47 miles (76 km) – Total so far: 950 miles (1,529 km)
Once I finally got going, most of the ride passed without any exceptional events. I began to wonder what I’d write about today.
The tour surprised me again with rapid fire happenings in the last 10 miles. My complacent daydreaming self was pedaling along wondering how many revolutions of the crank I’ve done so far and out of nowhere BLAMO! 3 dogs in full pursuit. I was in a high gear just starting a hill, and I couldn’t accelerate fast enough. The pooches caught me and were none too impressed by my whistle. At the critical moment, rather than biting me one of them raced ahead, looking back hopefully for me to continue the game of chase. I don’t know if this playful spirit is the exception or the rule. I hope I won’t be gathering a statistically significant sample set of data to answer that question.
A few miles further down the road, a kid of about 11 or 12 rolled out of his driveway as I was approaching. After doing a triple take, he settled in beside me for a ride and started asking me all sorts of questions about where I was from and what I was doing. He was blown away by the idea that someone could ride all the way from the ocean. He was even more amazed that I would try to get all the way to the Pacific. After about half a mile he wished me luck and turned back to his farm to get back to work.
My final experience of the day was a bug hitting me while I was on a 35MPH downhill. Impact was half an inch under my eye. I almost totally bit the dust. After recovering from my initial shock and not wanting to lose momentum, I got about halfway up the subsequent uphill before stopping to inspect my eye. Still worked. I’ve got a big bruise from pretending I’m a windshield. You should have seen the other guy.
That is flat. And I thought Kentucky was all hills.
Great looking breakfast.
Mike – Troy Henikoff mentioned last week you were doing this – sounds like a ton of fun – good luck! Curious about your bug experience – I see you have a front shield on the bike – are you not wearing any eye protection?
Well… Now I am wearing eye protection… A bit late. That big turned out to be a bee and now I have a black eye and sore throat. Booo
Looking at that flat road makes me a little concerned about you getting through Kansas. Chris’ family is from southwest Kansas and it is FLAT!
I’m enjoying following your adventure Mike. Very very cool. Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Yeah, western Kansas and eastern Colorado await. Flat. You’ll see. (Although I found the super-sized skies in that region to be pretty awe-inspiring.)
Hey Mike- I look forward to reading your updates every day! This looks like an awesome adventure. Safe travels!
Yeah speaking as a native and current Kansan I can confirm that western Kansas and eastern CO are going to be days on end of those flat, straight roads. Power through it – the first time you see the Rockies on the horizon is tremendously re-energizing.