Saturday, July 18, 2009

33: Many Miles, Zero Progress

Stoker's Log Day Thirty Three

7/18/09

From Garden City, KS

To Garden City, KS via Ingalls, KS

66.1 miles

14.5 avg mph

Even broken spokes and hail storms have a silver lining: without them we never would have met Rupert at the hotel this morning. He's also bicycling across the country, and is the first person we've met who is making the trip in the same direction we are.

Rupert has lived in Denmark for many years now, but he was born in England and you couldn't ask for someone more perfectly British at first glance: when we met him he was drinking tea and checking cricket scores, and within ten minutes he had said "rubbish" several times. Along with touring this country for the first time, he's putting on impromptu concerts along the way to raise money and awareness for MS, which is even cooler than the fact that he's an English/sports/music/woodworking teacher. He has a blog too, most of which is in English.

Rupert was headed to northern California on a route rather similar to ours, but having to make up the miles from yesterday will keep us a day behind him. Fortunately, we were able to ride together for a few miles through town. We traded dog stories, and in a rather offhand manner he described the time he was struck by lightning while riding. It was really nice to share the road with someone new, but too soon we had to part ways. Rupert headed onward to the west coast while we were stuck riding over sixty miles to end up exactly where we started. I'm sure we'll feel like better people when we make up the miles that Jon carried us yesterday, but still...Sigh.

I believe I've expressed how uneventful Kansan scenery tends to be; imagine having to ride by it twice in one day. I can count on one hand the interesting sites outside of town (unless I have to count each one twice).

There was a farm that raised pheasants for hunters to shoot (Jon explained it to us yesterday).

Also a disturbingly massive feed yard for cattle (can you tell that this area isn't a place for vegetarians?):

And a sign about eight man football, which I'd never heard of but which makes sense if you think about how small school populations must be out here.

We weren't going to be out for very long today, but because of a serious mistake I became worried about every minute. It was supposed to be very overcast all day, so I didn't put on any sunscreen right away. Unfortunately the weather reports lied, and within an hour it was positively blazing. When I went to put on sunscreen I realized that I couldn't -- it was back in the hotel room, where we had left most of our belongings so that we could travel light. Clearly I've built up a solid base tan already, but I still wonder exactly how damaged my skin will be after our roundtrip today.

After we passed Ingalls, we rode several additional miles until we reached a rusting train car that I remembered passing on the bike yesterday. I don't know what it was doing on a hill and not on the railroad tracks, but thank goodness it existed so that we knew we could turn around and head back. The scenery was even more boring the second time around, but we finally made it into town and past its major landmarks: a giant brewery that I thought smelled hideous (I'm not a beer drinker) and a street sign that necessitated a cute photograph.

Thanks to the relatively short distance and light luggage, we made it back in time for a late lunch. We returned to Lonestar, where the bartender made us amazing frozen lemonades that more than made up for her surliness. Back at the hotel Kyle had to fix the flat tire that we'd gotten in the parking lot -- so infuriating -- before he could ride it to the bike shop to see if they could true the wheel and look at cassette and the other problems we've been having. Meanwhile I showered, blogged, and tried to figure out how I was going to get a prescription filled without my new insurance card or a definite idea of when we would reach a given pharmacy.

Kyle returned for dinner at IHOP, including an incredibly friendly waiter who made me a stellar ice cream sundae. It was a good end to a short but annoying day. We look forward to tomorrow, when the miles we ride will actually get us somewhere.

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