Sleeping in a Bike Shop
Through the 50th day on Thursday, I’ve ridden 2,505 miles since August 4th. My average for 43 days on the bike is 58.25 miles. It’s a 49.1 average with all the rest days included, including today, the 51st day.
I began watching a documentary last night called Inspired to Ride which is about the 2014 inaugural Trans Am bike race. The riders followed the same route I am, but they weren’t averaging 50 miles a day. They were riding around 250 miles a day and hardly getting any sleep along the way. It was just one long race with no stages. In 2014 the winner had a time of 17 days, 16 hours. These people must be from another planet to enjoy doing something like that.
One good thing about my ride on Thursday was that trees began to appear more often and the scenery was a little nicer. I passed by Buhler, population 1,300, around lunchtime. You had to take a right off the main road and ride a short distance to reach the center of town. I decided to check it out at the last second, passing the schools and houses along the way before getting to the business area.
While parking in front of a store, a girl passed by. She asked about the trip and told me about the cafe she worked at up the street called the Mustard Seed. I hadn’t eaten much in the morning so I decided to go there. It was a trendy little place and a nice break in talking to the people who worked there.
On the way back to the route, you notice how nice the city park is, how good music is playing in front of one of the shops, signs that point out which direction things are in town and also signs saying to share the road with cyclists. Everything seemed to be in perfect order. So if you had to pick a small town to live in along the route in the middle of nowhere, I would rate this as one of the best.
It was 49 miles for the day to Newton. I had made arrangements to stay at the Newton Bike Shop, owned by James and his wife Heather. Their shop is a well known stopping point for riders on the Trans Am Bike Race and they are briefly in the documentary I had mentioned.
James is a very talkative guy with interesting views on the bike industry and the politics of setting up a business like this a small town. The set-up at the shop is great. In the back is a big room where you park your bike. They have a couch, a pool table, arcade style video games, air hockey and a separate room to sleep in. They give you a key and when they leave after hours, you’re on your own. When you go out at night and come back, you enter through the shop’s front door. It was strange coming “home” last night to a bike shop. I was the only one here then but three cyclists from England are arriving later today.
I had asked Heather about football in the area. It turns out their son plays for the local school and she invited me to go with them tonight to the big game which is on the road in the next town. So it’s Kansas high school football tonight and riding again tomorrow.