Day 31 - Strafford to Rolla

On the road  little after 6 and it looked like it was going to be nice day.  It was humid.  So humid and I was soaked.  Wet shirt, pants and gloves.  Nothing was drying at all.

I stopped in a grocery store and got some fruit and drinks.  I thought I would try to dry out my gloves by sticking them on the shifters but after an hour they were just  as wet.

A lot of the day was up and down.  There were a lot of rollers where if you build up enough speed going down it will take you to the top of the next one.  These can be fun and if you keep up your speed you can really get going.

So what's going on here?

Around 11 it started raining.  For an hour it was pretty hard.  I was still wet but at least I was cooler.  Bugs kept flying into my shirt and biting me.  The rain was on and off for the rest of the day.

Coming out of Waynesville I took a wrong turn and after a mile or two checked the map because the drivers were even less friendly than usual.  You know you can sense an angry driver when they pass.  I had a tough time reading the ACA map on my phone ... the realtime weather had a big blue blob over the whole state for thunderstorms and with steamy, wet glasses I could not see the thin blue line for the route.

Most of the roads today were pretty bad.  I am definitely not enjoying the Route 66 as much as the TransAm.  Maybe it's just Missouri.

There was one nice stretch of road coming into Newburg.  Fairly new surface and almost no traffic.  Thick forest on both sides.  

Just after Newburg I encountered my first cyclist in over two days.  Jim Smith from Maine has been doing routes all over the country for years.  We had a good chat as the car passed (mostly angrily).

I had booked a room on hotels.com when I was about 30km out of Rolla.  For some reason I keep getting "accessible" rooms.  This is like the 5th time in the last week.  I must have some setting in my profile that says I'm handicapped.  I don't like these rooms and I hope I'm not taking it from someone who needs it.  Support was not much help and when they finally understood the problem told me to create a new account.

Going to have some BBQ now.  Hope it's good.

Day 30 - Lamar to Strafford - Get your kicks on Route 66

The dead bike computer was a big deal.  The Lezyne was two years old and it was a replacement for the one that caught on fire.  Did not quite catch on fire but the USB charging plug was smoking and all the plastic melted when I pulled it off the power.

So change of plans.  Mike found a bike computer at a store in Springfield.  They are harder to find than you would think but all bike stuff is in short supply now.  Half the day I would ride the TransAmerica Route and switch to the Route 66 where the two come within 9 miles of each other.  Route 66 goes through Springfield while TransAm goes about 15 miles north of it.  The cross about 20 miles past Springfield with Route 66 heading to St Louis and Chicago; TransAm continues due east.

Small town USA is mostly boarded up.  This is actually one of the more alive ones.

Route 66 should be easier for services as it follows Interstate corridors.  More like the Interstates were build to follow the old Route 66.

Springfield was a bit of a pain as most roads for bikes didn't continue through to anywhere.  I was doing a lot of turns.  I just put the bike shop into Google Maps and let it take me there.  Once off the busy roads it gave me nice tour of Springfield.  Went down fraternity row and through downtown which had some things going on.

At the shop I got a fancy new Wahoo Elemnt (not a typo) Roam and a new rear tire.

Getting out of Springfield was less fun than coming in.  By the time I got past the traffic I was also past the stores and I hadn't eaten anything in quite a few hours.  Fortunately, I had a pound of green grapes I had gotten at a country grocery store much earlier in the day ... I also got apple and bananas.  I ate the grapes in about 3 minutes at the side of the road ... they tasted mighty good!

It was getting pretty late and it was hot so I called it a day in Strafford.  Finishing before 3pm I seem to have a lot more energy than finishing at 4. That one to two hours is pretty critical.

Day 29 - Chanute to Lamar

Figuring a short day and that it would not get too hot I slept in to 5:30 and started late.  I ate the half pizza leftovers for breakfast.  

When I was collecting my gear I noticed my bike computer was dead.  Dead, dead, dead. Riding without a computer means you don't have a lot of really necessry data.  Next turn is in 5km ... I don't know how far that is.  Speed tells you if the wind is helping or hurting.  For a ride like this it is critical to have the information it provides.  I felt blind today.

It was raining ... not hard but enough to keep me soggy most of the day.  It is a pain to pull out the phone in its plastic baggie so I took almost no pictures today.

I thought about taking a more main road detour because I'd heard that a section of the route might be closed because of flooding.  Since it hadn't rained much in the night and it wasn't rain hard now I decided to risk it.  The road was open and while there was water in the fields it was well off the road.

I was thinking about my lost friend.  It was the Aquafina water bottle I had carried since the California-Nevada border ... I called him Water Bottle.  Water Bottle was with me leaving Great Bend and I finished his contents off when I ate my patty melt but later that day I noticed him missing.  I might have lost him on the sand road on one of the missed turns.  I fear I may have accidently littered him.  Together we crossed deserts, mountains and plains ... RIP (recycle in peace) old friend.

Roads today were mostly the smaller ones and traffic was pretty light.  It would have been pleasant if I was so soggy.  I stopped for breakfast in Girard which is laid out like the town in Back To The Future with the town hall in the middle of a block with shops all around.  About half of the shops were still shops.

Later I met the lone west bound rider of the day.  We did the usual exchange of info.  He was a software developer and had done the post-pandemic quit.

Highlight of the day was leaving Kansas and entering Missouri.  The roads got a little worse.

Since there were no motels on route that were not too close or too far, last night I booked one a little off the route.  I am in Lamar, MO ... the birth place of the infamous war criminal Harry S. Truman.

I should have booked off route in the other direction because I have decided to leave the TransAmerican Route and jump down to the Route 66 Route.  They run parallel to just past Springfield where they cross and Route 66 heads north to Chicago.  Route 66 goes through Springfield and they have bike shops.  One of which is holding their sole Wahoo computer for me.  It will be a bit of an upgrade.  Just now I was looking at my rear tire and it is pretty chewed up. The rubber is worn and the threads are showing.  I will likely be getting a new tire too.

Day 28 - Newton to Chanute

Long day ... short blog.

Somehow this morning I lost an hour.  I must have time traveled.  Alarm went off at 4:30, I got up and it was 6am.  Late start at 7 with chili from yesterday for breakfast.  Somehow I lost the spoon ... chili is not good finger food.

The route now starts to use country roads instead of main roads.  They are quieter but also rougher.  Eastbound I was getting a bit of a headwind and today's speed was going to be the lowest in the last few days. My first stop at 60km was the only store until 110km.  I eagerly pulled in and looked at the door.  No "open" sign ... back at 8am ... is is not 8?  Crap! Closed on Sundays! Is it Sunday?  Crap! It's Sunday.

Fluids were OK but I would need food before then.  The lower your fuel levels get the more everything hurts and the harder it is to generate power.  This would become and issue before I got to Eureka.

Today I had my first rain of the trip.  It wasn't heavy and was really only enough to keep me wet all day.  It did keep the temperture down and this was also the coolest afternoon of the trip.

I encountered Zach, a teacher from San Jose.  We had a good chat.  He told me what was ahead and I told him.

Finally in Eureka I selected the Sonic ... I needed fuel and fluids.  I hate eating like this but the mom and pop places almost don't exist any more.  I did see a local drive in burger joint at the far end of town I would have selected.  It was empty.

During the day the route joined some busy main roads with the narrow 2 foot shoulders.  These were not much fun.  Along one of these stretches I met a guy from Oregon/Michigan.  He warned me of some flooding ahead.  He had to ride through one and a half foot deep water across the road.

The main roads ended at a cycling famous stop, Lizard Lips.  They make you sign a book and give you a lizard to attach to your bike.  Like I say ... cycling famous.

Just a few miles further I made my final destination: Toronto.  Wrong one.  Cute little town that really caters to the cycling visitors.  I just took some selfies for my Toronto friends.  It seemed they were really trying to copy the Ontario signage.

Chugging along I met Chet.  He had started with his wife but it was too much for her.  His wife did 1000 miles, though ... mine did 0.  He told me the flooding ahead was no longer an issue.

In the last 40km the Sonic started to wear off and I started to fade a bit.  Fortunately,  that little reserve you have for the end kicked in - with the help of some Fritos - and I made it to the motel.  I was a little soggy but feeling OK.  No restaurant near by and it was much later than usual so I ordered Pizza Hut.  Today was not the best for nutrition.  I will buy some real fruit tomorrow ... I promise.

Day 27 - Great Bend to Newton - Missed a lot of turns

Last night Alicia and Beverly knocked on my door and we all went out to eat.  Alicia's friend Dave drove ... he has been driving sag for them and saving TransAmerican route cyclists.  We piled into Dave's van and drove to pick up Dara, who was staying at a church that hosts cyclists.  She was part of the large group I met earlier that day.

The motel had breakfast at 6am so I got ready and was the second one there.  Just after I order Alicia and Beverly came in and we ate together.  These random meetings are fun and probably the best thing about using a well documented route.

On the road I completed my first thrid quickly.  The girls had warned me about a really rough section of road.  I was thinking ... "Is this it?".  I guess it was as it was the worst surface of the day.  They are not going to like Colorado ... this was nowhere near as bad as the worst roads in Colorado.

At the side of the road I ate the patty melt I order for take away at breakfast.  Soon after I encountered Frankie and we had a good side of the road conversation.  He had been rescued by Dave the day before when his shifter cable snapped.  He is (was?) a merchant marine navigator ... his job is to not get the boat stuck sideways in the Suez Canal.  Like a lot of the young people I've met on the route he is probably going to take a break from work and have some adventures.  

Later I ran into Paul and Mike.  I thought they were old buddies but they had by chance met at the very start of the route and partnered up.  Like a lot of the old people on the route one of them had just retired.  A lot of that going around.

Passing Buhler I almost pressed on because the commercial area was a few blocks off the route but thought the better of it and turned back into town.  I found a Mexican place and as I guzzled about 2 liters of Dr Pepper and plate of carnitas, I realized I did need that stop.

The route zig zagged a lot today and I missed some turns.  The route is marked by a nations bike route number but as the ACA app warns a lot of the signs are "missing".  I ended up doing an extra 20km on the day which had me riding an extra hour in the heat of the day.  To get back to the route I did a few miles on a not dirt road ... a sand road.  Sand is hard to ride in.

I was a bit cranky and tired when I got in.

Day 26 - Scott City to Great Bend

This was a pretty quiet day.  Ready to go at 6am and grabbed some breakfast at the motel.  As I move east they are putting the breakfasts out earlier.  If I get food and can be on the road at 6:30 that works.

The first 90km went pretty fast.  The road was good and it wasn't too hot yet.  I saw a cyclist coming the other way.  Wes pretty randomly decided to ride the TransAmerica. 

I got to Ness City and it looked big enough to have a decent breakfast place.  A place the looked like a bar right on the corner at the four way stop was open but I had to look in the door to see that it was  restaurant.  The food was good but the air conditioning was better.  I told the owner/waitress she should put out a sign and she would get a lot of cyclists.  It's a long ride between actual towns here.

Back on the road ... I just pedaled.  One thing I was noticing was I was soaked.  Up to yesterday my kit would stay pretty dry as I rode but it was soaked through with sweat now.  I guess it will be like this from here on.  I love the feeling of a wet diaper.

I saw a sign for a rest area and thought I'd take a break.  As I pulled in I saw a bunch of touring bikes and joined in.  This was a casual group of about 10 that connected on the ACA forum and were sort of riding together.  They usually stayed in the same place but rode at their own pace and then ended up at the same place at the end of the day.

Later at Rush Center I found a sports bar but the kitchen had just closed.  They had a salad with ham so I had that.  As I was packing up the bike, Albert rode up.

The final 50km was just work but then Great Bend appeared and I knew I was done.  Just after checking in another cyclist checked in.  She and her friend were riding west and for the time being have some sag help.  I might meet up with them later.

Day 25 - Eads, Colorado to Scott City, Kansas

I'm in the Central Time Zone now.  Kansas.  The pictures today are not very exciting.

Last night at JJ's for dinner there were probably 10 cyclists there altogether.  I was sitting at a table alone and a cyclist comes in so I offered a seat at my table.  Ryan was racer ... something a few people thought I was.  I am no longer confused.  There is a race on the TransAmerica route.  It is a self-supported coast to coast race.  The winner has already finished.  here's the race link: TransAmerica Bike Race

Most of those guys carry about the same gear I have so now I understand why people kept asking me if I was a racer.

Ryan and I chatted at dinner and then I had a conversation with Ricky and Alisa, a couple from Kentucky who were heading east.  Ricky was riding his regular and Alisa was riding a Trek ebike.  This was working out well for them.  She beat him up the hills and he beat her down.

In the morning I saw Ryan at the road but I was still a few minutes from being ready so I waved him on.  I did catch up when he stopped for some pictures.  He has some pretty nice photos based on the sample he showed at dinner.  We chatted while riding  for a bit and then I pressed on.

The roads in Colorado were crap but they improved immediately on entering Kansas.

The day was kind of the same all day.  Most of the "towns" were just a few houses and some grain silos.  I stopped in Tribune and got some fruit at the grocery store.  Tribune had a few businesses.

Further down the road I stopped in Leoti - they had even more businesses - and asked around for some replacement sunglasses.  I sat on mine about a week ago and the arm broke off yesterday.  It turns out they stay on with one arm but I can't use my mirror to see traffic coming up behind me.  I had a decent shoulder today so it didn't matter too much but it is nice to know some giant truck is coming up at 80mph that you can't hear it because of the wind.

I ate lunch in Leoti at the Dairy King and then hit the home stretch.  Scott City is the biggest place I've seen since Pueblo ... population 3816.  It's also incredibly spread out and the only walkable food is Wendy's.  Oh, well.

Day 24 - Pueblo to Eads - Flat, flat, flat

Last night I went to the Japanese place, Momo, across the parking lot.  Considering it was sushi in a small town it was good.  The tonkatsu was really good as were the salads.  The miso soup was not horrible but the the rice was not quite right.  I have a rice cooker that if you put Japanese style rice in it will keep it perfect for hours ... if they had that the meal would have been quite good.  The fish was ok ... kind of what I expected.

I was on the road at 6am and knew there was a long stretches of no services.  I stopped at the last Jug and Loaf leaving town and got a sandwich.  That was breakfast.  I had a bit of a tailwind and was making great time to Ordway the midpoint.  Then I saw a cyclist coming toward me.  Greg and I had a nice chat by the side of the road.  He just retired as well.

Ordway was a pleasant little town.  It still had operting business: a bank, pharamacy and grocery store ... with real fruit.  Fruit has been far rarer than you would expect.  I restocked toothpaste and sunscreen at the pharmacy and got some fruit at the grocery.  I sat in the park and ate my fruit.

Back on the road I was maintaining a really good pace.  I started gaining on a cyclist and pulled up beside him.  The traffic was light enough we could ride side by side.  Albert is lives in San Francisco - from San Jose and not a hockey fan but I will try not to hold that against him.  He also just finished the Western Express.  I pulled away after a while as my pace was a little faster.

I started running out of gas as I got near Haswell.  Haswell is yet another one of those tiny American towns that looks like it was in a war.  Bombed out builds and a few houses.  There was a Post Office which looked like the only non-house building in the town tht was still functional.  At the far end of town there was a garage that had snacks and large selection of cold drinks.  I chatted with the guy working there.  He said the small meat processing plant shut down with cows lined up for the next year.  I don't understand what seems to be a vary viable business shuts down.  He said the local cows now have to go hours away.

Albert rolled up and we chatted a bit before I took off.  I started getting the feeling we may be leap frogging for a while.

With about 45km to go I cranked out the first 30 quickly.  Then the two Dr. Peppers I had in Haswell ran out.  It started getting hard but I was too close to take a break.

Eads is at a cross roads and has a few business, a restaurant and two motels.  It also has its share of bombed out buildings.  I was guzzling iced tea in JJ's when Albert walked in.  We refueled.  He was going to continue on to Sheridan Lake where there is a church that lets cyclists stay.

I checked into the lesser of the motels in town and because my expections were so low I found it ok.  Now I'm off to JJ's to eat my second meal in 3 hours.

Day 23 - Salida to Pueblo - Western Express ... check!

The Western Express Route is complete.  I now join the TransAmerica Route across the rest of Colorado and Kansas.  No more mountains ... the wind is now the foe.  I prefer climbing because you know exactly what it will take and how long.  With the wind you never know.  The exact same ride could take more than twice as long if you have to fight the wind.

Today started out nice, easy and fast on a 40km gradual downhill in a pretty canyon with river.  It was chilly enough I put on my fancy jacket for the second time.  I got to Cotopaxi and took a little break at the store.  I should have skipped the packaged breakfast burrito and egg cousiant I microwaved back at the motel ... they were grilling up egg McMuffin type things.

At this point the route left US50 and continued up behind the store on a small local road.  Signs warning of horse drawn carriages is always a good thing when you are on a bike.  It was a pretty climb that got fairly steep near the top.

The road ran parallel to a long snow capped mountain range on the right.  Probably the Continential Divide.  I got to Westcliffe in good time.  I saw the town from a distance and thought it could not be Westcliffe because I knew I still had 10km to town and that looked way too close.  It turned out it was 10km to town.  Distance in these wide open places are really hard to judge.

I had a sandwich in Westcliffe at a fancy and expensive coffee shop.  It was OK, but nobody should visit the fly over states for the food. What a snob.

With the exception of the 25km of brand new asphalt before Westcliffe, today's roads were the oldest snd crappiest I've riden so far.  Shoulders were rare and the cross seams jarring.  After a long climb out of Westcliffe the descent was painful.  I used my brakes because the road surface was so bad.

It got hot on the descent but with a bit of a tail wind I made execellent time to Pueblo.  I was in one of those bad places where I needed to stop and eat something but was too close to the end to do that.  When you start running out of gas things start to hurt.

I pulled up to the Santa Fe motel ... not the classiest place I've stayed ... at 2pm and was told to go away for an hour.  Like all the rooms magically are clean at 3pm and not before.  Ugh!  I killed 35 minutes at the Taco Bell across the street and then was allowed to check in a few minutes early.

For dinner I'm going to check out the sushi place across the parking lot ... I like to live dangerously!