Day 27: Topeka, KS to Saint Joseph, MO

Distance: 85.30 miles

Elevation gain: 2,727 feet

Avg speed: 14.9 mph

Max speed: 34.1 mph

Moving time: 5:44:02

Today we finally reached another state line crossing and entered our seventh state!

Along the way we traveled for many miles on a rather sketchy road, Kansas Route 4. What made this road so bad was the condition of the shoulder (as you can see below), combined with the attitude of many of the drivers. 

In case you can’t tell from this picture (courtesy once again of Steve Harvey), that area to the right of the rumble strip is gravel. There is no room on the pavement to the right of the white line, and riding on that rumble strip was not an option. As a result, we had no choice but to ride in the traffic lane. The road itself had one lane going each direction, separated by a dashed yellow line for the most part. Interestingly, I had commented earlier about how considerate Kansans are. Well, as we have continued eastward, the attitude of Kansans seems to have changed. Eastern Kansans are nowhere near as nice or considerate as Western Kansans. As a matter of fact, today we found ourselves honked at, shouted at, cursed at… we even encountered numerous people who made close passes for no other reason than they could (and apparently hate cyclists). In fact, at one point an 18-wheeler came roaring up behind me, laying into his horn. And despite the fact that nobody was coming the other way at the time, he chose to blow past me at probably well OVER 70 mph without changing lanes. It felt like he passed me with less than a foot to spare, though he probably gave me a LITTLE more space than that! I’ve been trying not to think ill of people or let people’s bad attitudes spoil my mood, but THIS guy, well, let’s just say I would not have been disappointed if I later passed his rig wrecked on the side of the road. Anyway….

Along the way I came upon the Saint Joseph the Woodworker Shrine, which was the steeple from a Catholic Church in Wamego, KS. It was relocated to Valley Falls, KS following the destruction of that church in a fire, and has been completely and beautifully restored. From what I was able to gather, the church in question was the SECOND one built on its site, and dates back to 1908. 

In retrospect, I wish I had taken a close-up of the newspaper article in this display - it would have helped to fill in the blanks. 

The view from the hill that this church now sits atop. 

I may have been the only member of my group that ventured up the hill for a closer look, but several people apparently did see me:

While looking for history regarding this beautiful sight, I came across this picture from 1909 - this was the church in Wamego, KS at the time, and I BELIEVE this is the steeple from that picture:

And, of course, I can’t forget about the day’s video:

Anyway, tomorrow we head to Chillicothe. Looks like it will be a rainy and possibly windy day. See you then!

Day 26: Emporia, KS to Topeka, KS

Distance: 68.11 miles

Elevation gain: 2,543 feet

Avg speed: 15.3 mph

Max speed: 33.6 mph

Moving time: 4:27:12

Ah, what a difference a rest day makes! I felt GREAT this morning, so that combined with a great route along excellent roads and beautiful weather made for a really fun ride today. 

An action shot from today in my new jersey, courtesy of Alena

We headed out this morning along country roads for Topeka for our final night in Kansas. Along the way, we had a rare treat - we got to see bison in the wild!

We even got to see a baby!

Not long after the bison sighting was our SAG stop in Eskridge, followed about 20-ish miles later with a stop in Dover at Sommerset Cafe, a local pie shop that is a Crossroads tradition. I had the banana pie, which was excellent!

Along the way, we passed a ghost bike for Neil Douglas Rogers, whose life was cut way too short at the age of 44. I planned to include a tribute to him tonight, but have been unable to locate his story. All I can do is mention him, and offer my condolences to his family. 

Anyway, for dinner tonight the guys headed over to Red Robin for burgers, while the ladies headed to a so-far unknown spot for a ladies’ night out. Afterwards, it was time for one of my legendary after-dinner naps (today’s was a little over three hours!), followed by my usual video editing and blog post writing. And, of course, it just wouldn’t be a riding day without the day’s video:

Tomorrow is another state line crossing as we head into Missouri. I believe we ALSO hit the halfway point in our trip tomorrow. Have a good night, and I’ll see you then!

Day 25: Rest day in Emporia, KS

The road so far:

Miles traveled: 1,632.04 miles

Elevation gained: 48,542 feet

The road yet to come:

Miles to go: 1,793.4 miles

Elevation to gain: 56,079 feet

It is now the end of the day, and I feel wonderfully rejuvenated right now. The fact that I just got up from my after-dinner nap a little while ago may be a big part of that, but whatever the reason, I’ll take it. ESPECIALLY after how I felt the day after we had the brutal headwind to deal with!

I had originally planned to sleep in this morning, but I woke up about an hour before my alarm anyway. I suppose that’s a GOOD thing though - makes it less likely that I’ll TOTALLY oversleep one morning. Anyway, I discovered when I got up that my back tire was flat. So, that makes 8 flats so far, though I think this time it may have been my own doing. You see, I rotated my tires yesterday, and this morning I could not find anything in the tire or any issues with either the rim or the rim tape. So I can’t help but wonder if I had the tube pinched in the bead, or if I somehow damaged where the valve attaches to the tube. Whatever the cause was, it is changed and the tire has been holding air without a problem all day, knock on wood. So my bike is all ready for tomorrow’s ride - all nice and clean, all electronics charged, chain relubricated…. As an added bonus, tomorrow is a “late start” due to it being a “short” day. (Starting at 8am instead of 7am, and we are “only” riding about 68 miles.) 

In preparation for today, I decided last night that I was going to visit the zoo today, so I ordered a Lyft last night for a 10am pickup. In NJ, that works like a charm. In KS, not so much. Around 9:50am I headed for the hotel lobby, sat down, and opened up the Lyft app. Time dragged on, but STILL no driver. At around 10:15 I asked the front desk clerk if they have Lyft drivers in KS or if Uber would be a better option. He said he wasn’t sure about Lyft drivers, but that he believes they only have one Uber driver in Emporia. He said there is a taxi service though, and gave me their card. I was going to give it another ten minutes or so, but promptly at 10:20 I got an alert that they were unable to locate a driver and that my ride was being cancelled. Okay…. Good thing for that taxi service!

I called the taxi company, and the driver was there in under ten minutes. Moral of the story: don’t just assume that Lyft will be a viable option - ASK! As an added bonus, the taxi was actually CHEAPER than the price that Lyft had quoted me. At home, it is usually just the OPPOSITE.

It was only about a ten-minute ride to the zoo, which was a fun time. It’s a small zoo, but well-maintained and managed as far as I could tell. A nice way to kill some time. 

Although I got the feeling at first that it was a rest day for the animals as well, I did get to see some cool animals. 

Trumpeter swan

One or more red foxes, enjoying THEIR rest day

Black swan

Mountain lion

Black and white ruffed lemurs

Bobcat

Ducks and geese

A vulture - I hope I NEVER see this guy circling overhead while I’m riding along in the middle of nowhere!

Black-tailed prairie dogs playing - those little guys move FAST!

Cotton-topped tamarins

Not entirely sure what this was - a white peacock perhaps?

American bison

After exiting the zoo, I spotted a Veterans Memorial across the street, so OF COURSE that was my next stop:

There were a BUNCH of these plaques displaying names of servicemembers, and I was initially taking pictures of all of them, but the sheer number of them was overwhelming. As they say - freedom isn’t free!

Next, it was time to head up the road to the downtown area. There are several bike shops in Emporia, all located on Commercial Street, and I wanted to get a jersey as a souvenir (and NEEDED to get a new water bottle for the road ahead). Along the way I spotted this cool bike maintenance station:

New water bottle

My jersey for tomorrow’s ride

They even threw this in - no charge!

Not much else to report on for today - lunch, laundry, dinner, after-dinner nap, and here we are!

Tomorrow we ride on to Topeka, and the day after will be our next state line crossing. The weather looks good for tomorrow’s ride, but after that it looks like we may be in for some unpleasantness for a few days. Oh well, it is what it is. See you tomorrow!

Day 24: McPherson, KS to Emporia, KS

Distance: 80.64 miles

Elevation gain: 1,240 feet

Avg speed: 16.6 mph

Max speed: 30.2 mph

Moving time: 4:52:20

We did it! We made it to the third rest day! (That last interval felt particularly long, given the wind a few days ago along with the fact that this WAS the longest stretch of consecutive riding days on this tour.)

Today is Memorial Day, so I chose to wear my US Army Jersey as a tribute to the many servicemembers who paid for our freedom with the ultimate sacrifice. I think I said something a few days ago about how my perspective has been forever changed by this trip. Well, today was no exception - we rode about 80 miles today, which was an “average” day and an “easy” ride. Going back to those 30 mile “long” rides on Sundays is going to seem a bit surreal. 

At the start of today’s ride, I was having some shifting issues. My rear derailleur seemed to be hesitating a bit, with some shifts being a little delayed, or with the derailleur not quite moving all the way to the next cog, or double-shifting occasionally. I suspected at the time that my rear shifter cable may be about to give out on me, so I tried to do as little shifting as possible, instead opting to stay in an “incorrect” gear at times rather than shifting to where I WANTED to be. By the time I reached the first SAG stop in Canada though (the town in Kansas, not the country to our north), it seemed to have sorted itself out. Perhaps it was just a case of a dirty drivetrain. Not sure, but we shall see. 

Our first SAG stop was at the Marion Reservoir in Canada, KS

As we continued along the way to Emporia, we got to experience the changing landscape of Kansas. The wide-open flatlands of western Kansas have gradually been giving way to the trees and rolling hills of eastern Kansas. We have really gotten to enjoy quite a variety of scenery in this vast, diverse country of ours. By the way, I don’t know what goes through a cow’s mind, or how much thinking they actually do, but I find it funny and entertaining to see how so many of them stop eating and watch us as we roll by. 

At one point, we were treated to a view of a bunch of cows off in the distance, silhouetting themselves along a hilltop. This picture does not do the view we had justice. 

Yet another vista where the picture does not do the view justice, but I’m trying….

As we rode into Emporia, I found a truck stop for my customary sandwich and chocolate milk stop. While enjoying my meal, I watched many of my fellow riders coast by. At that point I was only about a mile and a half from the hotel, but I couldn’t help thinking as I watched everyone glide past that I really should have continued on to the hotel, where a warm shower awaited me. When I got to the hotel though, as is often the case, I still had a while to wait before our rooms were ready. As it turned out, stopping to eat was the correct choice. 

Usually, my rest day routine is to try to get my laundry done as early as possible, and save the bike cleaning and prep for the rest day itself. On THIS occasion, however, I’m still waiting for my package from Holbrook, AZ to arrive. Since I want to wash the clothing that is in that package as well, and that package is scheduled to arrive tomorrow by 1:30pm, I decided to take care of the bike first. Since the back tire is starting to square off (while the front tire continues to look new), I chose to do something I’ve never done before - I rotated my tires! Usually I just replace the tires as they wear out, and generally go through probably three rear tires for every front tire, but I’d like to have these tires make it through without having to replace them along the way if possible, so I tackled that task and now have the somewhat squared-off tire on the front and the new-looking one on the back. Based on their current state of wear, they SHOULD now be good for the rest of the trip. 

By the way, I noticed a short while ago that my back tire feels a little bit soft at the moment, and my first thought was that I have yet ANOTHER flat. It dawned on me though that after my tire rotation I used my frame pump to reinflate them, so it’s entirely possible that I just didn’t pump that tire back up to full pressure. I’ll take another look at it in the morning and reassess if anything further needs to be done (besides pumping both tires up to full pressure Wednesday morning before departing for Topeka). 

Tomorrow is the rest day, as I mentioned already. I have something touristy planned for the morning (you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s blog post to see what I chose), and after that I’m going to visit a local bike shop to buy a jersey as a souvenir as well as a new water bottle to replace the one I brought with me. (The nozzle on the top of the bottle is starting to rip and/or come apart, and it does not look like it’s going to survive the rest of the trip.) Also, I have laundry planned for tomorrow (I know, exciting stuff), and I think I will venture out a little further for lunch and dinner tomorrow, as opposed to tonight’s trip across the street to Pizza Ranch. I’ve gotten a few restaurant recommendations, so I’ll have some decisions to make. 

And, of course, this should go without saying at this point, but here is the video from today’s ride:

Well, that’s all for today - see you tomorrow night!