Day 68: Up early, I made oatmeal & coffee, Ben packed up the tent, quick dishes, then on the road before 7:30 – hot diggity! On our way out of town we swung by the gas station to use the bathroom. Slightly cooler today, rolling hills, rough & bumpy road to start but it got better once we were on a bigger road outside of Clay Center. The shoulder on Hwy 24, however, was actually not so great. It was a nice new road that looked like it had plenty of space but the rumble strip went smack through the middle. You either had 6 inches between the rumble strip & traffic or the rumble strip & gravel… a lose-lose 🙁
We made it to Manhattan, KS, & grabbed lunch at Rock A Belly Deli – great food. From there we rolled down the street a few blocks to chill in the city park for a while until our Warm Showers host, Carol, was home from work, then we met her at the house. She was really sweet, super smart, very kind, generous, easy going. We talked for a while, she showed us around the house, then she went back to work. Quick shower, laundry, then a nap.
When Carol returned from work at the end of the day, we joined her & her boyfriend, Jared, for a friend’s art gallery opening out in the country at a beautiful barn (Prairiewood Retreat Center – Blue Sage Barn). This place was gorgeous! I was practically drooling. It was fun to see her friend’s art & hear her story. We didn’t stay too long since Carol had band practice in the park 🙂 While she did that, Jared generously offered & drove us to the grocery store for a few things. He’s a really nice guy. Back to the house, Ben & I made dinner, Carol joined us after practice & we hung out all night chatting & working on a puzzle. I love puzzles! It was fun to do one again; it’s been so long. It was a really lovely evening with her. I felt like we were old friends & could’ve hung out talking all night 🙂 A little reading, then off to bed.
Day 69: Veggie egg scrambler with cheese, toast, oatmeal & coffee for breakfast. A nice relaxing morning. We all ate together, then packed up & left when Carol went to work. We said our goodbyes, then off we went. It was so great meeting her. Very hot today (102), nice & sticky, dripping wet!
We rode about 20 miles before stopping in Wamego (the self-appointed center for the Wizard Of Oz), where we met some really friendly people at a bakery – Friendship House (how fitting). The staff were very generous in filling our bottles with ice & water, but we also met a group of really nice women there. They had so many questions for us so we chatted for a while. One of them even went over to the community pool across the street to inquire about their hours for open swim for us. I think she was even going to get us in for free (?) but it was over an hour away & we wanted to get more miles under our butts before taking our big break for the day. That was so sweet of her though!
Another 15 miles down the road, we stopped in St.Mary’s for lunch under a picnic shelter, swimming at the community pool, & ice cream from Sugar Creek Country Store (nice place). The rest of the afternoon we stopped in each little town we passed through for a 10 minute reprieve from the heat, usually every half hour. We stopped in Rossville at a gas station & chatted with Shawn, the clerk (young kid, pretty funny). Next was Silverlake – sweet corn from a church youth group & another gas station. While we ate our raw sweet corn (it’s like fruit!) on the curb at the gas station we met a nice woman who’d recently been to Dubuque, IA & Milwaukee, WI – places I grew up near, have been to & have family in – so we had plenty to talk about & relate to. We chatted for a while, then hit the road for our final destination: Topeka!
We made it to town, dripping in sweat, not the least bit interested in camping so we checked into another hotel. First priority of the night: SWIMMING! They had a really funky pool with fountains coming out of the wall like mini waterfalls & even a hot tub. Sweet! This was all indoor, so the hot tub was actually nice. Had it been outside…yeah, no thanks! Quick shower, dinner at the hotel restaurant (good food), movie, then passed out.
Day 70: Hotel breakfast (nice one, too!), swung by the capitol & on the road by 8:30am. Rough start: hilly (12-15% grade) & on gravel! SO HOT & humid again today. We were already dripping with sweat within the first 10 minutes of riding. According to Ben, at that point in our journey, it’s the sweatiest he’s ever been in his life. I’ve definitely been that sweaty before but it had been quite a while.
After 20 miles, we stopped to break in Lecompton, at Aunt Netters Cafe, for water, to cool off, & for 2nd breakfast! Back on the road another 14 miles to Lawrence. Pit stop at McDonald’s for fries, ice cream, ice & water, then downtown to Free State Brewery where we met up with a guy, Clint, from the Kansas bike nonprofit we’re raising money for (Topeka Community Cycle Project).
He & his son, Everett (nickname Monkey), met us there for lunch. They were so cool. Good people, fun & easy to talk to, smart, energetic, interesting lives, & really involved in biking. We hung out all afternoon chatting about biking, life, & the town of Lawrence. The brewery had great food & drinks. I got a huge beet salad that was SO GOOD. My sour beer was great as well. We all shared some goat cheese dip – wowza, super tasty. After lunch we all rode over to his place to check out all the bikes he has & cool projects he’s worked on. He’s so passionate about bikes, I loved it! We were only passing through town so we quick cooled off with Clint’s garden hose outside, biked over to the river for a nice group photo, then parted ways. I’m so glad we got to meet him.
It was really hot today, one of the hottest we experienced on the trip, so we took a ton of breaks to prevent overheating. Besides just stopping on the side of the road for a breather, we’d also stop for more ice, water & a place with AC to hide out for 10 minutes whenever we could. After Lawrence we found respite in Eudora & Desoto before eventually making it to our destination for the night.
There were a few big hills on the way, on top of the heat, so we didn’t make it to town until after 8pm. Home for the night: Warm Showers host Karry, Mike & cat Adona, in Lenexa. Still within the Kansas border, Lenexa is 15 miles shy of Kansas City (the one in Missouri -KCMO, not to be confused with KCK…as locals refer to it). Karry was so awesome. She’s such a sweetheart. Very kind, generous, funny, down to earth, thoughtful, & jazzed about biking. She made lots of food for us & it was everything thing I’d been craving lately: cold summer salads (one was chickpea with tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, olives & Greek dressing; the other, quinoa with veggies!), eggplant, walnut-stuffed olives, canteloupe, burgers & dogs, & other stuff I’m forgetting. It was great – classic cookout food I’ve missed on this trip.
We hung out talking for a while as we ate, swapping stories & learning all about each other. They had lived in St.Paul at one point in their lives – where we live! – so that was fun to relate to 🙂 For dessert we had peanut butter ice cream bars….mmmmm 🙂 Karry showed us around, we showered, did laundry, then turned in for the night. She had a little gift bag for us in our room! Isn’t’ that the sweetest thing? It was full of all sorts of goodies: bike lights, Stinger honeycomb waffles, maps, puzzles, & so much more. It was so cool. She’s awesome 🙂 A little reading before passing out.
Reflections
1. The landscape heading out of Clay Center felt & looked like Wisconsin (where I grew up). We even saw WI plates as I had that revelation so I had to remind myself we were indeed still in Kansas 🙂
2. While taking a break along the side of the road next to a corn field, a military man on a motorcycle stopped to ask us about our trip. He was pretty funny. Random run-ins like this make this trip so much better – you never have a shortage of interesting people to talk to 🙂
3. Ben & I have very different downhill biking styles. Bombing a mountain aside, I love to book it & go fast until there’s no resistance left to pedal, while Ben likes to coast & not pedal if he doesn’t have to. We’ve learned to make way for each other depending on the road condition & how we know each other prefers to handle it.
4. I’d say halfway through Kansas, but especially as we left Manhattan, we noticed a lot of stone barns & buildings. They were really cool. Very old & dripping with charm 🙂
5. After Wamego, we passed through the town of Belvue that smelled the way Big Red gum does when it’s lost all its flavor…hmmm, not so great 🙁
6. Riding into Topeka, I experienced that same sense of overwhelming shock that comes from being in the middle of nowhere – wide open spaces, full of peace & quiet – to being thrown too quickly into a big, busy city, bombarded by too much noise, activity, & people…similar to my feelings coming out of Yosemite. It made me wonder: do I experience that shock because I grew up in a small town & prefer/am used to the quiet, wide open spaces or do most people experience that after visiting a remote place & returning to a busy, bustling, noisy life? And……..now I have Dixie Chicks “Wide Open Spaces” song stuck in my head 🙂
7. Something about extreme heat, humidity & riding all day makes me a lazy bum. Motels, eating out, movies…I didn’t want to do any more work after reaching our destination – I was toast!
8. The big gas station through Kansas was called Short Stop, with a baseball player as the mascot. I always find it interesting what the regional grocery stores, gas stations & restaurants are.
9. My feet were so sweaty on Day 70 they were shriveled! SHRIVELED! That’s never happened to me before. It was such a weird feeling.
10. In addition to the usual corn & wheat fields, we’ve been seeing a lot of soy fields the last few days as well.
11. I mentioned in the last post about the majority of Kansas drivers giving a friendly wave as they passed us & it got me thinking…I wish people in big cities did this, HOWEVER, if they did they’d constantly be waving due to dense populations, essentially resulting in their hand being raised at a 45 degree angle more or less indefinitely. Try that with me now. If you hold your hand at that angle for longer than 3 seconds…it feels a bit Heil Hitler-ish..soooooo, maybe that’s not such a great idea after all. Pretty much the opposite of what the friendly hello is going for :0
Well, we’ve officially been home now for almost two weeks & I’m still getting used to a new routine. Not gonna lie, it was pretty rough the first few days being home, but I was warned by other bikers that would happen so I wasn’t surprised. I could write an entire post on my post-trip feelings (& maybe I will), but to sum it up I just felt (still sort of feel) lost. While I’m proud of our accomplishment I feel like I have no purpose anymore 🙁 I know that’s not true but it certainly feels like that. I just need to find a new purpose…or plan a new trip 😉 Hanging out with friends, family, our cats, making soap, teaching Zumba, cooking, & working out has helped make it a little easier. Speaking of trying to stem post-trip depression, I’ve got a few batches of fall & winter-inspired soaps calling my name 🙂 Until next time!
Whitney