Day 35: 62 Miles

Chanute, KS to Eureka, KS

The forecast today was for temperatures to remain in the 70s until noon and it also looked like the winds would be slightly in my favor. With no shade to hide in, I started the day out early, so I’d be out of the sun before it got too hot. Today looked a little flatter than yesterday, so I was hoping to average a decent speed, even with my rear wheel not fully fixed.

There isn’t really anything between Chanute and Eureka so I made sure to bring a Gatorade and an extra 1.5 liters of water in case it got hot and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. The first 20 miles headed directly west, and with the wind behind me they went by quickly. As I was riding, I saw another cyclists and we both stopped to talk. At first I couldn’t believe how light this guy was traveling, but it turned out he was a local. I wouldn’t say cycling is a big thing in Kansas, so it’s rare to find a local on a bicycle. I got some information from him about the route ahead and he warned me about the hill coming up. As I’ve said before, the locals are proud of their hills and think they are tough no matter how small they are.

Around mile 20 I turned right and headed north through the Toronto Lake and Cross Timbers State Park area. This put the wind slightly against me, but the small hills that did exist helped to block some of the wind. At mile 42 I finally hit my turning point to head west again. I found the Lizard Lips Grill & Deli at this turning point and stopped for lunch. Places like this are essential to making this trip possible. This was basically the only stop I had for 62 miles and without it I would have had to carry food with me the entire day. I got a sandwich and fries and thumbed through the cyclist book as I waited. Many of the stops along the route have sign in books for cyclists which is great because it gives me a sense of who is ahead of me and if there are people to try and catch up to. For the last few days I’ve seen the same names in all of these books, so I know there is a group of 2 or 3 guys not more than 2 days ahead. It’s crazy to think there are people out there doing the exact same trip as me, but I haven’t run into them yet because we have been travelling at the same exact pace.

After finishing lunch I had 20 miles to go until I hit Eureka. The wind was in my favor and the 20 miles flew by. I made a call to a motel in town and the manager informed me they gave a $10 discount to cyclists, so I decided to do the motel instead of camping in the town park. It’s nice to have air conditioning to cool off and totally worth the small cost for the motels. Prices have definitely dropped as I’ve gotten further west. After getting a room, I decided to check out the town pool. I haven’t been to a town pool since I was a lifeguard around 10 years ago. My inner lifeguard had me noticing all of the dangerous things going on, but I was able to cool off and work on getting rid of my farmers tan.

After the pool I got back to the motel to rest for a little bit. Tonight I’m going to try and get to a bar and watch game 3 of the NBA finals. Tomorrow I’ll head to Newton, Kansas where I can get my bike checked out and hopefully do some laundry. I haven’t done laundry in over a week and I’m tired of being the smelly kid.