OK, I know it's further than 44 miles between Ness City and Scott City, but that's as far as I rode on the bike. Robert saw me standing by the side of the road between Dighton and Scott City and stopped to ask if I was OK. I told him I was fine, just very hot. The reason he found me standing there is that I stopped after a strong gust of wind from the side almost knocked me off of the bike and off of the road! He offered me a ride to Scott City, and I took him up on it. He was driving a flat-bed truck and hauling a trailer containing a corn head to be delivered to a local farmer. He said that it is attached to a combine to harvest corn. I had to ask - I keep seeing all sorts of farm equipment, and I don't have a clue what most of it is used for. The farmer is trading in his old one for this shiny new bright green John Deere equipment - a $35,000 investment, and this is only a part of the needed equipment!
Robert was also able to tell me what one of the local crops is. I've been seeing something that looks like corn, but doesn't look like corn. It's not as tall, and it has a flower / stack that is a mustard yellow color. I've been wondering what it is since I first noticed it outside of Newton. It turns out that it's something called milo that is a feed corn.
It's very dry here, and several people have told me that it will get even drier as I move into eastern Colorado. Robert said that it's been over a year since they've had any significant rain here.
I have to admit, I'm ready to be done with the plains. If I could find a ride to Pueblo I'd grab it. It's really the first time on this trip that I've felt this way. I'm not ready to be done with my trip - just the plains. I think it's driven by a combination of the heat and the constant wind. I wish I could believe that when I cross the political boundary between Kansas and Colorado that the conditions would change, but it just doesn't work that way. This morning's ride was hard. The southwest winds were coming enough out of the west to keep my speed down to 9 miles per hour. I had a much needed break when Gary appeared on the horizon. At first I wasn't sure he was on a bike because he was moving so fast, but as he pulled up to me he said "you must be having a hard time with this wind because I'm getting quite a push". Gary is from Toronto, and is riding from San Francisco to Toronto. He followed the Western Express route to the Transam. The Western Express sounds really hard to me, and Gary confirmed that it was hard. He said that many of the campgrounds in Nevada didn't even have water. He said that he would ask the RVers for water. They were always happy to supply him with water, and many times they also invited him to dinner. We stood on the side of the road and talked for about a half of an hour. He said he was going to try to cover 150 miles today. I pretty much choked when he said that and asked if he had been doing 100+ mile days. He said not - that he was doing 40 to 60 miles a day in the mountains, and longer distances since he hit the flats. But he said he wanted to take advantage of the tailwind for as long as he could. Gary took an interesting travel approach to get to the start of his trip. He threw his panniers and gear in a duffle bag and took a bus to San Francisco. He said he was planning to buy a new touring bike, and instead of getting it at home he bought his new bike in San Francisco. The bus fare was dirt cheap - less than $100 Canadian! Gary had the Transam maps through Missouri and was trying to decide when he'd head north to get back to Toronto. I showed him my route through Missouri on US 54 and pointed out the hairy section through Jeff City and that there were a couple of days where it was 4-lane divided road for the entire day. He said that looked good to him as a start to head towards home.
After Gary and I parted company, I continued on to Dighton. I had lunch at a gas station convenience store - and spent some time talking to the manager there and the Pepsi delivery guys. I filled up my bottles with cold Gatorade, and hit the road again. After I left Gary the wind calmed down quite a bit. That made me much happier. It's so much nicer to be able to move at a somewhat normal speed. The thermometer kept inching up - to 115 in the sun. The official reported temperature was closer to 103, still very hot. It's almost 8 PM as I sit here writing, and the temperature is still 101 degrees. The heat is supposed to continue for the next couple of days.
I had hoped to start earlier this morning, but I really needed some extra sleep after the Larned city park. I feel much better today after a good 10 hours of sleep, but the extra sleep meant that I still didn't get on the road until 8 AM. I guess I have to accept my 8 AM start times since that seems to be what my body likes. Sometimes you just can't fight it.
After Robert dropped me off I headed over to the Athleticlub to check it out. They allow cyclists to use the facilities and sleep there for $8. A great deal, but the back room where the cyclists sleep seemed pretty hot to me. There were fans, and Gary said it wasn't bad, but I was so hot I really wanted an air conditioned room. For someone who normally doesn't like air conditioning I think I'm turning into a bit of a baby! I was able to get a motel room - apparently one of the last in town due to the county fair and a softball tournament. So I paid $34 instead of $8. It's still not expensive... And Kansas continues to be the hardest place so far to get a motel room!
After I checked in I headed to the grocery store to pick up some fruit. I was wearing my normal grocery shopping attire - bicycle clothes and my helmet. As I was deciding what type of yogurt I wanted for a snack a woman came up to me and said "you people are crazy to do what you do". We talked for a while. When I told her I'd like to be out of the plains, she said she'd be happy to hook me up with one of her friends with a pickup truck but that they were all involved in the softball tournament. Too bad - guess I'll just have to keep riding to Pueblo!
I still had a bit of a puzzle with my bicycle computer this morning. I just couldn't believe it - changing the battery in the transmitter fixed the computer so it showed my current speed, but it still wasn't recording distance. Everything else was working, so I was having a hard time believing that it was broken. It took me a couple of miles of stopping and recalibrating the computer to figure out how to fix it. The computer either tracks active (riding) time, or it tracks the time since the timer is turned on. I always keep it set to active time, but when I changed the battery in the computer it defaulted to time, not active time, and I didn't notice it. Once I attempted to start the timer and saw that it started recording distance again I realized what the problem was. I reset it to active time. Now it's working properly and I'm happy!
