After some sleep I got on the road again. The hills seem to be falling a way a bit and the morning ride was a good one. I really need to try to get more miles done in the morning before the heat and traffic picks up. Things are a bit different in the mornings, the grasshoppers hang out on the roads and they try to jump on my legs while riding. It feels weird. I also saw my first sunflowers, it’s cool to see them follow the sun throughout the day.
The travel is sometimes like a strange trip through American history. As I move west I encounter town that were founded later and later in time. Gone are the pre-Revolutionary and Civil War towns and now I’m on to rail and river frontier towns. Most little towns have memorial markers and their stories posted on the highways and they’re kind if neat to read.
I made a stop today at a little coffee shop (found one!) in Eureka, Kansas called Espresso Creations I spent some time chatting with the owner and he gave me some great info on the road coming up. It turns out things flatten out soon and if I stop at a bike shop in El Dorado to get Harmony checked out I can skip Wichita entirely. Major cities are crazy time consuming so if I can avoid them I will.
The road did indeed smooth out with less hills as I approached El Dorado. The bike shop technician had already left but the manager said he would be back first thing in the morning. I grabbed a cheap hotel, the kind that didn’t ask my name and gave me a discount for paying cash (yay Agorism), and doesn’t really have a functioning bath tub. It does have Internet and a clean bed so I feel spoiled. I also saw my travel beard for the first time in a while and it is coming in nicely.
I mapped out from here to Albuquerque and its going to be a lot of camping. Basically the same thing I’ve been doing for the last few days for another week. Actually, the rest of the ride out west looks like a lot of highway camping, asking farmers, and the occasional campground. Basically, not a lot of showers in my future.
Wandering Oak 