Friday, August 12, 2022

Day 64-Riding 61 Miles, and Doing a lot of Other Stuff

We started today’s ride going south. 

There’s a different sunrise photo!

It wasn’t as cool as yesterday, but it was pleasant. Once we were heading east again, I saw a cyclist heading toward us. I pulled over to talk to him. His name was Stuart (or Stewart), and he was from New Mexico. He wasn’t doing the whole Trans Am, maybe to Colorado. He told us about a German cyclist that was coming behind him. He also told us about another bridge out, but he said he’d been able to ride through. We continued on. When we got to the detour for the bridge, we opted to take the chance that we too would be able to ride through. I also really wanted to see the German cyclist because Stuart said he had ridden through eastern Kentucky during the flooding. 

Pretty soon, I could see a cyclist coming. I pulled over and waited for him. I can’t remember his name, but it started with an “M”. We asked him about Kentucky. It wasn’t good. He was right in the middle of the flooding. There was another couple that recently tried to go through eastbound. They told him it still is bad. I have created a route to bypass eastern Kentucky. We’ll evaluate whether we need to do it when we get to Berea, KY. 

We stopped in the town of Walnut at the convenience store for a mid-morning snack. Had a nice conversation with a gentleman named Robert…older guy, spent all his life in the Walnut area, but said he has “relations” in Washington (Wenatchee area). He said they got rich from the apple orchards, but he was “too far from the tree” to see any of the money. 

Back on the road, we were pretty much rolling up or rolling down. The flat land is behind us for good. 

Solar panels and wind turbines. 

The closure. We just walked our bikes through. They didn’t even look at us! 

We got to the last town on Map 8…Girard. Found Eastside Cafe, and had some lunch. I had a club sandwich made with chicken salad, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. It was pretty good!

After lunch, we had 14 more miles to Pittsburg (Kansas declines to put the “h” at the end). We are staying at the Four Oaks RV and Bike Camp. It’s just on the edge of town. The restroom has a code. I called the necessary phone number to get the code. It didn’t work. I called back. The gal told me they had changed the code, but the restrooms were dead bolted due to vandals the last two nights. Oh…great…
She gave me the new code, and said the guy would come out and unbolt one of the restrooms. 

It costs $10 to stay here. The gal said to just put it in the drop box. However, I can’t find any drop box. There was also a crap ton of trash laying around. In lieu of paying the $10, I picked up two grocery bags of trash. This place isn’t really worth $10. 

We set up our tents, and through everything in them before riding on into town to go to the bike shop. Doug needed a new helmet, and I needed a spare tube. They are highly overpriced. The tube was $10! 

After the bike shop, we went up to Dillons for some groceries. Across the street there was a Great Clips. We went there to get our hairs cut. There was a wait, so we went to the new Dairy Queen and had ice cream. Back to Great Clips, we came out new and improved from our shaggy selves. 



I’ve gone from looking like my mother, back to looking like my little brother! Feels so much better!

Sorry for the lack of photos, there just wasn’t much to take photos of. Tomorrow we’ll be finishing Kansas. Missouri here we come!



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