Winds and Flats
The plan on Tuesday was to leave the motel in Ness City by 7:00. That was a problem as I woke up at 6:57. The day’s weather called for winds out of the south at 18 mph later in the morning. This would normally mean a crosswind for the day since I’m heading east. The issue was that in the second half of the ride I had a 19 mile stretch where the route took you directly south before turning east again towards Larned. This was not good news.
With the time change from the other day, the sun rises late here so it was probably good that I wasn’t on the road at 7:00. I picked up a sandwich and some things for lunch at the convenience store. When I asked the cashier where they kept packs of mustard she told me “right over there under the hot dogger.” One thing I didn’t pick up was something extra to drink, which came back to haunt me as this was going to be a 63 mile day with no stores in between towns.
The first 33 miles were relatively easy. It felt like I was getting a little help from the wind and was doing 13-15 mph most of the way. But I knew the right turn south was coming up and that that speed wouldn’t continue.
I arrived in the town of Rush Center, which had a restaurant/bar that was closed. There’s a sign in town about “The Area’s Biggest St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.” I’m not sure where all the people come from as the population is listed as 159.
I turned right onto route 183 from Rush Center for the 19 mile southerly portion of the day. The difference is amazing with an 18 mph headwind. The noise is continuous and, wouldn’t you know it, this stretch of the route actually had hills. One after the other. I’m sure the hills wouldn’t have been much of a problem without a headwind but with one they only added to the difficulty.
I figured it was going to take me two hours to get through this portion. A few miles in I crossed into Pawnee County. Beginning here, on the shoulder of the road, were ruts everywhere to alert cars who go over the white line. This further added to the irritation because either you had to ride to the left of the white line, or try to keep the bike in a narrow little space to the right of the ruts. Highly annoying, mixed in with the wind.
Further on, my tires went off the side of the road. As I rode back on the road I heard the rear tire roughly scraping the edge of the pavement. I thought how that didn’t sound good at all. Sure enough, about a half mile later I noticed that the tire was going flat. I wouldn’t have thought that would have caused a flat, but that or something else did. In any case, it was the third one of the trip.
There looked to be no good place to pull over to fix it, but then I saw that I was near a drainage area below the road with a small concrete slab where I could repair it. It was very convenient and I needed a break anyway.
Another issue was that I was now down to about four ounces of warm water and I was really wanting something to drink. This was only the second time on the trip where I needed more water than I had. I resisted the urge to drink what was left and saved it for later.
Once the tire was fixed and I was heading back up to the road, a car was passing by and stopped. As I looked up I saw it was a sheriff. He said, “Hi there, is everything okay?” He was a big guy and had a big smile on his face. “Oh yeah, it’s fine, I just had a flat but it’s fixed now.” “You sure you’re all set” he asked. “Oh yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking.” “Okay then, be careful out here. Ride safely.” What a difference between him and the sheriff from Day 23.
By now I was ready to finish out the day. With about six miles left out of the 64, I drank the remaining warm water (and thought how I should have asked the sheriff if he had any with him). Shortly after that I arrived at a rest area at a Santa Fe Trail historical spot. It was like a dream come true with the water fountain they had. I drank two big bottles there and then when I got into Larned immediately after I had two large bottles of cold Gatorade.
What a day that was. One of the more difficult ones of the trip.
The winds are again out of the south at 18 mph for today’s ride, but fortunately I’ll be heading east the whole day.