Into Missouri....

Our time in Kansas has come to a close. All in all Kansas was a good experience. For what the state lacks in dramatic scenery, diversity, and/or lively towns was easily made up for with the nicest and humblest people of the trip, along with free camping in all the city parks, and a swimming pool or water park in each and every town. One of our best stops of the trip thus far was in Newton, KS. We had been hearing of a must visit bicycle shop from passing cyclists heading the opposite direction, so upon arrival we rolled over to check things out. From the minute we walked in the door we were made to feel completely at home by the owner James. After a successful career in video production/direction James brought his family back to Newton, KS. Upon realizing the TransAmerica Trail passes through his small town his new passion is to create a totally homelike atmosphere where road weary cyclists can relax and recoup for a couple days after reaching the halfway point of the trip. He totally opens up his shop to all us touring cyclists, lets us use all his tools, and even has a special tub and all the chemicals needed to clean your bike to like new condition, which was greatly needed for us after cycling just under 3,000 miles. He allows you to stay the night in the shop and actually gives you a key to the front door so you can come and go as you please after hours. Having grown up in a small town myself it was really cool to see someone come back and try to make some positive changes around town with a youthful spirit and attitude.

 

Pushing off from the Newton Bike Shop somewhat early we had plans for a big 80+ mile day...nature had other plans. We spent hours pedaling hard and only going 6-7mph due to a stiff headwind and the terrain changing from totally flat to never ending (at least it felt that way at the time) rolling hills. We huffed and puffed for the better part of the day only to go 36 miles. We would crest the top of a hill only to look out and see another series of three rolling hills over the next mile....over and over again. But nevertheless we persevered, as we always do, to find this really nice pavilion in the town park to spend the night.

 

The next day was what we wish all of Kansas would've been!....healthy cornfields, lush woods, actual flowing streams, green, green, and more green. We stopped and watched a handful of turtles crawl across the road, as birds and locusts competed fiercely for dominance of the airwaves. The evening hours that day were easily the best of Kansas…no wind, perfect golden light, coyotes yelping in salute, eagles soaring, all ending in a lake view campground all to ourselves. The next morning we peddled a fast-paced 40 miles to the town of Chanute, KS, where Sarah's uncle Art picked us up to hang out in Tulsa/Broken Arrow, Oklahoma with some of Sarah's family for a couple days. It's been very relaxing...great hospitality, a home-cooked meal, a bed to sleep in, and I'm actually writing this from a comfortable chair instead of a picnic table with a sticky top or random laundry room. Much thanks to Nel and Richard for having us! Monday morning we're headed back to the life of touring cyclists. We penciled out our miles and we decided to rent a pick up truck and skip around 200 miles in order to visit with family in Michigan on a specific date. So Tuesday morning we'll be pushing off on the Katy Trail in Missouri, which is a "rails to trails" path.....an old railroad that has since been converted to a hikers/biker path. We'll be headed East on the Katy Trail for some 125+ miles across Missouri before turning North and heading towards Michigan/Indiana up through Illinois. Wish us luck!

 

From grain elevator to grain elevator

 

When Dorothy coined the famous phrase "there's no place like home" in the classic Wizard of Oz film, well....she lied! We left ya last time shortly after descending from the higher elevations of the Rockies down into the hot flat plains of Eastern Colorado. As it turns out much of Colorado is suffering from what some say is the worst drought of the last 250 years. As a couple different locals explained the crops have diminished severely each year in the last handful; this year being the first in which parts of the state very well may not have a crop at all. It was a pretty wild scene in some parts looking out over thousands of acres of once upon a time cornfields; now nothing but super arid desert land with the petrified stalks of a past harvest stubbing up. 

 

 

A couple days out of Pueblo we crossed the state line into Kansas, which is our sixth state. 

 

 

The first five days in Kansas have seemed to follow a common theme a bit reminiscent of the classic Bill Murray film Groundhog Day....Wake up in the town park next to the local grain elevator, pedal 60 miles across a totally flat, windy, and sparse, but beautiful in its own way, landscape to the next town park next to the local grain elevator....from one population  200-1000 town to the next without much in between. The good news is almost every town in Kansas has either a nice pool or water park type thing to cool off in. 

 

Along the way we met back up with Jordan, Natalie, Isreal, and Nick, who had all been off route for a while, and spent a handful of nights sharing camps...one night in a church that had showers, ping pong, billiards, TV/DVD, etc. 

 

 

That's pretty much it for now from the great state of Kansas. In future news I suppose the name of this little shindig should now be twowheelsacrossfifteenstates as we've decided to change our route a bit. Looking at the below map the route we're on, the TransAm, is the dark brown line towards the bottom running left to right or East to West. We've decided to head North, in a handful of days when we get there, on the Great Rivers route up through Illinios, which is the light blue line. Then head East on the Northern Tier, which is the purple line, through Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and ending in Maine. 

 

 

It's so hot in Kansas even the raccoons nap away the afternoon hours.

Highest pass, haunted buildings, and into the flatlands

Leaving Breckenridge a handful of days ago we climbed up and over Hoosier Pass, stopping just briefly for a couple "highest pass of the trip photos" as a hail storm was just starting with the light show of a thunderstorm on the horizon. Just before descending we checked the phone and learned that baby Barton arrived and we were so excited!  Welcome baby Avery and congrats to Karrie and Steven Barton :)

After all that hard uphill pedaling we were rewarded with a nice long downhill cruise, soon passing out of the bad weather of the higher elevation, with great views aplenty. 

Along the way we passed through the very small town of South Park, CO, where the creators of the show South Park grew up. 

After calling one hostel/camping option on our map and being yelled at "We don't do that anymore! Leave us alone! We're retired and out of the game!" we gave Bill a call, who offers camping and bunkhouses, in the  small town of Guffey. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but very adamant about "you better not be stoppin' at any bars along the way! You guys are always stoppin' at bars and leavin' me hanging!" As we were still 30 miles away from Bills place he ended the conversation with "hurry up and start peddling!" Pushing off we were faced with a very strong headwind and didn't arrive at Bills until dark. Upon meeting Bill he first shook my hand then proceeded to yell at me "where the hell you guys been!" A couple minutes later Sarah rolled up and Bills demeanor did a 360...."Hey how ya doin' darling".....a total ladies man. Turned out to be a really good guy. He fed us some "world famous log dogs", which are some type of really good hot dog/sausage things with grilled veggies. Guffey was a very interesting and weird town, especially to roll into at night. A majority of the buildings are old and dated all the way back to the goldrush days, along with old  and rusty 1940-50's cars everywhere. So Bill pointed us to our bunkhouse for the night which was a old structure, just past the rotting horse carcass, where they used to divide up the profits back in the goldrush days. Stepping foot in the place was like stepping back in time. Having no lights or electricity and only our headlights added to the effect. Being super exhausted from a 70+ mile day we ate and crashed out.....2am found Sarah totally freaked out as she was awakened to a spirit in a poncho hovering over me and a cowboy sitting at the table. 2:30am found us on the road taking in our first sunrise of the trip. Following some great downhill through beautiful canyons ( no pics as the phone was dead) the end of the day found us very near Pueblo, CO and 6,500' lower than we had been just the previous day. After what was supposed to be one day off in Pueblo turning into two, due to lots of running around in the 100+ heat, we are pedaling through hot and flat Eastern Colorado. We've nicknamed this stretch of the ride the "Tour De Prisons", having passed four huge prisons in the last one hundred miles. Eastern Colorado and Kansas are the hot, flat, and dry portion of the ride, but so far things are going good. There's been a rise in town parks that allow camping and churches that open their doors to cyclists and it seems, after a couple unfriendly weird stores/towns in central Colorado, the people are getting nicer and nicer as we head East.....

Colorful Colorado

From where we left ya last....after pedaling through a beautiful stretch that made us feel like we were in a Nature special, having seen a sleek red fox and a bald eagle within five minutes of each other along with a handful of HUGE golden eagles, we cruised into the small town, pop. 50, of Riverside, WY for the night. The "town" consists of an RV park across from two bar/restaurants. After being fed a dinner of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn by a super nice fellow camper we met a CDT thru hiker who was camping across from us. After chatting for a bit, by really random coincidence, a friend from my PCT thru hike last summer was actually across the street at the bar! Had a couple beers, while hearing Highlifes stories of how rough and beautiful the CDT is, the whole time in complete disbelief of how paths can cross so randomly in life.

                   

We pushed off the next morning into a beautiful sunny day. A handful of miles into the day we passed into our fifth state....Colorful Colorado!

 

The day ended up being a little harder than either of us expected....52 miles of mostly climbing, a little bit of flat, and really no downhill to speak of. We pulled into the small town of Walden, pop. 734, with one thing on our minds...FOOD! We tried a diner by suggestion of some locals. Man what a disappointment! Sarah's dinner was so small she was almost in tears, however, a giant ice cream cone put a smile back on her face. It's funny how important food becomes when on such adventures. That night we threw out our tent in the mosquito infested town park and slept comfortably through a rainstorm. The next morning we began to climb higher into the mountains, up through a beautiful pine forest, feeling the largeness of the Rockies for the first time. We finally got to the top, with quads burning, to the first of two big passes we climb in Colorado and were rewarded with the first real downhill miles of the last day and a half. 

 

We cruised downhill into the town of Hot Sulpher Springs and as coincidence would have it met another PCT thru hiker, Lastonthebus, who I briefly met on trail last summer. We hung out and once again camped in the town park, along with some really funny English cyclists. The next morning we had a birthday breakfast at the Gloryhole Diner before parting ways with Lastonthebus, as he's mountain biking the Great Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada. 

The mornings ride was beautiful paralleling a river down through a very scenic canyon, with even a little tail wind helping us along. Soon we came along Steve and his goat "Leroy Brown". These two dudes are spending three years walking across the country, 10-15 mile per day, from Seattle to Portland, Maine. Along the way he's raising money for an orphanage in Kenya. 

 

The rest of the day had us slowly climbing up in elevation with the Eagles Nest Wilderness on the horizon and off to our right, which contains a handful of 12-13,000' peaks. 

We ended the day in the somewhat larger town of Silverthorne, pop.3,197, and as it was my birthday we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel room, much needed showers, pizza, and cable TV....just what the doctor ordered! The next morning we pushed off with the idea of a very short 15 mile day into Breckenridge, taking the rest of the day off, saving the last 2,000' climb up to Hoosier Pass, the highest elevation of our journey at 11,500', for the following day. A couple miles into the morning, while riding on the bike path from Silverthorne to Breckenridge, yet again we crossed paths with another comrade from my PCT hike last summer....Clutch....who's thru hiking the CDT and coincidentally decided to walk the bike path through town. 

After a bit of conversation we realized we were headed opposite ways on completely different adventures and parted ways to both get where we were going before the inevitable summer Colorado rainstorm. Another crazy coincidence. Arriving in Breckenridge we checked in at the hostel, ate, and hung about town. A bit touristy, but overall some relaxing time spent off the bikes....Until next time.