Day 34: 58 Miles

Pittsburg, KS to Chanute, KS

I didn’t go too crazy at the bar last night, so I was up at a reasonable time this morning. My plan was to get to Chanute, about 60 miles away, but I’d continue on if I was feeling good. The route today was mostly flat, but the winds made things more difficult than expected.

The winds were coming from the north and 15 of the first 20 miles today would be north instead of west. I made it through 13 miles riding into a headwind before taking a break at a Casey’s General Store in the town of Girard. This would be the only place to stop until I got to Chanute, so I made sure to get a slice of Casey’s breakfast pizza and some Gatorade to hold me over for the rest of the day. 7 miles later I finally made a left turn and started to head west again. I no longer had a headwind which allowed my speed to pick up significantly. I then put in my headphone and found a good radio station to listen to. There really wasn’t much to look at, so I needed something else to focus on. I have a feeling I’m going to rely heavily on listening to music to get through Kansas.

The rest of the day required me to pedal straight for 35 miles, and then make a right turn to head into the town of Chanute. It was pretty easy to remember the directions. The riding was easy, but not as flat as I would have expected. There were several occasions where I was on a 2% grade for stretches of a mile or more. This isn’t difficult, but it’s certainly not flat. I averaged 12.5 mph today and made it to Chanute right around 2:00 PM. I was welcomed into town by a guy in a truck driving by and yelling “Ride on the sidewalk asshole”. Generally, cyclists are not supposed to ride on sidewalks and in many cities it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk, but I did not try to education the angry driver. I had a reservation at a motel in town, but decided to stop at a Sonic for some ice cream first. A medium sized ice cream with peanut butter cups was about 1,100 calories so I more than replenished what I’d burned during the ride.

After checking into the hotel, I decided to check my bike out because I’ve been having issues with the rear wheel. For the past few days it has felt like my tire has a flat spot on it. Every time the tire makes a full revolution I’d feel a small bump from the rear wheel. I first thought this was occurring because of the bolt I was missing on the rear rack. I fixed that a few days ago and it didn’t solve the problem. I checked the tire and it looked fine. The next thing to check were the spokes. I found a spoke that was just barely screwed into the spoke nipple. I’m sure this would have been an obvious thing to check for most cyclists, but in all my years of cycling I’ve never had an issue with a spoke. I tried to tighten the nipple, but couldn’t get it to work. I had to take the wheel off the bike and remove the tire and tube to continue working. After an hour of frustration, I realized the nipple I had was just not going to work. Luckily, I had another one and it seems to have worked for now. The rear wheel will need to be trued the next time I stop at a bike shop, but I think I should be able to get through the next 2 days of riding.

After spending all that time working on the bike, I was ready for a beer. I walked across the street to the liquor store and picked up a six pack. Tonight, I’ll grab some food and try to make it out of town early tomorrow morning. The next stop on the route is Eureka, Kansas. It’s a small town, but they’ve got a town pool I’m hoping to make it to. It’s time to work on getting rid of the ridiculous farmers tan I’ve acquired over the last month. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to shower at the pool and camp in the town park right next to the pool.