Week 8

Week 1 in Kansas is over. It’s sort of flat, but it sure is windy.

On Monday I was still in Colorado. I rode through the plains to the Sheridan Lake Bible church, where I met Irwin from Switzerland, and we drank milk and compared notes and maps. I cooked dinner, and he cooked breakfast. It was nice to chat and see yet another amazing European bike. The scenery was the same as all of eastern Colorado; empty grassland.

Tuesday I made it to Kansas in the morning. The only exciting part is that the road condition improved. Thus began western Kansas. From what I saw, it is farmland, mostly grain, with giant concrete grain silos by the railroad tracks every 5-10 miles. Now that I described it, you know what most of the week was like. It feels like you are on a stationary bike for days at a time. Nothing seems to move or change. Tuesday night I camped in Leoti, which was a nice town. Talked to a California transplant.

Wednesday I rode to Ness City. I should have rode less that day, because the last few hours were at night, but I made it. In both Leoti and Ness City I had breakfast with the local farmers, and both times the bought me breakfast.

Thursday I went to Great Bend, where I had a hotel waiting for me to take a rest day. Thursday was a hard day. I could see Great Bend for hours before I could get there. Wednesday and Thursday were both days I spent in my low climbing gears because of the headwinds. But I made it.

Friday was the first rest day since Utah. I cleaned my bike, ate a lot, bought groceries, and rested. I think it was good for me.

Saturday and Sunday were both shorter rides, because I only had to get to Hutchison by Sunday night to wait for my friend who is riding the train in to come ride for a week. I did get to visit the national headquarters of my old karate school, and the Cosmosphere, where I took a picture of the piece of the Berlin Wall they had.

Very busy week, and I’m still pretty worn out. I’m not going to write about what I was thinking about this week, because it was pretty personal and I’ve been pretty emotionaly drained. I stopped a lot in these constant gusting headwinds to scream or cry. But I rode through. Kansas is really nice, just a bit windy.

So instead of writing about my feelings, I’m going to show and tell what I carry on a cross country bike trip. If I was reading about someone’s bike trip, I would be interested in what they carried, so here you go. My gear has had many additions and subtractions, and there are still plenty of things I would do differently next time, but here it is:

Rear right: From left to right. Compression sack with extra clothes, towel, sleeping bag liner, tent footprint, pillow, sleeping pad, tent stakes, and jacket in the blue bag.

There are a couple small personal things I didn’t show, but that’s 99% of my stuff. In case you were wondering why there is no shovel, I wish I had one. I use sticks to dig holes. It’s not as nice. And my front hub is a dynamo hub, which is wired to a rectifier that I use to charge the battery pack. I recomend to anyone not to do it that way, and to use a solar charger instead. Make the sun work, not your legs.

And here are the pictures from this week. There aren’t many. The scenery didn’t vary that much. Thanks to everyone who has been so kind to me on this trip and to everyone that has called or texted to encourage me. It means a lot to me. Feel free to reach out and see how I’m doing.