Well once again I write you as we prepare to enter a new state. Kansas has been more fun and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Tonight we are in Garden City, but let me tell you about our 3 short stops in the sunflower state.
We entered Kansas and stayed the night in Coldwater. We actually camped out on Lake Coldwater, which was quite an experience... Let me tell you, the bugs in Kansas are approximately twice as big and 100x as ferocious as anywhere else I've ever been. The mosquitoes are relentless. We got torn up. Luckily, our tents protected us, and while the rain threatened, we actually had gorgeous camping weather. We had dinner in town at Dave's Pizza (big ups to the owner who comped our meal, and Sami's parents for picking up the tip!) and then proceeded to celebrate John's 21st birthday. We had a drink in town at a "member's only" bar on the tab of a man named Tim who obviously didn't know what he was getting himself into. But the real party was back at the campsite, where several of us sat around the campfire enjoying one another's company and talking about silliness and making John have the "best birthday ever" (which he told us over and over again). It was a good night. Happy birthday John :)
We escaped the mosquitoes the next morning and rode off to Dodge City. Yes, THE Dodge City. The ride started out fantastic, Laem and I rode with our counterparts John and Kevin, respectively, and were just flying through the first 14 miles. We picked up a train that ended up being about 10 people total (that's really big) and just tore down the highway toward Protection, KS where we stopped at a great diner to have second breakfast. It was delicious. The ride after that got a little less thrilling though, because we were all lethargic and food-comatose. The wind was really strong, too. Most of us got separated and the ride into lunch was pretty hard. After lunch however, we turned toward the North and had a ridiculous tailwind. I'm talking, I was doing 28 mph without really even pedaling hard. And I am not fast. John was probably doing 75mph. So the last 30 miles were gravy and as I coasted into Dodge I ran into Stutte, Sam and Andrew at an ice cream shop and got some awesome Horchata (Spanish rice milk deliciousness). Sam also got some sort of tomato/tobasco/really odd tasting popsicle by accident and then ate the whole thing because Andrew said he'd give her a 30 minute massage if she did. Oh the things we'll do for massages. That stuff was gross.
This morning we got the hell outta Dodge bandit-style and headed for Garden City. We had a nice short ride of 53 miles today, and it was desperately needed. We've been riding 5 straight days now and have 4 more coming before a break, so our bodies are crying for rest and people are getting a little testy. We were supposed to have prom tonight, so everyone stopped at the Goodwill in town to get super outfits, but prom has been delayed due to the fact that we have to get up at 4:30am and ride over 100 miles to Lamar, CO tomorrow. We also cross into our third time zone, Mountain Time! AND we've ridden over 2,000 miles. Man, I'm so excited about Colorado...I'm going to go to bed and dream about it. Then I'll tell you about it when I get there. BIKE & BUILD!
No comments:
Post a Comment