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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Days 40 - 44 /// Heat + Headwind = Kansas

I find myself writing this from the super posh, boutique Comfort Inn in Newton, KS. I wanted to crash the Newton Bike Shop and Hostel, but the owners left a couple days ago for vacation and have closed shop. Bummer. I was really looking forward to meeting other TransAm'ers, having my bike massaged, and sampling the all-you-can-drink beer they apparently have on tap. Again, bummer. 

We're all up in Kansas now and it's incredibly hot. I mean literally hot... and windy. It seems to blow northeast constantly, which is pretty rough to push through when headed west. It's no wonder everyone heading W to E talked about how miserable the Ozarks were. I reckon they were used to being pushed along like a sailboat on pancake flat ground for ~1k miles. Personally I thought the Ozarks were easy compared to Virginia and the Appalachians.

We've been meeting more bike tourists as of late. Jamie from Manchester and a nice couple from just outside of Munich to name a few. On a funny note, I met Erika and her two friends in Ash Grove. After meeting them I had three random guys ask if I'd "seen the three girls". There are so few females doing this, that all the guys get excited. So I call them the famous trio now. Hilarious. Erika, if you read this know you have a couple different groups of guys chasing and trying to track your crew down. Giddy up!  

Services in Kansas have been sparse to say the least. I rode 75 miles today from Eureka to Newton and the only place to get water was in Cassoday from a well in the public park. Hysterical, yesterday I rode through Toronto and stopped at the only open store in town. It was a liquor store, but Kansas law meant they couldn't sell anything non-alcoholic. So here I am, in the middle of F all Kansas, in 100 degree heat, and the ONLY thing I can get to drink is booze. Awesome. A nice couple saw me laughing about the whole thing and directed me to Lizard Lips, a restaurant two miles up the road. Plenty of fluids there and the best baked beans I've ever had. 

Aight... Time to rest up a bit, then eat like a fat kid.





Famous trio - The Femme Fatales

Best pie this side of the Miss'ippi

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