Day 42: 74 miles from Cassoday to Hutchinson, KS
Country roads are dark at 5 am!
But the sun rise was stunning. Hard to keep riding with my back to it!
Drilling for oil.
Pee stop. Yup—no gas stations, bushes or trees, so we are getting creative.
Dana, from Walk and Roll Harvey, a bike org, happened upon me in town and took Deidre and I to breakfast. Thanks Dana!
These wheels were everywhere in Hutchinson. I couldn’t figure out what they were.
Vultures in a dead tree. Yuck.
We went out for dinner at a brewery and I actually had a beer! An iPA at that! (A”Midwest” IPA—i liked it!)
Then to bed in the very cute home of Arlene and Kristen, who are ahead of us on the trail and invited us to stay at their place! (Forgot to take a pic in daylight so this is at 5am.
Day 41: 59 miles from Toronto to Cassoday, KS
Early start.
Long weird shadows that make me giggle.
So flat!
I thought this was a curious sign given the history of sundown towns in the Midwest. What do these references to sunrise and sunset mean on the town sign?
Not a lot of navigating going on.
I waited all day for this but if action!
And then we arrived in Cassoday. They don’t have a store open on Sundays, but they do have a sense of humor!
I was so relieved to see the general store was still an option for camping (with water), despite being closed. The city park looked a bit dismal.
Day 40: 41 miles from Chanute to Toronto
We have started leaving around 5am to beat the heat, and those first few hours are my favorite of the day. Cool, peaceful, and sorta stunning.
I met this young kid, I think his name was William. He was friendly North Carolina and riding the Trans Am East. He said “I’m trying to get to VA.” I thought that was such a funny way to put it. So uncertain. When I met him he was flying and looking over his shoulder—being chased by dogs!
Taking a lesson from the fact they chased him, I decided to dismount and walk. When I saw they were shepherd mixes waiting for me in the road, I felt like it was the test of the trip—pinging on my exact nightmares of being confronted this way. But I persisted and after a big show of barking at me, I became part of the pack.
They followed me through the town until the bike and build folks happened by and ran interference so I could get back on my bike and ride away.
We happened in the “Toronto days” festival just in time for the 4th of July parade. Walked up and got a seat, because that’s what you do in a small town.
This nice man, Mark, helped to get us seats.
We ate in this cute restaurant, sassy sister, but it was a littler marred by the crazy slow service. They were just opening I think and not in their routine. But they were all so nice. A woman from town, Dana, sat with us for a bit to chat about the trip. She hopes to do it someday.
We camped at cross timber state park, which had a lovely wooded camp ground and a lake. It also happened to be the night they were doing fireworks—which is tough when you are getting up at 5am!
My view while napping.
There was a beautiful sunset but I couldn’t really get to it to see it through the trees.
Fireworks actually woke us up when they started at 10!! But I didn’t want to be a party pooper, so I watched from my tent then went back to sleep. They only lasted 15-20 minutes.
Then it was back to sleep. We were exhausted. The heat is draining.
Day 39: rest day! But I still rode 13 miles just putzing around Chanute.
Some quick pics. Enjoyed a day of relaxing and kinda being a tourist. And reading. Currently finishing up Harlem Shuffle, by Coleson Whitehead. Also just started listening to Horse, by Geraldine Brooks.
Chanute seemed like a cool little town. It celebrates its 150th anniversary tomorrow!
The Safari museum. I had no idea what to expect of this I thought perhaps it was some kind of cheesy circusy thing. But it is a museum devoted to the work of Asa and Martin Johnson, who travels to the Samoan islands into Africa, to film the people and the wildlife living there. They made a name for themselves, turning their footage in to Hollywood movies.
I wanted to ask if this textile was a local piece of art or African because it’s so resembles the barn quilts we saw riding across Kentucky and Missouri. But I didn’t get a chance to ask. The shield is made of hippopotamus skin.
The Johnsons had a western bias that is to be expected of their time, at times referring to African people as “savages” and exoticizing “darkest Africa,” but their footage and photographs are still extraordinary, as is the effort they had to make to create them. I would be interested in hearing the African perspective on their work.
After the creation of the museum, by Osa’s mother, who outlived her, many people donated African art to the museum, leading to what the curator claimed is the largest collection in the US Midwest.
In other history, the town of Chanute is named after a man who mentored the Wright brothers. So they had this cool life-size replica of the first plane that is a mobile; it moves with the wind.
Bike paths, trains, and a public library…
A fun day!
Day 38: 31 miles. Girard, Kansas to Chanute
Woke to this sun. It seemed friendly and pretty at 7 am, but it would be punishing by noon.
The sun lighting up Immanuel Lutheran, where we stayed.
Happy to see this cute general store still open (so many are closed).
There was a group of older guys meeting for coffee inside. I spoke with one of them for a bit and he reminisced about seeing 50 to 100 cyclists coming through per day in 1976, ‘77, and ‘78. If you didn’t know, the Trans Am route was first conceived in 1976 as a way of celebrating the bicentennial. People biked across the country in celebration and called it the bikecentennial. I knew about these origins, but had no idea that many people rode.
This guy and I also talked about how we each used to bike as kids when we only had single speed bikes (and a 3-speed was the bomb). He said when Deidre and I left the store, we would be riding the same route he took as a kid with his buddies when they would ride to a swimming hole for the day. Then a friend’s dad would pick them up in a pickup truck. They’d load their bikes into the back and climb in with them to ride home. We agreed: those were the days.
I did not take many pics today. I could feel the sun getting exponentially hotter as the day went on and there was a crosswind, so I had to hold onto my bike to stay on course.
By the time we got to town it was 97°. We picked the two star hotel with a pool and I wasted no time getting in.
This picture is so bad 😂. I was so excited and thought I was smiling but then when I looked at it, I could see it was just a weird grimace. I was so hot. But the pool felt amazing. I tried to float, but was too tired and kept sinking, so I just sat by the edge in a sliver of shade until I felt cooled off enough for a nap.
Veggie of the day: snap peas! I was so happy to eat a vegetable and some pasta salad not laced in bacon. Yesterday I got a salad that was covered in chopped bacon and a grilled cheese with big slices of bacon on it. The menu didn’t mention bacon on either thing! Anyway, I enjoyed this fresh stuff.
After that, a shower and the best nap ever! Looking forward to sleeping in for a rest day tomorrow.
Day 37: 56 miles. From Golden city to Girard, Kansas.
An inspired day. We woke up to a beautiful sky and said a sort of tearful goodbye to the Kentners.
I’m so glad we had such a good last night in Missouri. And we were super excited to get to Kansas. It didn’t hurt that we had a tail wind for the 20-something miles it took to get there.
But first one last closed gas station in Missouri.
In the town of Pittsburgh, I found a bike shop that could work on my bike on the same day: Southwind cycle. They were great. He fixed my shifter, which had gotten crunchy and seemed to be breaking, and he adjusted the bolts on my racks. He also cleaned my drivetrain and pumped up my tires. My bike felt like new after that!
While I was in the store, I met a few young people (Olivia and Emma) from bike and build. That was exciting because we knew this group was close, but we hadn’t crossed paths yet.
Pittsburgh seemed cool. It had the funky looking book store across the street from the bike shop.
In about 12 more miles, we came to Girard. I rode the whole way with a tail wind with my music cranked up singing as loud as I felt like. It was the easiest riding in the trip so far.
And they had bike lanes and road signs regarding passing cyclists.
Barn quilts on the side of this old newspaper building.
Yard art that I appreciated.
Murals.
Then back to the road for another 12 miles to the church where we would stay tonight. Immanuel Lutheran.
Day 36: 42 miles. From Ashgrove, MO to Golden City
In ash grove we stayed in the historic Barham house hostel, built in 1876.
It had a great shower and plenty of room. With a kitchen and a nearby grocery store, I thought maybe I would cook something, but got overwhelmed and bought premade Mac and cheese. It was terrible. But I did buy a bag of lettuce and make a salad. I do miss good food. I wandered around the grocery store for a bit and looked at the asparagus, tofu, packages of feta cheese… I have to admit I am surprised by the fact that nobody seems to eat vegetables in restaurants here. Maybe they eat vegetables out of vegetable gardens at home but when eating out, it’s fried green beans or nothing.
And that spirit we started our day at this bakery. I had a fleeting hope that maybe they would have smoothies, but I ended up with an egg sandwich on a croissant and a chocolate, maple glazed doughnut. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it but it’s not the best food to start a bike ride with.
Ash grove was cute.
Came across this bizarre fence decoration— a line of cow skulls. I wasn’t sure what the effect was supposed to be.
The first part of this days ride was hard. More Missouri Hills and a 30 mile stretch without a store or bathroom. I was riding by this church and a man pulled over and told me the church was open and that I could use the bathroom if I wanted. really nice of him.
It was very quaint.
Then more miles with admittedly, not very much to look at.
We got to Golden city in about 38 miles for the much anticipated stop at Cooky’s café. The place is legendary, but our lunch was a little disappointing. There were no options for me so I had to order fried shrimp (which I didn’t really want because I knew I was having fried fish for dinner). Still, Deidre and I ordered the strawberry rhubarb pie à la mode and it was pretty damn good.
The town was also cute. Apparently they are having a bed race in a few weeks. Not sure what it is but sounds really fun!
More old store fronts reminding of better days, gone by.
Quite the welcoming committee met us, restoring my faith and dogs. Meet sugar, spice, little bear, and Gracie.
The Kentners are the parents of Deidre’s boss. They live in a historic home built by Richard Kentners grandfather. The house was almost like a museum to the family with so many old things such as furniture, toys, books, and tools.
And they had a family of donkeys.
Princess Kentner took us to Walmart, and we stopped by Lamar Kansas to see her hometown, which also happened to be where Harry Truman was born so we saw that house too.
We had a traditional fish fry, which was delicious, along with sliced tomatoes (my favorite) potato salad, baked beans, and corn. Yum!
The view of their backyard from my window. The big barn in the back is what they called “the venue.“ they rent this space out for weddings and other party type of events.
So happy to have a chance to meet these nice people. We went to bed full, happy, and tired.
We have a few miles in Missouri left tomorrow, but really this is the end of my Missouri posting!
