Saturday, June 20, 2009
friday and saturday
Left pittsburg at 6:30a.m. on Friday trying to beat the heat. Got in about 20 miles before the temp reached 80. On a day that was forecast sunny and hot for our 58 mile ride to Chanute, Kansas, we got surprised by a storm. You can see forever out here so the storm appeared dead ahead. I pulled off the road to consult with some construction workers who just happened to have the weather radar on their cell phones. A severe but isolated storm was passing across our route from southwest to northeast. I stopped for 10-15 minutes and watched it rain with thunder and lightning just in front of me and in a flash it moved off our course and we were able to continue with no danger. Got to Chanute in time for lunch where I found a sports bar and watched some u.s. open. We stayed in an air conditioned church that had no showers so we rode over to the town park took showers and enjoyed the cool church for the rest of the day. Today was a 64 mile slog through constant rain sometimes light and sometimes pouring. It was too warm to gear up so I rode wet the whole day with it clearing up just as I got to eureka. Same deal as last night. Showers at the park and sleep in the air conditioned church. We learned that Kansas is not really flat. The hills were nothing like what we dealt with earlier, but they certainly got our attention. Tomorrow is a 75 ride with sunny and mid 90’s forcast.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Special posting of pictures taken by ralph's brother mark
levitating alice
ralph and david solving global warming
brain trust comtemplating dinner
biker joe blogging then worn out from blogging
chronology begins below
continuing my important research
Wednesday. Started out before 7:00am to try to beat the heat. It had to be 90 by 9:00am on a day that was supposed to be 68 miles. Rest day tomorrow makes the ride a lot easier know after 8 days and 429 miles we’ll have a day off and no more hills for awhile. About half way into the ride with the flattening terrain obvious we’re having lunch in golden city when informed that the road ahead was closed due to the flooding from the heavy rains two days ago. Please forgive me for over doing the pictures in golden city. I couldn’t help myself. Our detour added almost 10 miles to the ride as the temp reached mid 90’s with heat index over 100. Learned a bit about heat and wind as we road in all four directions as we navigated around the detour. Riding directly into the wind is the coolest but also the hardest to make progress. Riding with a tail wind you go real fast with “no chain” but it’s very hot. The most comfortable is cross wind. The wind is refreshing without unduly impeding forward momentum. I rode straight to the super 8 in pittsburg, cranked the a/c and drank about 2 gallons of water. It’s still morning and I’ve already been to the post office and completed a laundry run. I had lost track of father’s day but was happily reminded with all the stuff in the mail. Cards from donna,Benjamin, david, Jessica, josh, Emily, alix, ami, and andy. Cookies and cake that are delicious probably from caribou. Beth has a great book for me but I asked her to hold onto it as I’m really over weight. Starting tomorrow morning we ride 7 days in a row and end up just short of the Colorado border. We will ride aprox. 400 miles almost all of it on one road rising about 2300 feet so it’ll be pretty gradual. The wind rather than the hills will determine level of difficulty. Weather forecast shows a chance of rain tomorrow and then sunny and hot for the next seven days. I think we will welcome the high country out there in front of us in about 10 days. time to catch some u.s open. Later.
Tuesday. We woke up this morning to ominous black clouds. By the time breakfast was finished a violent electrical storm was upon us carrying very high winds. We intelligently sat t the rain dly hoping our ride would not get ppd. Someone got the brilliant idea to go hunting for a coffee shop in town. Believe it or not Freda’s diner was the happening breakfast spot in town so by 8:00am we had two breakfasts and zero miles. By 9:30am the storm let up to a light rain with no thunder and lightning so we geared up and got on the road. It was pretty chilly so I put on head to toe water proof stuff. It worked great except once you’re warmed up after the first few hills it gets very hot. Luckily after 15 miles the rain stopped and the gear came off. Because of the late start I didn’t get to camp in ash grove, mo. until almost 3:00pm. Of course that included time for a great lunch at the local diner. After extensive personal research I’ve concluded that almost every little town has a diner just like the beloved sandy hook diner. They all have their regulars who all know each other and are called “honey” or “dear” by the waitress… and it is always a waitress. There must be something about males need not apply. There’s not even any ordering, because everyone has the same thing every day and the waitress always gets it right. While we’re staying at the ash grove town park, we’re actually in a house adjacent to the part. Mr Varn left his house to the town and it was available for us to use. No beds, but lots of floor space, bathrooms, and a kitchen. The big bonus is air conditioning. Big day tomorrow!!!!!
pointing out the obvious re: kansas sign
in honor of tom and ralph. try to read the bumper sticker of van with woman
continuing my important research
Wednesday. Started out before 7:00am to try to beat the heat. It had to be 90 by 9:00am on a day that was supposed to be 68 miles. Rest day tomorrow makes the ride a lot easier know after 8 days and 429 miles we’ll have a day off and no more hills for awhile. About half way into the ride with the flattening terrain obvious we’re having lunch in golden city when informed that the road ahead was closed due to the flooding from the heavy rains two days ago. Please forgive me for over doing the pictures in golden city. I couldn’t help myself. Our detour added almost 10 miles to the ride as the temp reached mid 90’s with heat index over 100. Learned a bit about heat and wind as we road in all four directions as we navigated around the detour. Riding directly into the wind is the coolest but also the hardest to make progress. Riding with a tail wind you go real fast with “no chain” but it’s very hot. The most comfortable is cross wind. The wind is refreshing without unduly impeding forward momentum. I rode straight to the super 8 in pittsburg, cranked the a/c and drank about 2 gallons of water. It’s still morning and I’ve already been to the post office and completed a laundry run. I had lost track of father’s day but was happily reminded with all the stuff in the mail. Cards from donna,Benjamin, david, Jessica, josh, Emily, alix, ami, and andy. Cookies and cake that are delicious probably from caribou. Beth has a great book for me but I asked her to hold onto it as I’m really over weight. Starting tomorrow morning we ride 7 days in a row and end up just short of the Colorado border. We will ride aprox. 400 miles almost all of it on one road rising about 2300 feet so it’ll be pretty gradual. The wind rather than the hills will determine level of difficulty. Weather forecast shows a chance of rain tomorrow and then sunny and hot for the next seven days. I think we will welcome the high country out there in front of us in about 10 days. time to catch some u.s open. Later.Tuesday. We woke up this morning to ominous black clouds. By the time breakfast was finished a violent electrical storm was upon us carrying very high winds. We intelligently sat t the rain dly hoping our ride would not get ppd. Someone got the brilliant idea to go hunting for a coffee shop in town. Believe it or not Freda’s diner was the happening breakfast spot in town so by 8:00am we had two breakfasts and zero miles. By 9:30am the storm let up to a light rain with no thunder and lightning so we geared up and got on the road. It was pretty chilly so I put on head to toe water proof stuff. It worked great except once you’re warmed up after the first few hills it gets very hot. Luckily after 15 miles the rain stopped and the gear came off. Because of the late start I didn’t get to camp in ash grove, mo. until almost 3:00pm. Of course that included time for a great lunch at the local diner. After extensive personal research I’ve concluded that almost every little town has a diner just like the beloved sandy hook diner. They all have their regulars who all know each other and are called “honey” or “dear” by the waitress… and it is always a waitress. There must be something about males need not apply. There’s not even any ordering, because everyone has the same thing every day and the waitress always gets it right. While we’re staying at the ash grove town park, we’re actually in a house adjacent to the part. Mr Varn left his house to the town and it was available for us to use. No beds, but lots of floor space, bathrooms, and a kitchen. The big bonus is air conditioning. Big day tomorrow!!!!!
pointing out the obvious re: kansas sign
in honor of tom and ralph. try to read the bumper sticker of van with woman
c
crew at the landry
flat and straight as far as the eye can see
andy's haircut
high water at campgrounds
geared up biker joe' head to toe goretex
crew at the landry
flat and straight as far as the eye can see
andy's haircut
high water at campgrounds
geared up biker joe' head to toe goretex
waiting out the rain at freda's
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday was a very mixed up day. Right out of camp in eminence, mo we rode what seemed like straight up hill for seven mile in the pouring rain. There’s a couple of pictures taken along the ridgeline just as the storm was dissipating. The rest of the 42 miles was mostly flat with gentle rollers. Great second breakfast at just the right time in a little café and no rain the rest of the way into Houston, mo. I discovered a great drink at mcdonald’s. iced mocha. We camped in our first town park(see picture). I rolled out my pad and sleeping bag under a pavilion so no tent erection was necessary which made the morning organizing a bit quicker. There were tennis courts and a swimming pool. Unfortunately the pool is closed on Sunday I guess so as not to interfere with church. Of course the showers were in the locked pool area thus unavailable to us. Sleeping on the ground, so shower, we’ll probably be eating road kill soon. I’m also starting to identify with the carl hiassen character the former governor of florida but I can’t think of his name. just before dark a group of six young riders pulled into camp. Almost every day we meet up with other cyclists going both east and west. Mostly solo riders but a few couples and one father/son. The group that joined us in camp last four different groups of riders that joined up all early twenties. One girl. The guys were all buffed and studly not that I was interested. Two solos, one brother team, and one boy friend/ girl friend. They lit up there little camp stoves and ate all the really healthy crunchy type food. Then after dinner all but one started smoking cigarettes. I simply couldn’t help myself. I went ballistic and started lecturing them. I had to be pulled off by a couple of guys in our group. Some of them actually admitted to smoking while riding. So much for the illusion of a healthy life style. Today we are pretty much out of the Ozarks. 64 miles of gentle rollers through pretty farm land. The soil does grow much more than grass so this is cattle country. The next few weeks should be flat to gently rising as we go through Kansas and then start the big stuff in Colorado and Wyoming. Tonight is another town park in Marshfield, mo. Great showers!!!
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