Wednesday ended the seventh week on the road. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but when I look back at all the stops along the way it puts it in perspective.
The towns are still very much spread out here in Kansas and in Wednesday’s ride, which was 60 miles, there again was nothing in between, such as a store. I was riding east and not into the wind, like I had to on the 19 mile stretch on Tuesday, so I wasn’t concerned about running out of water this time. I’ve met some cyclists who carry the smallest amount of water for the day and I have no idea how they make it last, especially on the more difficult rides.
The crosswind I had was at my back a bit and gave me a little boost most of the day. At first I started out on blacktop, which was smooth as could be. There was a thin, overcast sky which kept the sun away and made for great riding.
Further on the road changed from blacktop to a rougher surface and the wind started to slow me down. I saw a tree on the side of the road that provided some shade, so I stopped there on top of freshly cut grass to have lunch. Sometimes I’ll eat in 5-10 minutes standing up over the bike, as I did here. As soon as I got back on the road I noticed that my tires were absolutely covered in what are called Texas tacks, which are very sharp multi-sided thorns. I spent the next few minutes removing them and then rode on, thinking that after another few minutes I’d be back on the roadside fixing two flat tires. But luckily that wasn’t the case.
Along the way you’re struggling to find anything to take photos of, and you know you’ve hit rock bottom when you’re trying to find an attractive way to take pictures of haystacks in a field.
On some days it’s amazing how long the last 10 miles can take. In this case, at one point the route went due north for a half mile with the wind and you immediately just take off at 20 mph, free of any noise blowing past your ears. Then about a mile later I had to go directly south for three miles, in which I was down to 8.5 mph, along with listening to the jet sound of the wind. So by now, with the sun fully out and it being very hot, I was ready to arrive at the destination.
In Nickerson, there’s a place called Hendricks Exotic Animal Farm that I wanted to stay at. An ex-rodeo guy started the farm years ago. Here they have giraffes, zebras, ostriches and kangaroos, along with some not so exotic animals such as sheep and goats.
Cathy gave me a rundown of the place when I arrived. It’s a pretty popular attraction, but apparently not at this time as I’m the only one here. They’ve created a comfortable environment and wandering around the farm checking things out was great. One of the giraffes is particularly friendly.
For dinner I stopped by the local pizza place and talked to the woman who runs it. She’s from San Antonio and has six kids who are all grown and moved away. Then she decided to move to this small, random town in Kansas. I couldn’t imagine doing it, but she talked about how much she loves it with how peaceful it is and with no crime to worry about. Interesting.
Today it’s on to a bigger city called Newton, where I think the population is 17,000. I saw a roadside sign way, way back in Oregon where the bike shop in Newton advertised that they had a bike hostel– which was only 1,500 miles ahead. So I arranged to take a rest day there and stay a couple of nights. Looking ahead, it might even be longer as the weather report is calling for storms over the weekend.