The Worst Day and Best Lesson

Les dries all of his clothes, as he rides.  

Talk about airing your clean laundry.

No, we were not just being patriotic.  We were checking the wind, which was NOT behind us.

Day 20  -  Rush Center, KS to Abbeyville, KS  - 96 Miles

This blog was never intended to be a place for griping or complaining, but as a venue to pass on an amusing and mildly embellished account of our trip’s events. That being said, today was agonizing. There were very few enjoyable things about it. Because there are so few, perhaps we will start by outlining those ‘happier’ things, to distract us from the agony of the body fatigue, the muscle soreness, the mental exhaustion, the wind resistance, the mosquito bites and never ending road.

One of the great mysteries of our day occurred first thing this morning: our bread went missing. After a windy night, one that knocked down our bikes and shivered-me-timbers, we awoke to find that one loaf of bread was missing. The suspects: a cyclist that passed us 4 hours earlier, a conspiring conglomerate of fireflies and ants, and a stray dog that chased us the moment we came into the town. No debris or evidence of a struggle was left behind for investigation.

Where da bread go!?

Speaking of dogs, we had our share of canine escorts that kindly guarded us from the traffic, as they flashed their killer teeth and noisily growled at everything on wheels. To be honest, at one point, it seemed the dogs were actually chasing us, and might have taken a little nibble from the old shins, given the opportunity. But we could never accuse these sweet little beasts of such a fowl misdeed. Dogs are cyclists’ best friends.

The most exhilarating moment of our day was when an oncoming semi-truck came barreling passed us and practically knocked us back to Colorado with its powerful wind canon. The first time the trailing current hit us just right, it felt like we had a tidal wave of air exploding all over our bodies and bikes. Thankfully, we both stayed on our saddles, and kept our tires in adequate contact with the pavement. It was near terrifying. After a few of these experiences, however, we started looking forward to the rush that came after almost being flung into a field of corn stalks beside us. It was like playing ‘crack the whip,’ or ‘hold-on-to-my-arms-and-spin-me-as-fast-as-you-can,’ as we gleefully exclaimed, ‘Again!’ with each potential air missile. We truly felt like kids again – kids wearing manly spandex, while riding a few pieces of welded-steel, across an entire grown up country. Ah, who am I kidding, we almost wet our diapers.

A happy reaction to a quaint little town--a much needed break from booming and noisy highways.

Don't knock it till you try it ALERT #2: "Aaron and Les Veggie Mush" with toast. Cooked brown rice, creamed corn, sweet peas, half can of diced carrots, salt, pepper.  Notice the "toast" cooking on top of the steam-catching top pan!

After stopping for a rest in Stafford, sufficiently hungry for some rice and veggies, we continued down the road to Abbyville, stopping at a nice looking home, where we asked for a place to camp for the night. They enthusiastically said, "well, there's a park down the street..."  So we shrugged our shoulders and made our way back down the road a half mile to the mark.  Upon getting there Les tried to put up our tent, but a sweet, innocent, baby puppy came by, tail wagging, tongue hanging out, etc., and just WOULD NOT STOP walking all over the tent!  It wouldn't have been a big deal if he didn't have the potential to tear through the lightweight nylon tent walls with his untrimmed claws/nails.  As Aaron chuckled and tried to shoe the pup away, a girl rode up with a laundry list of curiously harmless, Kansas-girl questions.  Her name was Montana, and she had a brother named Remington, and a little sister named Reno.  Eventually she told us there was a guy walking around the town that night spraying insecticides to kill the billions of mosquitos (we were already drenched in repellant), and that we could stay in "Grandpa's" RV if we wanted.  

"Sure!" was our reaction, and she rode off to ask Momma if it was ok, and it was.  It was a nice change to have shelter, a microwave, and 2.8 channels to watch that night!

Ok pup, seriously, GO HOME NOW!  You're not cute anymore!

A nice surprise

Home-sweet-sofa & recliner!

Tomorrow, we make the 50-mile cool-down ride to Wichita, where we will celebrate the independence of the United States and likely take a rest-day on Saturday. This week has been a basic-needs week (eat, sleep & ride), and we are anxious about re-evaluating our trip to create a more fruitful, rewarding and enjoyable experience, for the remaining 20 days.