Thursday, June 25: Crazy hot day today on the plains. Good news is the wheel bearing issue is gone, and the van is sounding like the good old days, so I’m not fixating on that damn thing all day. We got out of Butler, MO early, and Judy got me back to 9001 so that I could get rolling at 7:38 AM. Now the wind was out of the southwest again, and it was a very challenging 10-20 mph. But actually that was ok with me seeing that the temps and humidity were just blazing again. 

So I got rolling on the grave 9001 and rode that to the junction with Road V. V is asphalt, and it’s berm is just about as useless as nipples on a bull - just terrible because the asphalt ended with about a 4 inch lip, and then the berm, if you can call it that was just knee high weeds that slope down at about 45 degrees. I tried just a couple times to ride this nightmare, but I had to let common sense prevail and just ride on the asphalt rather than wash it down into these deep weed ditches. This was about 5 miles of “forced asphalt” to my credit. Then junctioned with a L on 3988 and took that gravel road to the KS line. Then this turned into 1000R as soon as I entered KS and it turned into asphalt to. And once again, the berm was the same crap as on Road V in MO - weed berm with a 45 degree slope - so I had to ride that for about a mile on asphalt. 

But once on Wattle Rd in KS, it was gravel the rest of the day. So here is the litany today for roads: R E100, to L on 245th, to R on Xylem, to L on 242nd, to L on Wagon, to R on 255th, to R on Range, to L on Soldier, to L on Tomahawk, to L on 95th, to L on 135 to R on Range, to R on 95, to L on Ridge, to L on Soldier to the junction with 2400th. I ended the day at the Soldier/2400 junction with 80 miles in for the day. 

So really, with that southwestern headwind, it made for a great cooling off for me throughout the whole day. Now it did make for some difficult riding obviously, and slowed me down so that my average for the day was around 11-11.5 mph. So that was 7+ hrs in the saddle for 80 miles! Nice huh? And as I’ve told people for years now….”it ain’t flat in KS, and Western MO for that matter. The first 35-40 miles was nothing, I repeat NOTHING but gravel rollers. There were big ring rollers, middle ring rollers and little ring rollers. Matter of fact, round about 20 miles in I just quit using the big ring. I was just taking too much out of me what with that heat and humidity + the headwind. So I used the middle and little ring the rest of the day trying to spare energy and leg muscle. And I’ll tell you what, some of these rollers were pretty much climbs, a couple of which went on for 2 miles or so. Then I’d top out in the little ring just crawling along. 

Took my first support stop in KS at about 35 miles in. With the early start I was able to get more mileage in during the cooler morning temps, but once I did take that first rest stop, we had Judy find a slice of shade-tree to park the van under as I drank and ate. By then, with about 3 hrs in, the heat was really on. Downed 20oz each of Powerade and ice cold water and ate half a turkey sandwich and some fresh strawberries. Then got going in the real heat of the day. 

Judy, man, she had a tough day just driving in the AC on these freaking one lane gravel roads, parking, waiting for me to go by, and then off again to the next road change. Bless her man, she worked equally as hard as I did today in that bloody heat. Never turned the van off today due to the insufferable heat. Next support stop was at about 55 miles, and I was just getting torched by the weather. Did another 20oz each of powerade and water, and that was it. 

Now we did have some issues today with my directions, because this Soldier Rd, according to my research, should have died out for a section, but it didn’t and Judy was kind of peeved at me for wanting to stay with my directions. And she was right…it was through. So I ended up doing 2 miles, one north and one south to bypass what I though was this die out section. Then, miles from there, Soldier really did die out, So I had to improvise for a short section to get back to where it starts up again. It is easy to improvise out here because everything is set up on one-mile grids, and almost all the roads are gravel. So it was a minor hassle. But the issue was that Judy wanted me to throw the bike in the van and drive the section where Soldier starts up again because I’d be picking up the same parallel again. Me, I wanted to connect everything together, so I rode the sections. We had some words over the issue. 

I explained to her that it would be much easier to just hop in the van and get to the next east-west parallel, and that wasn’t the “theme” of the trip. So we kind of came to an understanding on that. But even bigger is the issue that I have mistakes in my routing, and I knew that would be the case. See, I’d spent the better part of 3 months writing the itinerary for this, and with all that time involved in transcribing directions onto a word file, I’d just made some mental errors now and then about taking a L or taking a R. Well, she found several of these already, and it really saved us. So on some of this where I have me routed north and then west and then south and then west again, well, that’s just so I stay on gravel the whole time. Judy, on the other hand just didn’t understand the logic in this because it’s taking longer to go west. And I’d told her that some of these roads ebb and flow from gravel to asphalt and back to gravel again. This I know because I’ve used county maps that discern what the road is at all points in the county. So I have these sections where I have to do north and south to stay on gravel, and then get back to another east-west gravel. It’s a freaking complicated mess, and at times this has kind of pissed her off. Anyway, we’re good now. 

I did have my first real dog-chase today, where 2 bloody pit bulls just ran after me for a good mile. At first I did disengage from the pedal to begin my “field goal kicking practice”, but after watching these guys, they were just trying to have fun with keeping up with me. They were not looking angry, and trying to nip at me. Rather, they were just kind of horse racing with me. And with the temps in the 90’s these guys burnt out fast. And they ended up trotting away with their tongues just hanging and panting like they were spent. 

Now my third support stop, at like 70 miles, I was just running on fumes. I downed another 20oz each of powerade and water, and was determined to get in 80 for the day (to be honest I had myself down for 104 miles for this stretch today which shows you how over ambitious I was in designing this whole shtick) to see some real progress. That last stretch along Soldier was just brutal. The gravel was thick and washy, such that I had to ride on the very periphery of the left or right side to stay in “thin” gravel. Made it to the junction with 2400, and I’d been counting down from 3800 the whole time, knowing that each north-south X road was -200 for every mile. So that was a lot of counting - like 7 miles worth. 

Plopped in the van with a headache, and downed another 20oz each of powerade and water. And I was just silent for about 10 min as Judy drove west to a Super 8 in Iola, KS. Finally perked up by the time we made town. And doing all the ice cold powerade I think really helped me recover. We went straight to Walmart and got 2 8-packs of powerade, then went to Sonics and I just gorged on a dbl cheeseburger and a footlong cony dog! Judy was a good girl and got a grilled chicken sandwich. And now we’re back here in the Super 8 with the AC on max. High temp today was 96 with a heat index of 106. I mean it was just smoking hot today. My legs were just caked with lime dust, kind of like cement from the sweat mixing with the dust. 

And speaking of dust, damn, when a truck (which almost everyone drives out here) or semi (used for hauling grain and hay) went by I would just get blasted by this immense white cloud of dust. I learned to hold my breath just as the vehicle went by so as to not suck in the lime dust, and then after a minute or so I’d do this gagging exhalation/inhalation once the cloud was gone. Did this countless times. I also have this “sweat rag” that I use to wipe my forehead and eye sockets that just drip with sweat. Add that dust and the sweat and lime form this thin layer of lime mud on my face. Wonderful!

Storms are forecast for this evening and tomorrow morning, and the temps are supposed to go down about 10 degrees. Hoping I can ride some tomorrow despite the rain what with the lower temps. 

Well, from Iola, KS, have a great evening!