Day 33: Kansas!

98.85 miles (Total: 1657.71) Avg Speed: 13.4mph Max Speed: 25.5mph

Terry left early as usual whilst me an Joe made our way over for a Gas Station breakfast, not exactly a meal of champions but very necessary. We cruised out of Golden City towards Kansas holding some of our best average speeds so far. It still wasn’t flat though, but very gently rolling.

Pretty soon we hit the state line, Kansas. Slap bang in the middle of America, Joe would be approaching his halfway stage soon as his route goes directly west across Utah and Nevada, whereas the Transamerica trail which me and Terry are riding goes North from Colorado towards Montana before finishing on the coast in Oregon.

State No.5

We reached Pittsburg, Kansas and proceeded to look for one of the bike shops listed, I got stopped at a red light and then flew right past the shop Joe was stood outside because its covered by a huge tree. After a few minutes riding I realised Joe couldn’t be that far ahead so turned around and found him about a mile back from where I had came. I picked up and extra tube then we headed for lunch. For some reason we decided to eat at Sonic which is a drive in place, so we denied ourselves the air conditioning of a sit down joint. After eating too much too quickly like I always do we rumbled and burped our way out of town.

Things started to really flatten out after this point, but the directions got confusing. The map told us to take several turns on ‘unsigned roads’, if its unsigned how do we know which road to take! We double checked with some guys in a pick-up and we were on route.

Joe vs Tractor

70 miles into the ride we reached the small town of Walnut. Terry had earmarked this as a potential campspot but me an Joe had wanted to push on to Chanute as I needed a motel room to watch the Slovenia game in the morning. After sitting in a convenience store for a while Terry turned up and we discussed the options. Terry had been to the campsite and found no water or restrooms and was then greeted by some extremely racist locals so he decided to push on with us too.

There was a detour in place for the ride into Chanute, added to the extra mileage I did earlier in the day and this would be close to my first 100 mile day. It wasn’t to be as I reached the Safari Inn Motel at 98.85 miles. I considered riding to the store to bring up the hundred but pizza and world cup highlights soon ended that. In Kansas its only a matter of time until I hit over 100, we plan on flying through this long flat state.


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One response to “Day 33: Kansas!”

  1. keith Avatar
    keith

    Hiya rye,Kansas looks nice and flat much to your relief i guess.Just a word of warning mate,don’t hang around walnut if you can help it,i’ve heard it’s full of nuts.Take it easy.

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