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.

Day 22 – Ash Grove, MO to Girard, KS

Kansas. It’s hot, flat, and built on a grid. This is not what you’d call great cycling country. That said, it’s in between the Rockies and the Appalachians and we have to ride through it. So here we go.

We got sort of a late jump today since we started so far outside of Springfield. It was already a bit warm at 8am when we hit the road. Temps (and wind) only climbed form there. We had a few subtle hills on the way out of Ash Grove, but before too long things got flat for serious with only small rises noticeable over each little rise we came over.

Bobby got a sweet action shot out the MCC window.

And Heidi captured this awesome shot of a train going by. You’ll be able to purchase prints online 😉

JP managed to get in 42 miles in Missouri before needing a little help to get to the Kansas border. We rallied just before the border and rode over it together. The sign for Kansas wasn’t very impressive. Heidi even missed it the first time and had to loop back.

I managed to kick out 83 miles today. The wind was basically out of the south at 15mph and most of the route was due west. In fact, one stretch of the route was 33 miles due west. No turns, nothing. The wind was pretty difficult to deal with towards the end of that stretch. But the few times I got to point the wheels north, I was flying. I ran out of gears a few times on the flats and was pegged out at nearly 30mph. That almost made up for the westward sections (almost).

Heidi and the boys stopped at the Crawford County Historical Museum while they waited this afternoon. While Crawford county may not be the most well known county, the museum was pretty cool. They even opened up early for the crew as they pulled in about 45 minutes before opening time.  This steam shovel looks a lot like the one from Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel if you ask me.

The museum even had old computers on display from local businesses that were no longer around. I think I’d find that amusing but I’m sure none of my kids know what a floppy disk actually looks like.

Trying for 92 miles tomorrow. Leaving at 6a to make it happen. We’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be hot and windy again, and this time we’re spending the better part of 45 miles on the same road heading due west. Can’t wait.

Day 21 – Springfield to Springfield

Today we rode from Springfield to… Springfield! Along the way we hit Ash Grove, Walnut Grove, and the Frisco Highline Trail. Things are starting to flatten out, even when you don’t include the rail trail we rode.

JP and I went on a self supported ride today out and back from Springfield. Rather than get up early, drag everyone to the ACA TA route, and basically just ride past the north side of town, we picked a route that ran out to the TA trail, spent a few miles on it, then kicked back in to town. That way Heidi, Art, and the boys got one last day of rest before they restart SAG duties.

Riding SAG may sound easy, but it’s actually a lot of effort. Keeping track of where we are, keeping us fed and watered, dealing with a car load of kids, and generally having to be ready to deal with whatever comes up can be draining… both mentally and physically. Our support staff have been fantastic on this ride and we figured since we had the opportunity to get them one more day off, we should. And thankfully, we succeeded 🙂

The ride out the rail trail was fast and easy. There wasn’t much of a crowd and the wind was at our backs. The first 8 miles of the trail are paved, and we bailed right before the pavement ended. Once we got to Ash Grove, we stopped for some liquids at the local gas station. We found this whiteboard that listed a bunch of cyclists that had stopped along the way.

At the gas station, we talked to a local. “Where are you going?” “San Francisco.” And then we started heading east on the TA route (that was our path back to Springfield). I’m sure he was confused… or thought we were confused. Either way.

While we were gone, Heidi and the boys hit up a massive farmers market right next to the hotel. They had crepes and bought some more fruit for the MCC. Then they hung out in front of the hotel in the shade to do some reading, chatting, and playing with Dax. Terran spent some time throwing a small football with Dax. While Dax may not have the coordination to catch the ball yet, he definitely has the enthusiasm.

Once I got back from the ride, we took the MCC on a little sight seeing trip. There’s an app called Roadside America that lists all kinds of odd attractions in towns and cities across the country. After checking the list for Springfield, we decided to check out the world’s largest Solo cup:

As well as the largest bridge observation platform (yeah, that’s a thing). Here’s a picture from the bridge. Rail yards are exactly as exciting as you’d expect, especially on a weekend.

Finally, today was Heidi’s and my 17th wedding anniversary. Crazy. So we celebrated by leaving the kids in the room with Lunchables and fruit while we had dinner downstairs at the hotel. Burgers and hummus. But we didn’t cook it and we didn’t have a 2 year old climbing all over us. And we had each other. So it was a good meal. 🙂

Tomorrow we’re back on the route for serious. 100 miles is what we’ve got planned, but the temps are supposed to skyrocket as we start our days in Kansas. We’ll see what that does to our mileage.

 

Days 19 and 20 – Springfield, MO

We’re in Springfield Missouri today. And we were here yesterday. And we’ll be here tomorrow. We’ve hit an odd point in the route and the schedule where it made the most sense to be in one place for a few days in a row. Since the 4th is a holiday (surprise!), we moved our rest day from the 5th to the 4th. And JP is taking today as a second rest day to try to get his legs back under him. and the route for tomorrow basically just takes us north of Springfield. So rather than Heidi, the kids, and I skipping through a couple of small town dumpy hotels on a holiday weekend, we fast forwarded a bit and came to Springfield. While we’re still riding the route, we’re using this town as a base of operation for a few days as a) there was something to do over the holiday and b) we’re holding off on the dumpy backwater hotels as long as possible.

All that said, today was Terran’s first real day in the saddle since we started. The hills of SW VA and Kentucky were a bit tough for him to start on, so now that we’re hitting some flats, its time to get him going. We went for what should have been a 35 mile route across and back through Springfield. He made it 30 miles before he threw in the towel. Honestly, he did great and kept a strong pace the whole time. 2.5 hours was just enough for him at this point.

But we’re ahead of ourselves. Yesterday was the 4th, one of Heidi’s favorite holidays. To celebrate we got all the boys haircuts. Yep, even the 2 year old. The hands of the hairdresser were shaking as she cut Dax’s hair through all his protests. She did a great job but it was stressful for everyone involved. Later, Heidi tried to get a bit of a family photo of the boys. Safe to say it was one of those moments when you wished Microsoft’s “To the Cloud!” commercial actually worked. This is the best one. They’re mostly all looking at the camera.

After bumming around town for the day and getting some shopping done, we ended up back at the hotel around sunset. One of the hairdressers gave us directions on a place we could watch fireworks from. However, as the sun went down, Terran was busy playing DOTA, Bobby was playing the Sims 3 (I had just bought it for him earlier that day) and Dax was playing ball. No one was really interested in trudging out for fireworks. So instead we watched them like we normally do.

This morning Terran and I geared up for our ride. Another great day for riding. We even matched and everything.

The ride started a bit awkwardly. I had routed us through the Springfield Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately the paths through the Conservancy don’t allow bikes. So as I was standing there trying to figure out how to fix my route, one of the volunteers stopped by and gave us a map of the other trails in the area. Super helpful and got us back on track with our ride.

It was a good ride, most of it on several bike paths throughout the city.  When we got done, the whole family went back down to the Conservancy and walked around in the woods. Terran managed to levitate a leaf we found.

Hint: it was actually in a spider web.

On the way out, we were passing a guided tour on the path in front of us. As Heidi pushed Dax through the group, the tour guide asked Heidi if she wanted to stop to look at the 6′ long black snake that was just off the trail. That sort of question isn’t the type of question Heidi likes. It’s akin to asking someone with a peanut allergy if they’d like a bite of your PBJ. Or asking anyone if they’d like to have an alien to come rocketing out of their stomach. The answer isn’t just no, but “ohmygodnonononogetmeoutofhere”

I wasn’t quick enough with the camera but I did dust off photoshop to do my best to recreate the moment.

It’s not “Washington crossing the Delaware” but I think it’s moving nonetheless.

Tomorrow, we ride up through the west side of town. Likely the last we’ll see of the Ozarks until we drive back across the country in a few weeks.