Day 42 Ash Grove to Pittsburg, KS 6/14 “Hello Kansas-Hello Wind”

Stats
Miles: 72.86
Calories: 5,687
Top Speed: 34.5
Average speed: 10.4

It was a day of many adventures. We left the community center in Ash Grove early and rode 2 blocks into town and visited the local diner.

Community House in Ash Grove.

Again, the omelets were huge but I was able to eat it all plus the hash browns. The local men were having their coffee, talking shop, politics, and farming. They seem to do that.

We had an easy ride out-of-town and enjoyed the countryside. I’m not sure how we do it but we seem to be pretty good at starting stampedes, that would be cattle stampedes. As we rode along we greeted the cattle with “good morning girls”. We must make some nervous as off they go, pretty soon they all start running. It’s fun to get them all excited.

Missouri and her rollers were not quite done with us yet! That dot on the first roller is Lisa.

Half way through our ride I stopped to get a picture of “Turnback Creek”.

I pondered its name, turn back or what? I kept hearing water and went to investigate down a small road under the bridge. What I found was the remnants of an old mill. It looked like the same kind of mill we saw in Abbey Mill State Park as it had the wall for a turbine. It was a fun discovery.

Missouri, with Kansas undertones, is what I would call the afternoon weather. We had tailwinds! We made great time to Cooky’s a restaurant in Golden City, well-known by cyclists on the TransAmerica trail. Basically it is a hamburger joint that also makes pies. Unfortunately there was nothing GF so I had a Root Beer and snacked on my corn tortilla and cheese.
The wind was really blowing hard. We had to go over a freeway overpass and I noticed a sign for Joplin, didn’t a tornado wiped that town out a few years ago?  I had stopped to take a picture so I didn’t see it happen; Lisa had parked her bike off the side of the road on the overpass, the wind caught it, knocked it over and it rolled! It did a 360! Fortunately the bike and BOB were unharmed.

We ‘blew into town”. At one point I clocked my speed with the tailwinds at 30.2 mph. We arrived in Pittsburg, Kansas, tired and worn out from the miles and wind. We made our way to the city park where we were going to stay but the Park and Recreation Dept was closed and we didn’t feel comfortable just pitching our tents. We found a McDonald’s to get out of the heat and try to find a place to stay. We finally ended up at the Super 8 thanks to our Dad that paid for the room. It was so nice and comfortable and they had a special rate for cyclists.

Now a quick update on the rash. It is getting longer but I have been putting anti-fungal cream on it.

Beginning yesterday I thought it was a great idea to expose the rash area to the air and away for sweat, so  while I ride I have kept the waistband down and my jersey up a bit. Yesterday morning I thought the rash looked worse, more red and spreading, so I again kept the rash exposed to the air with my jersey up. All day Lisa and I kept saying, “Wow, that is looking bad”. I had visions of me rotting in half, and again, Lisa has volunteered to put me out of my misery. As we rode into Kansas, Lisa said, “Ahhhhh, I think I know what is going on with that rash”. What? “It’s not spreading, you’re getting a really bad sunburn!” Now I had considered that early on but I am almost always riding with the sun on my left. On the positive, the sun seemed to have “nuked” the rash but now I am left with a horrific burn. I know the picture’s gross, the white stuff is cream…not pus!

Lesson learned -Do not expose skin, that has not seen the light of day, to the sun for any reason.

PICTURE TIME:

Dade County’s First Courthouse 1837

Kansas has some BIG cows!

We have now completed, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri, hello Kansas.

…I’ll keep you posted.