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Day 33 - 40 Coast To Coast 1999 by Eric K. Andersen (click on images to see larger pictures)
Day 33 Pittsburg, KS I
Left town after some morning thunderstorms passed. The wind was quiet.
After lunch in Walnut the winds blew strong from the west. At a
rest stop a woman in a van stopped and introduced herself as the former
owner of the bike shop in Chanute
the town where I planned to stay that night. She and her husband
had since closed down the store. I got into town and found the library.
This library limited the amount of time it allowed nonmembers to use their
Internet access to 30 minutes. Midway through my letter, the computer
crashed and I lost my writing. As I was finishing up a shorter letter,
the librarian informed me that my time was up. There was not only
no one else waiting to use the computer, but nobody else in the entire
library. I continued to work figuring that they would never call
the police. When I finished I calmly told the librarian and her
associate about my trip and that I communicated with my friends and family
through e-mail to keep them posted of my progress and let them know I
was safe. I then told her that I thought she was the rudest person
I had met so far on my trip. There was no reason why they couldn't
have let me use the PC until someone else needed it. I returned
to the free campground in town and found the TT's. After I took
a shower Hob told me that two of his spokes had popped. We considered
his options. We went to visit "Yodeling" Katie, a well
known personality on the trans-am route. She was sick and offered
little advice, but I mentioned the former bike shop owner I had met and
she pointed to their old store just down the road where the owners still
reside. We went to the store and could see various reminders of
the old shop still in place. There was nobody there so we went to
dinner and met the first of many Dutch couples that I would meet also
bicycling across the country. After dinner Hob went back to the
store and the owner was there. He spent a few hours repairing the
spokes while Deb and I returned to camp. Hob returned about midnight
with his rebuilt wheel. Problem solved.
Total Miles: 63
considered
walking it, but there was no way that I would walk anything in Kansas. Once
that first hill was behind me the countryside was rolling. When I got into
the town park in Eureka
there were already 7 other bicyclist in addition to the TT's camped amongst
the swing sets and jungle gyms next to the community pool. There was
the Dutch couple who I rode with for a few miles earlier in the day and
five people heading east. After a free dip in the pool, 8 of
us went to dinner where we shared tips on what to expect ahead and had a
lot of laughs with our waitress Aubrey, named after the Bread song. That
night some strong thunderstorms passed by. So far I've been lucky.
All the storms have been late in the day or early in the morning.
Total Miles: 64
Day 35 Eureka, KS The weather
today was humid. The TT's and I stopped for lunch in Cassoday, the
"Prairie Chicken Capital of the World" at the Cassoday Cafe, home
of "good food and gossip". The cafe was crowded with farmers and
cowboys and we stood out like sore thumbs in our cycling clothes. We sat
in a corner and I could tell that the people around us were listening to
our conversation. I asked Hob in a slightly louder voice how many head of
cattle he was running this year and he replied in a louder voice "Welllll
about 3 or 400 Hereford". The people next to us turned and did a double
take. It was hard to hold back the laughter. In Newton we shared an extra
large room at a trucker motel. We had plenty of space for both bikes
and our gear. On TV, I saw a music video that I had edited for KISS
many years ago get the "Pop-up" treatment from VH-1. Cool.
Total Miles: 73Day 37 Hutchinson, KS My bicycle was to be ready at 10am. I ate a cinnamon roll the size of a hubcap and went to the library and spent some time on the web. I picked up my bike complete with new wheel, hub, gears, and chain. $140.00 later I was back on the road. I had a tailwind as I sped northwest towards Nickerson where I had lunch. The waitress there asked me the usual questions: Where do you sleep? Do you ever get scared? What do you think about while riding? I fought the strong south cross wind the remainder of the day. I passed through the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a large bird sanctuary. Not much to see there from the handlebars. The TT's who had left much earlier in the day said that if the wind was strong they would stop in Hudson and they were there to greet me as I came into town. For more details on the events that took place, read the complete story. Total Miles: 48
Day
38 Hudson, KS After eating whatever food
we could find amongst our gear for breakfast we headed towards Larned.
We got to Larned around 11am and had an early lunch. We feasted
on a buffet that contained the best food I'd eaten on the whole trip.
I ate too much. We stopped at the Santa Fe Trail Museum just outside of
town and then on to Fort Larned. The TT"s wanted to check it
out, but I wasn't feeling very well and wanted to continue on. We
said good-bye, counting on meeting up later. After several miles
I started to feel better. I got to Rush Center and looked for a place
to eat and wait for the TT's. As you come into town there is a sign
that says the town is home to the "Largest St. Patrick's Day Parade".
It didn't say what it's size was compared to though. It was Sunday and
nothing was open. There were many bikers passing through town as
part of the annual Bike Across Kansas (BAK). They were coming from
were I was going so I asked them what was ahead for me. There wasn't
too much. 4 miles off the route to the north was the town of Lacrosse
so I headed there and got a motel room. The owner of the Motel was
a retiree from Newark, NJ. I did what was becoming a habit: ordered a
pizza and watched a Knicks playoff game. Lacrosse's claim to fame
was that it was the "Barbed Wire Capital of the World".
They had a museum housing thousands of different styles of barbed wire
and had an annual festival.
Total Miles: 67
went
undetected despite my trailer. These riders were spending a week riding
across Kansas. To many of them it will be a major achievement, but
it pails in comparison to going across the country. Later that day after
I had passed the last BAK rider, I met another rider going east. Matt
told me he had seen the TT's and that they were going to stay in Scott City.
I considered going another 24 miles to meet them, but that would be a 94
mile day. As I approached Dighton
the winds picked up so I stayed there. I stopped for an ice cream
where a little boy asked me where my boss was. The work ethic is instilled
in youth at an early age here in the heartland. His brother was up on a
nearby telephone pole making repairs. I asked him what his brother's job
was and he replied that he didn't know. As I went through town, street lights
swayed and metal signs creaked in the wind. The temperature was the hottest
it had been - 93 degrees. Total Miles:
70
Large cattle trucks made the riding even more challenging not to mention
fragrant. Sometimes the wind was so strong it forced me off the
shoulder. I saw the Dutch couple when I stopped for lunch in Leoti. The
usual thunderstorms threatened in the afternoon. I managed to ride
between the little 
dark
cells of clouds dropping rain and lightning in the distance. The
strikes were beautiful, but the storm was intensifying as I approached
Tribune.
I pedaled harder the final miles into town and got there just as the rain
began to fall. When it cleared, I found the TT's as they came into town.
They had spent some time in Leoti with a local artist. We found the town
park where we were joined by Larry from San Francisco and Jason from England.
L & J were traveling separately but had met each other several
days before. The TT's had seen both of them as far back as Kentucky.
We set up our tents under an amazing sky. The clouds were like velvet
and lightning continued to streak across the horizon. Local kids with
nothing better to do than drive around and honk their horns were a nuisance
as we tried to sleep. In the morning I was awakened by the woman's swim club coming to use the pool and lawn sprinklers
that drenched my tent.
I didn't get much sleep. Total Miles: 74|
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