Sheridan Lake, CO to Great Bend, KS: Oops, did I bike that far in two days?

So I slept at a church for the first time in my life. They had hot chocolate and coffee, both of which my stomach gave a warm welcome to (or at the least, it wasn't cold after). It wasn't like a coffee shop or anything, there was just all the equipment in the kitchen, so I helped myself. For breakfast I went to the "C-Store." I'm not sure why it was called that -- I would have called it "the gas station --" but the food was surprisingly good. I'd even say it was restaurant quality... and the price wasn't bad either, at $8 for 2 biscuits with gravy and 10 french toast sticks. I was stuffed.

Then I looked down.

When you ride a bike with fenders, you can't see the back tire at all. I had spent the whole trip staring at the front tire, which showed almost no wear. I had been meaning to check on the back tire, and when I finally did -- well, you can see what happened above. Those orange stripes you see are the weaving of the tire -- sort of like the lining of a coat. So I caught it just in time. I wasn't stranded though, I just swapped my tired and continued on -- the rest of the trip would toll on the old front tire, now the back tire, and the old back tire, now the front tire, could handle the relatively little load of being in front. My rear brake pads looked the same, but I had replacements for those.

All that maintenance took about an hour, and then I was on my way again. Sheridan Lake was just ten miles to the Kansas border, so it was early that morning when I stood on my head.

And that was the most fun I had in all of Kansas.

Kansas was more of the same -- those photos you saw in the last post -- but admittedly, a little greener, and with more trains, and lots of trucks carrying oversize loads. I also met Terry, Stephen, and George, three retired folks who were biking from Oregon, where they were from, to St. Augustine, FL, sag-wagon style. Usually that means you'd have an extra person driving the car and all the gear, but they didn't have anyone who wanted to drive, I guess... so they would rotate out. I thought it was an interesting way to do things... and that's all I'm going to say about that. Regardless, it was nice to have company for a bit. They were the first cyclists I'd met since Francisco in Utah.

I made it to a town called Dighton that night (did I mention it was 104 miles?) and slept in the city park after checking in, via phone, with the city sheriff. I knew of this via the bicycle map I was using, so felt pretty good about the whole thing, and having a place to sleep and such. Unfortunately, the city park also had a grain silo next to it with a ridiculously loud ventilation system, so I didn't fall asleep until 10:30 or so. Then at 11:00, the wind picked up to 18-25, so I woke up and had to fully stake my tent. Between the vent and the wind, I didn't get much sleep.

So the next day pretty much sucked. I mean, it wasn't that bad, but the wind didn't go away, and I had a headache from lack of sleep. Tim did catch up to me so we could have lunch together, an $8 buffet in Ness City complete with fried chicken, so that was nice. I also found a road map at the city library and set up warmshowers visits for the rest of Kansas. My first was in a town called Hillsboro, about 20 miles east of McPherson, KS, a huge city located smack dab in the middle of the state.

I also passed a bicycle oasis, but my bike wasn't thirsty.

I picked up the map because I was planning on going off route. See, the maps I was using wanted me to head southeast before going into Missouri, then across the better part of MO, and north into Jefferson City. This would have involved going through to Ozarks, a mountain (or large hill) range in Missouri, full of climbs that aren't very long, but ones that are very steep. Needless to say, that wasn't on my to-do list. So I decided to make my own route through Kansas, headed straight east to the Katy trail, a rails-to-trails done by the state of MO that runs about 260 miles into St. Louis. It would be flat and easy to follow.

In any case: Originally I had wanted to make it to Alexander, KS that day, the place where I'd depart the bike map's route and take my own. With the wind as it was, however, I knew I wouldn't make it to my homestay in Hillsboro unless I went a bit farther than usual that day. So I decided to bike to Great Bend, 96 miles from Dighton, where I'd started that morning. And I camped not in, but behind a church.

Hey, the door was locked.

And the fence blocked the wind.