I'm biking across the country

Not a very exciting day. Got on the road at 10, the hills continued and my progress was pretty slow.

I stopped at what I thought was a restaurant for lunch but it turned out to just be fast food. Somehow it was already mid-afternoon so I stopped for the day after 56 miles in the college town of Manhattan, KS since the next place to stop would be another 40 miles.

So far my new Brooks saddle isn’t very comfortable, but that’s what I expected – you have to break them in like Birkenstocks.

Today’s mileage: 55 miles
Total: 1860 miles

Another late start. Got on the road at 11 and headed out of town. The rolling hills continued and after a little bit I made it to the town of Lawrence. There were tons of people downtown, all wearing blue shirts, I think it was parents weekend for the local college.

The town was pretty cultural and I found a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Halfway through my meal I got a call from the housekeeping at the motel I had stayed at last night saying I had left my wallet in my room. Shit. So I had no way to pay for my meal. Instead of setting myself back 3 hours I decided to call a cab company and convinced them to give me a ride without paying up front. I got my wallet, tipped the housekeeping, got a ride back to Lawrence, and paid my bill at the Vietnamese restaurant.

On my way out of town I decided to pop in a bike shop to see if they had a Brooks saddle. I missed the place and on my way around the block ran into another bike shop that wasn’t on the map. Turns out they had the saddle.
After buying and installing it, I decided to fill up my tires and promptly broke a valve doing that. Had to replace the tube which was a pain in the butt, and finally made it out of town after stopping for a smoothie.

I decided to stay in Topeka for the night, and the 30 mile ride felt pretty long, but I made it there a bit after dark.

Today’s mileage: 49 miles
Total: 1805 miles

Not many pictures from today, so I took some of recent bike upgrades. New saddle and I picked up some carabiners to attach my extra water bottles to the rear strap. Previously I would have to remove the strap to get to the water.

This morning I got a ride from Marcus, my host for last night, a few miles north to get me to the highway I was taking. There was a fair amount of traffic but I had a 10 foot shoulder so it wasn’t too bad to ride on.

I stopped in the outskirts of Kansas City to look for a Brooks saddle, but the two shops I visited and six I called did not carry them. I’ll check some more shops tomorrow then just have one delivered to Denver if I continue to have no luck.

Connecting to another highway, I made way across to the south of the city. Unfortunately there was road construction which turned it into a 2 lane highway with no shoulder. Even worse, there was a tall curb so I couldn’t pull over to let trucks pass. Lots of very close trucks. Eventually the highway turned into a wide suburban sprawl with lots of traffic and I passed into Kansas.

Whoever said Kansas was flat was wrong. Rolling hills continued throughout the day, and I ran into a few very steep 200ish foot climbs towards the end of the day. I had wanted to go 90some miles to a campground but I called it a day at a motel in the town of De Soto, Kansas.

Today’s mileage: 82 miles.
Total: 1756 miles

During my rest day I had connected with a fellow redditor, Marcus Ward, who lives in Western Missouri and he had offered to let me stay at his place for the night. It would be a 57 mile ride to Windsor, but since the forecast predicted rain I figured that wouldn’t be a bad distance.

After a slow morning I got back on the road at 11:30 and headed out of Boonville. The rain had yet to start, and about 20 miles in, I ran into a trio of bike tourists heading east. They had come from Oregon and were headed towards North Carolina and were the first cross-country riders I had talked to on my trip. We talked for a couple minutes before heading our separate ways, and less than a minute later, the light drizzle turned to rain so I stopped to pull out my rain jacket.

After a while I eventually reached the town of Sedalia and stopped by a bike shop in a continuation of my search for a Brooks saddle. Unfortunately they didn’t have one so I ate a late lunch and got back on the trail.

Riding on the limestone trail is inherently slower than on roads because the surface isn’t as hard and is bumpier. Once it gets wet though, it really starts to slow you down. Between Sedalia and my destination of Windsor, the trail started to get really soft and my tires would sometimes dig half-inch deep ruts in the surface. My pace slowed to 7mph. Eventually, Marcus, my host for the night met up with me on the trail and we rode back to his house.

He cooked up a great dinner and served wine while we talked about biking and World of Warcraft ( he used to play). I eventually turned in for the night. It was a poor day for riding but it ended nicely so all in all it was a huge success.

Today’s mileage: 61 miles.
Total: 1674 miles

I stayed at the Hotel Fredrick I’m Boonsville, MO for a couple nights and took a rest day. The hotel is pretty awesome, the rooms have a lot of character and I would recommend it highly.

I lounged around and slept. Grabbed some supplies and slept some more. I ate at Glenn’s cafe in the hotel and at the Stein a few blocks away, both places were good.

Took a photo of myself by popular request. See below.