Day 29: Newton, KS - Nickerson, KS (59/150)

In the restroom in the hostel I found a scale, which according to James was relatively accurate. Since I've been eating junk food for days, I couldn't imagine having lost that much weight... I was wrong though: 14 lbs. (approx. 7kg) lost since the start of the trip, not bad at all :) I treated myself to a breakfast of three donuts at the donut joint next door, which James recommended. The donuts were great and the coffee at the coffee house was great as well. After taking pictures with James in front of the shop and saying goodbye to Andrew and Caitlyn who were also about to leave (Hap and Diane left much earlier) I set off.

As the number of towns along the route grows thin, it is becoming more and more tricky to plan comfortable distances each day. I plan to do only 50 miles today and do slightly over 100 miles tomorrow. This choice appeared to be wise as the weather today was brutal. A very strong southwest wind of 25 mph with gusts up to 38 mph in combination with temperatures in the mid 90's with high humidity (heat index above 100). In addition due to my late start I was riding during the hottest part of the day, so it was working very, very hard for each mile.

Eventually I reached Nickerson, where I stopped at the shop to get a cold drink and some snacks. I planned to camp in the city park here tonight. In the store I ran into Diane, who told me they were staying at the local senior center. I could stay there as well and Diane even offered to cook dinner for me as well. We ended up having a nice evening with good (and healthy) food and interesting conversations. The forecast for tonight indicates heavy thunderstorms with heavy 2 inch hail, so I'm very glad I ran into them and have a roof over my head tonight.

Day 28: Eureka, KS - Newton, KS (57/150)

After rain comes sunshine, but not in the morning :( The morning was cloudy all over with scattered thunderstorms, which I luckily managed to circumvent, so I got only a few drops of rain. Morning riding was through a more hilly terrain and soon the route turned from the larger roads to the country roads.

The country roads meant almost no cars and really riding through the middle of nowhere. There were remarkably much grasshoppers / locusts on the road, which occasionally scared me by jumping onto my legs and sometimes hitchhiked on my bike for a bit. I also encountered a turtle which I helped to cross the road (as cross country cyclists are supposed to do). Initially the turtle tried to sprint away, but being a turtle it couldn't, so eventually it let me pick him up and put him next to the road.

The only service I encountered today was a small gas station next to Cassoday after which there was a 40 miles straight, whith nothing more than a few farms here and there, really awesome... just me and my thoughts! The landscape had turned flat again and there are remarkably many fields here with small oil pumps (Dutch: ja-knikkers).

In Newton I am staying in a bike shop / hostel. When I arrived James, the shop owner, welcomed me. Heather, his wife, was already bringing a couple, Hap and Diane who are also heading west, to their home to shower, so I had to wait for her to return. The hostel itself is awesome and has everything a cyclist needs! Before Heather arrived another couple, Andrew and Caitlyn arrived, heading east. When Heather was back she drove the three of us to their house, let us shower and did our laundry. Seriously, these people are awesome doing all this and are simply ridiculously hospitable! When we got back to the hostel I joined Andrew and Caitlyn for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Back at the hostel we had a talk with James who had all kinds of stories about the Transam racers, who all stopped at their store. Shortly after I turned in a nice bunk bed in the hostel :)

Day 27: Chanute, KS - Eureka, KS (54/150)

Again rain today and lots and lots of it. In the morning it was already dark and cloudy, but still dry. Somewhere during the end of the morning the first big shower hit, which already made me soaking wet. At the small town of Toronto, which looked almost like a ghost town, I put on some dry socks, since the worst seemed to be over.... I was wrong though.

Shortly after it began pouring like crazy again, so I tool shelter in a small café. A group of the Bike the US for MS was also there, so I had luch with them and sat out the rain. Luckily I had decided this morning that I was gonna ride a shorter distance today. When the worst of the rain was over we set out again, but it kept drizzling for some time after.

I had gotten rather cold when it finally stopped raining, so after that it took some time to get warm again. The clearing skies did create some nice views though :) As I was still soaked, slightly cold and the forecast for tonight was more rain I decided to stay in a motel tonight.Tomorrow should be a dry and warm day again!

Day 26: Golden City, MO - Chanute, KS (52/150)

Kansas here we come! Today I rode from Missouri into Kansas, which for me marks the end of the eastern part of the route and the beginning of the central part. The riding today has been comparable to the end of yesterday, i.e. dead straight roads (longest straight in the route today was over 30 miles), flat and seemingly endles farming fields (mostly corn, wheat, grass, cattle) and a strong southern wind. For the westbound bits this meant crosswind with sometimes a touch of headwind, for the northbound bits it meant tailwind and cruising along.

In Girard I stopped to get some drinks and food. Newly discovered junk food: Twinkies! Sweet cakes with a creamy filling inside. As most American junk food: full of sugar and calories, so not for normal use, but perfect for cycling. Girard also marks the end of the 4th out of 12 sections of the route. When I walked out of the market I ran into a tall guy into his 50's or 60's with the text "Volendam" on his cycling jersey, hence unmistakably a Dutchman. He seemed a bit confused a first when I responded in Dutch, but then we had a nice chat. His name is Johan from Heerhugowaard and he started beginning of May with the same route as me but then West to East. Apparently packing heavy is a Dutch thing as he was packing even heavier than me. He did comment that my legs were still too white, so I'll try to tan 'm up a bit more :)

In Chanute I rode into the city fairground to camp there and ran into the group from Bike the US for MS (biketheusforms.org). They are a group of mostly young people doing a cross country charity ride for the disease MS. I expected to run into them one of these days, as I say in logbook at Cooky's in Golden City that they were half a day ahead of me. Within 5min of arriving the guy I initially talked to had grabbed me a special beer, a chair and put on QOTSA for me, awesome :) During the evening I talked to some of the other guys. Really cool to learn how they are approaching this ride and how different (bath good and bad) it is to ride in a group like that, maybe even something to consider for a next ride...

Day 25: Marchfield, MO - Golden City, MO (49/150)

My last day in the Ozark Mountains and my last full day of cycling in Missouri had a bumpy start. First off the water in one of my bottles tasted sulphury, so I couldn't use it for the first bit and in addition when I tried to spray away a charging dog I got pepper spray all over my hands and partly on my clothes (luckily not in my eyes). After washing up with the smelly water I loaded up on some water, coke and sweet junk food at the first stop and all was good again :)

The Ozarks didn't let me go easily... climbing felt harder than yesterday with steeper climbs. The weather again was great though. Towards the end of the day the hills rather suddenly made room for a much flatter landscape, the typical landscape that I'm expecting for Kansas. I'm riding now on a sort of mile by mile grid, with farming roads every mile and normal roads every 5 miles or so. Roads for the coming time will therefore be dead straight either in northbound or westbound direction. As the wind from the south had picked up during the afternoon, cycling the northbound bits was very good fun !

Tonight I'm staying at the City Park in Golden City. Shortly after arriving the major stopped by and welcomed me and showed me where the restrooms and showers were. After that April, a lady living next to the park, welcomed me and left a logbook for me to sign. As she only started keeping the logbook this year, I was only the eight person writing in it. Somewhat later it got quite busy in the park as the local school team was playing a baseball match, so I decided to go have dinner at Cooky's Cafe, a place that April and also John, Melissa, Kevin, Faye and Linda recommended back in day 14 of this trip. The dinner was good and as the place is famous for their pies, I tried a slice of blueberry pie, which was delicious for dessert and off course signed their logbook as well. Back in the park I pitched my tent and turned in as soon as the baseball matches ended.

Day 24: Summerville, MO - Marchfield, MO (46/150)

I decided to go for a local breakfast today, so ordered "biscuits and gravy" at the gas station. For those who not know it: it's some sort of soft white bread (biscuits) in gravy, which is a thick creamy substance. There must be a gazillion calories in it, but it is super heavy on the stomach. Didn't really like the taste of it as well, so I'll try something else next time.

This morning the sky was again covered in clouds, keeping the temperatures surprisingly low and making the riding pleasant. The clouds cleared shortly around noon, but appeared again shortly after, so it was pleasent all day. Today was again riding through the Ozark Mountains, though without the steep bits from yesterday. Today was more like riding on a sort of plateau, cut by some rivers and creeks, to which I had to descend now and again. Scenery was again very pretty. For a moment I was on the road towards Success, but eventually the route led elsewhere...

In the town Marchfield I did some blog updating in the library after which I tried for a spot to camp at the RV Express park. Basically it is not much more than a restroom building and parking spaces for RV's right next to the interstate. The lady in the office let me stay on the lawn next to the office building, as this place doesn't have a field. In addition I got a access card so I could use the showers, restrooms and laundry room free of charge, awesome! Shortly after pitching my tent a guy staying in the motel next door walked by. He is doing a charity ride from northern Michigan to southern Texas and so he had some interesting stories to tell.

Day 23: Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, MO - Summerville, MO (42/150)

It rained all through the night, so I was rather reluctant to get out, get wet, pack my wet tent, and get wet again while cycling. Luckily the rain stopped just after my alarm went off so I could pack my wet tent in dry weather :). During the morning it remained very cloudy, but no rain and around noon it even cleared up and turned out to be a wonderful and sunny afternoon.

In Ellington, the first town on the route, I stopped for some water and supplies. A passing driver asked where I was from and then replied: "Dan wens ik je een goede reis verder!". Though with an American accent it was still strange (good strange) to hear someone speak Dutch for the first time in over three weeks. The driver told me his mother was from Amsterdam, so that's why he was able to speak some Dutch. In the food store I talked to the lady behind the counter who had all kinds of stories (seriously she talked for more than half an hour) but the most interesting was that the hard part of the Ozark Mountains was coming up and that today would probably the hardest day.

Since I was now prepared for the worst, the climbing itself wasn't too bad. Yes there were steep climbs and yes there were lots of them, but they were all (few exceptions) very short, too short to really get tired. Maybe cycling almost non-top for three weeks does make you stronger :P The hilly scenery itself was again extremely pretty, and no dogs this time !

In the food market in Eminence, I ran into Billy Rice, who is taking part in the Transam Bike Race (http://www.transambikerace.com/). Basically they are riding the same route as me, but West to East and then as fast a possible. They were only 2 weeks into the race and the first one had already finished (and Billy was over 2/3 of the way). His bike looks much, much faster and lighter than mine, some 30 lbs including all gear he told me, that's the same as my bike without the 50 lbs of gear on it!. These guys obviously don't camp and hardly sleep, he claimed to be on the bike 20 hours each days. Also he told me that Kansas and Idaho are the worst states to cycle through... hopefully it's not too bad. I wished him the best of luck with his race and set off again. In the future, whenever anyone tells me I'm crazy for doing this, I'll refer them to what these guys are doing and claim that what I'm doing is sort of normal :)

 

At the end of the day I reached Summerville, where I first tried the Youth Center to camp in the back. The guy I spoke to told me they didn't allow that, but the town sheriff, who lived next door, could help me. The sheriff directed me to a small city park (unfortunately no showers) where I'm staying for the night.

Day 22: Chester, IL - Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, MO (40/150)

And then the rain came... Guess I knew I was gonna run out of luck at some point.

In the morning everything was still fine and sunny. In Chester I spotted the Popeye statue before crossing the bridge over the Mississippi river into the state Missouri, where again the cycling route signs popped up. 

Just before lunch I reached the town Farmington where I visited the library, where I learned that the Dutch soccer team had won again! (against Chile this time). I also had a nice burger with fries in a diner, since after all I'm shouldn't forget I'm in the US.

During lunch it had started raining but soon after setting out it stopped. I did spend more than half an hour in Farmington trying to circumvent a closed road. As I'm approaching the Ozark mountains it unfortunately also means there is an increasing number of dogs running around. I used the dog spray twice today and it works very well. Still, especially when riding on busy roads these situations are very tricky.

The skies were dark all afternoon but it didn't start raining until something like 5pm. But when it did start it really poured! I tried to take shelter under a tree, which only helped at first. After the worst was over I set out again, but it never totally stopped raining. The shower at the campground was heavenly! Luckily they also have a washer and dryer here, so that at least my clothes will be clean and dry tomorrow. I'm about to turn in and the rain still hasn't stopped raining, hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have more luck. My day was saved when a neighbor who was having dinner with her kids in the same shelter as me offered me some smoores for dessert, they are awesome!

Day 21: Tunnel Hill, IL - Chester, IL (37/150)

After the long ride of yesterday I wasn't sure if I was gonna ride a full day again or have an easy day. I decided to see how things went and didn't really plan for a destination for today. After Ann prepared some eggs and bacon for me I set out. Ann told me about a nice little restaurant, Delaneys, that welcomes cyclists in Goreville. Even though I only did 10 miles, I decided to go for an early morning coffee and pie there. I was indeed welcomed warmly. The tables were all covered with cyclist photos and when I tried to pay they stated that the coffee and pie was free for passing cyclists, awesome! They off course did take my picture to put on their table :)

In Carbondale, the next town, I wanted to visit the university library, hoping it would be open on sunday. When riding into Carbondale I was joined by Jan, a local cyclist. We talked during riding and after she learned I was looking for the library she guided me there. She even left her number in case I might need it in an emergency. Unfortunately the library only opened at 1pm, so I decided not to wait for that and continue.

The town after that, Murphysboro, already marked the end of the 3rd (out of 12) section of the route. I had a simple lunch there, but as the town itself looked rather bleak and I was feeling ok, I decided to push on to Chester, which is next to the Mississippi river. Afternoon riding was dominated by dark clouds all over, keeping the temperatures down and eventually only hitting me with a very little bit of rain.

Tonight I'm staying in a little shack with bunk beds next to the Chester Eagles (fraternal order of Eagles). Its very basic, but is all I need and has a shower and restroom across the parking lot. Inside I enjoyed some (normally cheesy, small size) pizza and some beers whilst whatching the US - Portugal soccer match (2-2). I had half a mind to sleep in tomorrow and watch Netherlands - Chile here, but decided against it... starting from the semi finals I DO plan to start watching :)