I'm biking across the country

More late starts. I’m in a new time zone too, so heading out at 11 means it’s pretty much noon and it was already very hot out.

My first stop for the day was a small town 20 miles down the road, where it turned out that the only restaurant had gone out of business. Gas station hot dogs it is. Back on the road and the miles are going by pretty quickly. Get chased by a big dog but manage to outrun it, which causes me to get tired and I slow down for the first time of the day.

The road, route 24, disappears and turns into a dirt/gravel road paralleling I-70. It’s not very fun to ride on as most of it has dirt too deep to safely ride on and so I dart back and forth to stay on the hardest surface to prevent from wiping out.

30 miles since my first stop and I pull into another town, this one has a diner that’s open so I pop in for a real lunch. During lunch I research the legality of riding bikes on interstates in Colorado and call my brother to inform him that I’ll be arriving in Denver on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Turns out that it’s generally not illegal to ride on interstates in Colorado and so I take the remaining 33 miles on I-70 since my only alternatives are dirt roads. I don’t know how but I managed to average 17 mph for two hours to my destination for the evening, Limon.

Today’s mileage: 77 miles.
Total: 2266 miles.

We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Got a late start and before long the road I had been following for a few hundred miles merged into I-70 and I was forced off onto a side road. The surface of this road was gravel on top of pavement. The gravel wasn’t loose, except on the edges of the road, but the bumpy ride slowed me down.

The miles went by very slowly and I ate a late lunch and pressed on. The crosswinds from the south were strong here and gusts of wind buffeted me to the side. At one point I tried to compensate for the gust of wind, but my tires found nothing but gravel and I wiped out, landing hard on my left side.
I scraped up my left shoulder pretty badly and was cleaning and bandaging my bloody arm on the side of the road. About a dozen cars went by but none stopped to ask if I was okay.

Anyways, after my crash the miles went by even more slowly but I eventually made my way to the town of Burlington, CO.

Today’s mileage: 69 miles.
Total: 2189 miles.

Another thunderstorm last night woke me up at about 2am and kept me up until 5. As a result I was unable to get the early start I wanted, and didn’t head out until 10.

As usual the morning hours seem to be the easiest and the 35 miles to my first lunch went by quickly. Because towns here are so far apart and there are so few places to eat in each town, the employees are used to seeing touring cyclists. I’ve been on route 24 for a few hundred miles and haven’t seen any other cyclists but apparently they come through once every couple weeks.

The second town I passed through – about 65 miles in – had zero cell reception and I didn’t see any restaurants so I stopped at a gas station for some junk food.

Rolling hills had continued for the first 65 miles, and coming out of that second town I had a long gentle climb and then the hills stopped. This was the flatness everyone said Kansas would be like, and it only took me 3/4ths of the state to find it.

I came across some road construction at one point, they were re-paving the road. After getting to ride on the opposite side of the road for a few miles a construction worker waved me over onto the newly paved part and the roads inaugural vehicle was a bike.

I finally made it to the town of Colby, KS at 7:30 and found a motel. 98 miles today, the hundred mile day still eludes me.

Today’s mileage: 98 miles.
Total: 2120 miles.

After a quick breakfast I was once again on the road at about 10. Last night’s rain was long gone, leaving behind only some cloud cover to give some respite from the sun. It was another hot day, hovering around 90 degrees, but I am getting accustomed to this heat. Perhaps it is because I am in better shape but I am not sweating as much as I used to, especially in these temperatures.

I had a nice 10 foot shoulder for about 20 miles before it returned to the 3 feet I’m used to. I am taking route 24 across the entire state and traffic is pretty light so between the minimally adequate shoulder and light traffic volume it’s not too bad of a ride.

One phenomenon I’ve been trying to figure out is regarding the wind from passing vehicles. Sometimes a truck comes from the opposite direction and after passing me, I get a light headwind. Other times, however, I am struck by a wall of wind that can instantly slow me down or knock me one way or the other. I had been trying to come up with a theory to explain these discrepancies of trucks of the same size traveling at the same speed causing different results and I think I have an answer.

When a truck passes and I get a light breeze from it, that’s like a ship’s wake – waves caused by the displacement of water. When this wake of air encounters a cross wind, it can push and compress the wake in my direction. For the past couple days I’ve had on and off cross winds from the south and since I’m going west, that means the waves of air are being blown right into me, causing the forceful wind with each passing truck. Now I know when I need to be prepared to steady my bike from the wind and when I can ignore it. The more you know.

Towns seem to be about 30 or 35 miles apart here so I had the choice of going 65 or 95 miles, and I opted for the shorter day. If I can do one 90-100 mile day, the rest can be 60 mile days and I can be in Denver on Sunday. Maybe I’ll try and knock that out tomorrow.

Today’s mileage: 70 miles.
Total: 2022 miles.

I was up and ready to go at 9 which is pretty decent for me, but found that I was almost out of my chamois cream so I would have to hit up a bike shop for more. As it turns out, there won’t be another bike shop until Denver and the ones in Manhattan didn’t open until 10 so I had an hour to kill.

For the past couple days my bike had been pretty loud, all the dust and mud from the Katy trail was in the drivetrain. So I took it upon myself to clean and lubricate the chain and gears. The last time I had done this personally, I didn’t do a very good job, but this time the drivetrain was silent and felt butter smooth so I guess I did it right.

I stopped in an outdoors store / bike shop in town, The Pathfinder, and bought my cream. The owner of the shop was really nice and gave me a map of recommended cycling routes through Kansas as well as a souvenir t-shirt from the shop.

On the road, the first 40 miles went by very easily. Stopped for a quick lunch and was back to pedaling. It would be 52 miles to the next town, and rain storms were closing in.

The hills are flattening out now and I don’t have to shift down much when going uphill, and my average speed is hovering about 13 miles per hour which is decent. I press onwards to the town of Beloit as I keep a wary eye on the storms to the north. Passing by three separate rain storms, they all stay just barely north of me and so I make it to my destination without getting wet.

I fall asleep at 9 but am soon awoken by a violent thunderstorm with lightning flashes every few seconds. The motel’s power is knocked out for maybe half an hour but gets restored and I finally get to sleep after the storm subsides.

Today’s mileage: 92 miles.
Total: 1952 miles.