July 1 Crossing America

Larned, KS – Ness City, KS Distance 65 miles, miles I rode on bike 58
Total miles traveled through today 2,100 miles, miles I’ve ridden on my bike 1,794.

Winds of Kansas bid us farewell

Last night at a crew meeting it was decided we’d all leave early this morning to get as many miles in before the heat of the day.  It was also discussed if any rider felt they couldn’t complete the distance it would be alright to ride in the van, do what we can but accept our limitations.  I think Pepper was thinking of me specifically, there is no doubt I’m the weakest member of our crew.  I don’t ever remember being in this position before, if I were in combat, I’d shoot me to keep from endangering the rest of the unit.

I awoke at 4:30, packed my things, ate a Subway Sunrise Breakfast sandwich I purchased
last night while I was loading my journal onto the website.  By the way, it’s a very tasty and feeling sandwich.  Washed the sandwich down with orange juice and was ready to ride by 5:25.   Not good I discovered 8 riders have already left and the rest are getting close to leaving.  I don’t know how I’m going to keep within a reasonable distance of them.

Arron didn’t have a tail light for his bike and as it was still semi-dark asked if he could
ride with me until daylight which I gladly agreed too.  Then after I thought about it, that wouldn’t be fair to Arron as he is the strongest rider of us old geezers.  Thus I stopped and gave him one of my tail lights, I have two on my bike and one on me.   He was very appreciative and in exchange said he’d break the wind (he’d ride in front of me and I’d stay within a foot or two of us rear wheel) for me for the first 5 miles until he got warmed up.
I thanked him and we were off.  If you ever doubted the energy savings of doing a pace line (two or more riders riding in single file) I can attest to the fact it does work even with just two people.  When Arron and I split my speed dropped 2 mph immediately and I had to work harder to maintain this new slower speed.  I could tell I was causing Arron to work much too hard pulling me along with him and that just wasn’t right.   Therefore after the five miles he said he’d do and appeared willing to keep on doing, I made an excuse I’d just pulled a muscle and had to stop.  He was going to stop with me but I told him to go on.  If
you read my journal Arron, thank you for your selfless sacrifice to help this Old Guy get down the road it was very kind of you.

Caught a break at the 12 mile turn we turned north for 19 miles which made for a fast
and easy riding.  That said the 6 riders who left behind me caught up and passed me by the time I got to 20 miles, which means I was now bringing up the rear.  At 32 miles we had our first water break, kept it short in order to get back in front of the six riders.  That worked for about five miles when I was passed by all.  We were now fighting a pretty strong cross wind and my speed dropped to 8-10 mph but surprised myself as I was dealing with it much better than yesterday.  The short day probably gave me a chance to recover from the hard miles of the two prior days.

At 50 miles out, I saw Pepper in the big van coming toward me and figured I knew why.  I pulled over and immediately asked, “I’m last right”?  He replied yes and then asked how I felt.  Told him my speed was down to 8-10 but still felt strong and I’d like to at least continue onto Ness City.  Pepper said that was cool and I had till 8 or 9 tonight to complete my ride.   I could keep going and call him if I needed a ride.  I appreciated that offer as I really do want to ride across America as much my body will allow.

Shortly after Pepper left, the wind picked up even more or at the least coming more out of
the west creating more of a headwind.   Still I was doing OK but my speed now dropped to 5 ½ – 8 mph.  A new challenge added into the mix, trucks coming from the opposite direction would create a wind inversion throwing my bike and me around like a feather.  Several times I almost lost control and barely avoided being thrown onto the side of
the road.  My greatest fear though was that I’d be sucked back into the center of the road where I would become a grease spot by a truck traveling in the same direction as me.  I didn’t much care for this new challenge to continuing my ride.  When Pepper and I
were talking I asked him, “How far ahead of me were the other riders?  Pepper advised me all of them had already made it past the second water break.  I’m thinking the second water break was in Ness City about 14 miles further up the road.  Given the wind conditions and how far behind I was to the entire crew and the slow speed I was making, after traveling another 6 miles I decided to call Pepper and have someone pick me up.  I continued riding and managed to log 58 miles for the day before Amanda arrived.   I felt devastated to again fail to complete the mileage and shared this with Amanda.  She said everyone except Mark are in Ness City at a café’.  Mark had a flat and was repairing it and she was going to stop to pick him up after me if he needed as he was still a mile or so from Ness City.  Then Amanda totally surprised me when she said we were going to call it a day in Ness City as the wind was too strong making it dangerous to continue riding.   I almost asked her to stop the van and let me ride into Ness City but then thought better of it.  I told
myself, “Be quiet and take the ride Old Guy, there is always tomorrow”.  Tomorrow was to be a 70 mile ride but now it will be over a 100 miles.  The weather forecast is for the wind to turn around and blow from the east too, which will mean much faster and easier going if the forecast proves correct.  I can live with that.  Maybe if we all say a prayer we’ll get the
tailwind tomorrow?

Kansas Cadillac photo Arron Goldenberg

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