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