Day 27: Pittsburg, KS to Fredonia, KS (71 miles), Day 28: Fredonia, KS to Wichita, KS (90 miles), Day 29 & 30: Rest Days
And so began Kansas. We were pretty lucky to have a tailwind through most of our first day in Kansas. We hopped off the TransAm route to go south to Fredonia and eventually to Wichita. Once we hit Fredonia, Jon met up with his girlfriend Tia while Dustin and I set up camp in the town park. While we were in the town park, we began hearing a cell phone ring somewhere in the park. Picking it up, we were able to let the woman know that her daughter's cell phone was somewhere in the park and that she could pick it up from us. This park was pretty awesome; it had all the dangerous things that most parks don't have anymore including
Later on we went to the local watering hole and had a few drinks, chatted with the parents of the girl who lost her cell phone (and redeemed myself as an actual person, and not some random methhead from the park), had a quality hug from a guy who looked like a cowboy who used to be an air traffic controller (who also said that "Pollacks were hard working"), chatted with Jon and Tia, and then called it a night.
It sounded windy, but really wasn't that bad near where we were staying. Dustin woke up a bit earlier to get moving while I decided to sleep in and avoid the rain since the next 2 days were rest days. I got moving at about 9:30, saw Tia on the road a few hours later (when she was super helpful and SAG'd and grabbed my tent and sleeping bag), and started biking on the road towards Wichita. After starting slow, I started flying on a smooth road and began making great time (20, 21 mph). I was feeling great, gave Dustin the info to check into the hotel, and expected to arrive in an hour. As I got a bit closer to Wichita, the road I was riding on turned into a 4 lane highway and the shoulders were a mess. Looking at my iPhone, I saw that there were parallel roads that I could take, so I decided to get off and give it a try on one of the roads that looked real. It looked to be a dirt road... my hotel was on this road in 10 milers. So I thought, so it had to turn paved soon. Nope, wrong. After riding about half a mile, the dirt turned to mud and little Trixie was soon immobilized. Thinking that the paved road might be up soon, I started walking through the ankle deep mud. I made it about another half mile before I saw a man named "Bruce". Bruce informed me that the road was mud for another 4 miles, that the cross roads were worse mud, and that my best bet was to walk back a mile to the paved crossroad in the mud with my immobilized bike. This is the only point in the trip (even during the flat tire debacle), that I had felt some amount of despair... 1 hour of easy work was now turning into hours of crappy time in the mud. So, I started walking. After a few hundred yards, a small, old Honda Accord pulled up and a woman said "Do you want a ride?" I was elated, but I had no idea how I would fit a muddy bike with all my stuff on it into the car. She said "If you can figure it out, the ride to the road is yours." So, thinking for a second, I decided the best thing to do was to open the passenger door and to hold my bike out of the door with my feet dangling out the door for a mile. And so we went, and a managed to not drop Trixie, fall out of the car, or any combination thereof. Thankful, I took the wheels off, knocked the rest of the mud out, and hobbled my way into Wichita.
For me, the next two days were relaxing. I spent some alone time in the hotel, ate some food, got a haircut, listened to disco to celebrate the rapture not occurring, drank some Shiner Bock and had some meals with Jon and Tia and Dustin and his wife and her family. All very nice.
- 9 foot tall, metal slide.
- Something that looked like a combination of chains and tetherball
- The best tilt-a-whirl with sharp metal edges
Later on we went to the local watering hole and had a few drinks, chatted with the parents of the girl who lost her cell phone (and redeemed myself as an actual person, and not some random methhead from the park), had a quality hug from a guy who looked like a cowboy who used to be an air traffic controller (who also said that "Pollacks were hard working"), chatted with Jon and Tia, and then called it a night.
It sounded windy, but really wasn't that bad near where we were staying. Dustin woke up a bit earlier to get moving while I decided to sleep in and avoid the rain since the next 2 days were rest days. I got moving at about 9:30, saw Tia on the road a few hours later (when she was super helpful and SAG'd and grabbed my tent and sleeping bag), and started biking on the road towards Wichita. After starting slow, I started flying on a smooth road and began making great time (20, 21 mph). I was feeling great, gave Dustin the info to check into the hotel, and expected to arrive in an hour. As I got a bit closer to Wichita, the road I was riding on turned into a 4 lane highway and the shoulders were a mess. Looking at my iPhone, I saw that there were parallel roads that I could take, so I decided to get off and give it a try on one of the roads that looked real. It looked to be a dirt road... my hotel was on this road in 10 milers. So I thought, so it had to turn paved soon. Nope, wrong. After riding about half a mile, the dirt turned to mud and little Trixie was soon immobilized. Thinking that the paved road might be up soon, I started walking through the ankle deep mud. I made it about another half mile before I saw a man named "Bruce". Bruce informed me that the road was mud for another 4 miles, that the cross roads were worse mud, and that my best bet was to walk back a mile to the paved crossroad in the mud with my immobilized bike. This is the only point in the trip (even during the flat tire debacle), that I had felt some amount of despair... 1 hour of easy work was now turning into hours of crappy time in the mud. So, I started walking. After a few hundred yards, a small, old Honda Accord pulled up and a woman said "Do you want a ride?" I was elated, but I had no idea how I would fit a muddy bike with all my stuff on it into the car. She said "If you can figure it out, the ride to the road is yours." So, thinking for a second, I decided the best thing to do was to open the passenger door and to hold my bike out of the door with my feet dangling out the door for a mile. And so we went, and a managed to not drop Trixie, fall out of the car, or any combination thereof. Thankful, I took the wheels off, knocked the rest of the mud out, and hobbled my way into Wichita.
For me, the next two days were relaxing. I spent some alone time in the hotel, ate some food, got a haircut, listened to disco to celebrate the rapture not occurring, drank some Shiner Bock and had some meals with Jon and Tia and Dustin and his wife and her family. All very nice.
Dying laughing thinking of your dizzy methead incident
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