Tuesday, July 14, 2009

29: "It's As Big As You Think"

Stoker's Log Day Twenty Nine

7/14/09

From El Dorado, KS

To Hutchinson, KS

80 miles

12 avg mph

I started the day with a panic attack. We were riding through town, still half asleep, when suddenly a chorus of angry barks broke the early morning calm. Our heads snapped to the right, where a dozen snarling rottweilers were sprinting alongside us. I shrieked before registering that a deteriorating metal fence currently separated my flesh from their teeth, and I stayed in a state of gasping, shaking terror for a good quarter mile until I could finally see that the fence turned a corner and completely enclosed the pack of dogs and whatever they were guarding.

Well, I did want more excitement from Kansas.

True to form, the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Uneventful and blazing hot. Even though the winds have remained in our favor (though unfortunately not as strong as yesterday), I constantly have to fight the fear that we will never escape Kansas. The state's tourism motto is "Kansas: As Big As You Think." (I'm serious; you can google it.) I've never heard a more honest advertisement. Kansas is as big as we expected... and as hot, flat, boring, and empty. We had outrageously negative expectations for Kansas' topography and weather, and it has managed to fulfill if not exceed them all.

We've also had to fight with the bike itself. Over the past few days its machinery has become increasingly stubborn, shaky, and noisy. The brakes stick, the chain is jerky, and a part that we can't identify makes an awful clanging noise from time to time. Fortunately Hutchinson, our destination for the day, has a bike shop, probably the last one before we reach the heart of Colorado.

Making everything worse today was the fact that the town that we expected to hit 12 miles in didn't appear until past the 20 mile mark. Someone, ahem, had apparently read the map incorrectly. (Okay, and someone else hadn't bothered to consult the map at all.) As you might expect, there weren't many towns on our route, and we valued every one of them for their cold drinks and kind people. I was excited to stop at a mechanic/convenience store/restaurant in the middle of nowhere where we were greeted by this guy:

But the happy mood dissipated a bit when the guy behind the counter told us the story of a young couple whose cross-country bicycle trip ended when the Kansan winds blew them into a car and almost killed them. Great.

After another long and depressing stretch we had lunch in the very small town of Whitewater. As we waited for our sandwiches we had a good time reading the local newspaper and chuckling as the locals made fun of the lack of newsworthy happenings in town. Our next major stop was Newton, where we ran into Amanda, Nick, Doug, and John: a group of friends about our age crossing the country the other direction. Like all cross country cyclists passing in the night -- or the middle of the day -- we traded information and advice. Amanda had apparently run out of water earlier in the day, and eventually the heat had driven her to drink from a water source clearly marked non-potable. We wished her stomach luck and made sure to stock up on fluids before heading out of town.

Back on the road it was hotter than ever. We were carrying enough water to avoid Amanda's fate, but my head felt ready to split open and I worried that heatstroke was in my near future. Eventually I just collapsed under a massive tree in someone's front yard (the only tree for miles around, of course) and stayed there until I started to feel stable. Miserable, but stable. When we finally reached the town of Buhler we did everything we could to cool down, from riding through a sprinkler to downing a large milkshake and a 44 oz lemonade each with our dinner at the local diner. We met more friendly people, including a couple who had moved there from Conshohoken PA and a fellow bike guy who gave us his business card in case anything went wrong. It was apparently just a good day for meeting people, starting with the hotel lobby this morning: while eating a meager complimentary breakfast beside a cactus named Pedro Pete, we were approached by a well-traveled woman handing out hotel coupons and a friendly couple from Security, Colorado named Brenda and Mike. Even the people just visiting Kansas are great; if the populated areas were much, much closer together I would actually enjoy this state. Especially places like Buhler, one of those charming Western towns with a sense of legitimacy despite the tourist attractions.

I wanted to wander the Buhler streets a bit, but there were giant storm clouds on the horizon and we needed to get moving. While I would have welcomed cloudy skies and cool rain in lieu of the hot sun, I didn't think we'd be lucky enough to have a brief storm without lightning. Unfortunately, I was right, and we were soon trying to outrun a vicious one. The rain caught up to us quickly but we made it to the outskirts of Hutchinson before the lightning did. Ducking under the awning of an antique and curiosity store apparently specializing in animal skulls, we called Kyle's father to get more information on the storm. It looked too close to call on the weather map, but luckily we spotted a state trooper up the road and decided to ask him for information. He told us that there wasn't really any shelter before Hutchinson proper, but that was only five miles away and he thought we could make it. Fortunately he was right, and the storm stayed south long enough for us to make it safely to the hotel.

More friendly faces awaited us there, in this case the very eager children of the hotel receptionist. They asked us all about the bike and told us all about tornadoes, rodeos, and car races. I couldn't care less about whatever version of Nascar they were talking about, but I would like to see a rodeo while we're out west, and by necessity we're becoming very interested in severe weather patterns. Plus they were pretty cute.

We eventually escaped to our spacious room to shower, and then spent the rest of the evening watching house buying shows from bed, good therapy for those wandering far from home. We also researched some of the local attractions, which include a salt mine and several museums. The visit to the bike shop tomorrow means we have to take a day off, and we can't wait.

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