the pizza place in town was still open, since the hours said it should be until 8:30.  But...it was closed (maybe for good, who knows).  Back to the bowling alley then...but it closed at 8 too!  Ahh well, good thing the Frigid Creme was open until 9, and sold food as well as ice cream...

We watched an American Pickers marathon until bed, then were awoken around midnight to a hell of a thunderstorm outside.  I knew this was good news for the farmers around here, since we heard it had been a very dry few years, and we were glad the weathermen were right for once and we had heeded the warning and taken cover inside for the evening, instead of in the city park.  Oh, and they were also showing The Goonies in the park, which would have been awesome if we could stay awake past 9 anymore, but would have royally sucked if we had stayed there and tried to sleep while most if the town partook in seemingly the only form of Friday night entertainment!

Hah, as I add this picture to the blog, I realize that Mel is also one of these people enjoying coffee in the middle of a hot Kansas afternoon!

Day 45 - July 18, 2013 - Larned, KS to Ness City, KS

Miles - 63

We woke up in Larned and got everything packed away pretty quickly. We ran in to the local grocery store, Dillons, and bought some drinks to carry with us throughout the day. While at the store, a lady had set off her car alarm and we spent a few minutes with her to try and help her figure it out. We managed to get the alarm to go off, after getting weird looks from store employees, plus waking up the entire town. 

We passed the Ft. Larned National Historic Site, about 6 miles out of town. Then, my friends, we found the wall of cross-winds blowing our way at 20-30 miles an hour. It was brutal, along with the kickback of wind we got every time a semi truck passed by. Thankfully, we were able to turn north so the wind was at our backs for about 20 miles. We really enjoyed this part of the day, as we rode up a few hills with little effort at surprising speeds. As we neared the town of Rush Center, we even enjoyed a couple of miles downhill. 

We stopped at Rush Center for lunch at the only place in town that had food...Greg's Pub and Grub. We didn't realize it until we stopped, but the heat was getting pretty bad. Earlier in the day, we met another cyclist from Savanna, GA doing the trail and swapped stories about making it through the Ozarks. He was just leaving Greg's as we were pulling in, but highly recommended the cheeseburgers. 

After a filling lunch, we set our sights and bikes for Ness City, a mere 31 miles away. We knew we might have a difficult time, as the winds were still blowing full force and we now were riding slightly head on into them. Riding into the wind is probably the thing I hate most about riding bikes because it turns something relatively easy into a challenge, and there is nothing you can do but keep going. 

At one point, Erica pulled into an old grain elevator to find water and as I pulled up behind her, facing north, the wind literally pushed me over the small hill onto the road to meet Erica. Riding in Kansas had been awesome up until this point and as the miles wore on, we were struggling with the wind and just not being able to see anything but fields for miles and miles. It's hard to describe the mind trick this becomes, but suffice it to say that we were convinced that Ness City didn't exist, because we were in the middle on nowhere. Finally, we reached a roadside rest area, bought some cold drinks and refilled our water and dreaded the last 18 miles to town. I literally watched the odometer and was counting down, which is usually my last resort to keep our spirits up. When we did roll into Ness City, we decided that we desperately needed showers and a bed to sleep in, so we stopped at the Oil Derrick Inn. Right about this time, everything else in town was closing up shop, except for one gas station and convenience store on the other end of town, so we hiked down the way and bought 5 different drinks and food we could heat up in our room. It was the end of a rough day for us, and we were glad to let the sun set on a difficult journey. 

Day 44 - July 17, 2013 - Hutchinson, KS to Larned, KS

Mileage - about 84

Total miles - 1178.1

We were more than ready to escape Hutchinson this morning, and were greeted with overcast skies and fairly cool weather for the first part of our trip.  We knew that after the small town of Nickerson, we would have a long stretch of 58 miles with no services, so we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of deli sandwiches for lunch, and we headed out.

We got to Nickerson fairly early in the day, stopped at their grocery store to use the restroom facilities and pick up a couple of Powerades, then heard someone calling to us from across the street.  It was a really nice lady, telling us that she and her husband are the unofficial greeters to Nickerson for cyclists - they have hosted over 1,00 cyclists in their guest house since the inception of the TransAm in 1976.  She said if we needed a place to stay, or even a day off, we were certainly welcome to it!  Seeing as we just had a day off, we had to pass, but such an amazing offer!  She told us an accountant joke, since we both work with numbers, then left us to our ride.

Not all that long after we left Nickerson, we saw someone in an oncoming SUV waving us down - it was Trisha V. from the againtoday.com (Brandi Carlile forum, for the uninitiated!) message board, who we had been talking through Facebook with about trying to meet up!  She wanted to host us, but was heading out for a family vacation for a few days, but still managed to track us down and bring us a couple of ice cold Gatorades!  Thanks so much Trisha, it was great to meet you - I only wish I had thought to take a photo of the three of us together!

We pedaled on.  When they say no services for 58 miles, they aren't kidding. There was barely a house for 58 miles.  Luckily we had a lot of water, and had packed our lunch!  After Trisha tracked us down, it wasn't too long before we saw another cyclist on the road ahead.  We caught up, then spent a little time talking to him - later finding out his name is Rick.  He's with a group of people that are a traveling Christian ministry.  His friend had a dream about them being on the West Coast, so they took off on bikes from Nee York- they do have a sag wagon as well.  There were about 7 of them who took turns riding and driving, 3 women I think and 4 men.  And a larger group of about 10 more that had gone ahead to a town further west.  

We needed to stop for lunch, so we let Rick ride on, while we stopped at a simple"T" in the road, sat on the pavement, and ate our sandwiches and granola bars.  Life on the road is so very glamorous!

We passed a nature preserve after that, one side for public hunting, one side with no hunting allowed.  There are also a ton of oil derricks in the fields in Kansas - probably bringing in more money than the crops or animals that the farmers also raise on their land.

We (read: usually me (Erica)) have such an issue with the last 10 or so miles or most every day...they are the most difficult, no matter how many we have done before them.  I took a million breaks, and did my fair share of whining I'm sure furing those last 10 miles!  To be fair, it was our longest day ever, and it was pretty hot in flat ol' Kansas.  

We pulled in to Larned pretty early given all the miles we did - it was before 5:00.  We grabbed a much needed dinner at Wendy's (see - fancy and glamour abounds on this journey!), then set out to find the city park. After walking up a hill - yes, in Kansas - someone graciously gave us directions.  We found that the traveling ministry folks were already set up there, and we called the police to check in.  Little did we know that we had to actually go to the police station to fill out a form for a free camping permit to stay in the park.  We were exhausted, but rode the mile or so to the police station.  The lady at the station had given me directions that included backtracking up the hill we had just come down - luckily I am smarter than the average bear and found a way there involving no climbing.

This permit was serious business - they had a form with your name and address, including those of all people in your party, and she took my ID and ran it through some database I think.  Crazy, considering that while we had been at the park the first time, we had witnessed a man screaming obscenities on the phone in his front yard about his kids lying to him, and some police activity at a hour about 4 doors down from that where a man had assaulted his estranged wife and her mother, according to a guy we assume is the town busy-body who stopped in his truck to chat for WAY too long as soon as we pulled in to the park.  We were actually wondering about the safety of the neighborhood around the park, but at least we had the ministry folks to keep us company!

I took a lovely bathing-suit shower at the city pool in one of those big rooms with shower heads on the wall (no privacy at all!), the went to the grocery store for some drinks, and our new favorite dessert - little refrigerated cups of ruby red grapefruit.  Delicious little things!  

A short while later, one of the police officers stopped by to tell us that we might consider moving our tent - we were fairly close to the street, which was on the "cruising" path for the locals until about midnight.  He also said that the local teens and stoners play basketball until late at night at the courts nearby - last year the skate park was their hangout.  Where are we?!?  So we drug our tent back further in the park, but still managed to be close enough to another cruising road where we were yelled at by some hillbilly with nothing better to do - something about going back to hell, but the first part of his insult was unintelligible...go figure.

We relaxed by the duck pond, near the fancy park fountain, and got in our tent before dark.  We soon passed out, even though it was super hot in the tent.  The police officer knew his stuff - we were awoken around 12:30 by the sound of basketball being loudly played nearby.  Guess the police officer knew what he was talking about!  You would think that after such an in-depth camping permit process, they might actually patrol the park and make sure the teenagers and stoners actually went home at a decent hour, but they sure don't!  Rough night of sleep, but we survived.

Day 43 - July 16, 2013 - Hutchinson, KS Weather Day

Weathermen (incorrectly) predicted thunderstorms today, so we had another day off.  It was plenty boring, with the only highlight being taking a swim at the hotel pool, which was formerly a water park (and playing some really bad water basketball).  They had apparently decommissioned the coolest parts of the water park - water slides and a lazy river - boo!

We played it cheap and took some of the hotel breakfast back to our room and saved it for lunch (don't worry, just bagels and fruit, no scrambled eggs or anything!).  Caught up on blogging, grabbed Mexican food for dinner, and stocked up on drinks at the convenience store.  A blast and a half, I tell ya.