Day 23 – Chanute, KS to El Dorado, KS

Mad props to JP today for carrying the torch. I woke up feeling lousy and decided to lose the Battle of Day 23 while I kept my sights on the war of the Cross Country Trip.

Too bad, too. JP had a great morning of riding. Temps were relatively under control and the wind was very light for the first few hours. He was able to put in some solid miles before noon.

It’s important to make something clear. Kansas isn’t flat like a plane in math class. Nope, there are some “hills” here. For example, these hills must be at _least_ 20 feet tall and we can only see like.. I dunno… 5 miles down the road at a time. And I think you can kind of see a curve in the distance.. maybe.

We passed a few more folks going east today (every day we pass a few more). JP met up with this gent from the UK. After some discussion, it seems that he had done nearly zero planning for this trip and was going to be out of cash in a few days. So JP and the guy on the motorcycle threw in a few bucks to help him out. Hopefully he’s able to make it to the Atlantic (and beyond).

I’ll be honest… we’ve passed a number of folks doing solo and small group self supported rides. After riding for the last 3 weeks, I honestly can’t imagine making this trip without support. I have a lot of respect for the folks that can pull off that kind of ride. We’re in an odd situation where we’ve got a hard date to make it to Vegas by – so the dates/location that we’ve put down for the duration of this trip are basically non-negotiable. Don’t feel good? Get SAG’d to the next stop. Heat getting the better of you? Get SAG’d up. Raining cats and dogs? Tough shit. Put on the rain gear and turn the pedals. I think if I were to do this trip again, I’d do it without hard deadlines and take more time to smell the roses.

Smelling the roses was one advantage to feeling lousy today. Heidi, the boys, and I went to the Butler County Museum, otherwise known as the Kansas Oil Museum. $4 for adults, $2 for kids. Seriously, this place must be the best bargain in Kansas. They had amazing displays, lots of equipment and structures that had been relocated to the site, and absolutely no one else there. It was super interesting, even in the 95 degree heat.

They also had ducks. Lots of them. They came up to check us out when we rolled up. The momma was pretty cool with us having a conversation with them… though some of the other birds were a bit more bothered by the MCC and all the yankees that came out of it.

They had a cable drilling rig…

Complete with cable.

And this crazy power generation device. The wheel must have been 20′ across.  I presume when the giant belt broke it was a very exciting time.

They even had a real refinery (just kidding… this is the big refinery just south of El Dorado.)

After some appropriately priced Mexican dinner, we found a car wash big enough to handle the MCC… mostly. The brush attachment wouldn’t reach all the way around so one side of the MCC is definitely cleaner than the other. Here’s an action shot with Heidi. Looks like it came straight out of a late 80’s hair band video.

I’m feeling better, so tomorrow, JP, Terran (!?!) and I will roll out of the hotel at 6am. There’s a heat advisory that will kick in shortly after noon, so we’ll definitely be done riding by then. We’ll see how many miles we can put down before the sun stops us for the day.