I swear that there is flat places somewhere in the US. Kansas certainly isn’t one of those places. The hills here aren’t bad but they are never ending and the wind out of the southwest certainly isn’t helping. I’m taking more breaks than normal and have decided to shorten my days a bit. I haven’t had a day off since Jasper, which I think was 7-8 days and about 450 miles ago. I think my ride into Wichita is going to take 3-4 days when I could probably do it in two if I pushed it.
Things are bit different here in Kansas. There are lots of water towers near roads which is awesome for me. Water towers provide great shade, usually have soft maintained grass, and always have a sturdy chain link fence to lean my bike on. The drivers here are either more comfortable with bikes on the road or they care less. They don’t slow down behind me or give me a full lane when passing, I prefer this but I’m not sure of their reason. So far the people also seem less friendly but I just got here so who knows. I feel like things are getting more “western” now, I’ve seen a Bank of the West with that beautiful bear and many more Mexican restaurants.
I put down some good miles and mapped put camping for the next few days. The wind is really obnoxious and the hills annoy me but overall I’m doing well. Harmony actually loves the gravel now that I’ve gotten used to her but it is killing my hands. I have bruises forming on my palms and my ring and pinky fingers feel numb. I really need to find better gloves or something.
About ten miles from my camp ground I stopped at a town called Melvern. I was able to find a power outlet next to a bench in front of a closed bar so I sat down to charge my dying phone. This is a one stoplight town and because it’s the 4th of July nothing is open and the town is abandoned. Seriously. There is nobody here. I can hear the wind rustling the trees in the park across the street. It’s like a zombie apocalypse happened after the bodies were dragged off by wild animals. I actually think about the zombie apocalypse a lot on the road, I think I’m in a decent position to survive.
I’ve settled in at another campground on a lake. It looks like I’ll be lake hopping across Kansas. There are definitely worse places to be.
Wandering Oak 