Meet the Black Saddle, Care Package #2, and a Kansas Mountain

Day: 31 (Dighton, KS to Tribune, KS)

Average Speed: 11.9 MPH

Miles Cycled Today: 73.3 

Miles Cycled Total: 2,067

Mood: Blown Away

Trek Finds a Roomate

Ladies and Gentlemen… meet Jamie Norton (please read with a British accent):

Jamie Norton here….

So im sat minding my own business, drinking a milkshake, in some one horse town in Kansas. When a strange man rocks up,

“you Jamie Norton?”

Jamie Guest Blogs

Before i answer he snaps a pic of me, and tells me im a character on his blog. He knows pretty much everything about me and has been chasing me for 3 weeks.

“erm OK, interesting” i say, pretty freaked out, to make matters even stranger he says that people are urging him on to catch Jamie Norton like im a f—-in’ shiny Pokemon.

So one thing leads to another and lures me to a hotel and trys to liquour me up. I politely refuse the beer, to keep my wits about me around my apparent stalker. May leave in the night just to put some distance between us, and ensure im safe.

All jokes aside Jim seems a sound guy, and we’ll probably be running into each other over the next few weeks.

Okay, I’m back.

If that meeting sounds painfully awkward to you, then you have it right. Finding Jamie, calling him by name, and gleefully snapping a picture was like the end of a game of tug-of-war with a dog. You know, Rover’s really into it, but when you finally let him win he has no idea what to do with the rope. He just lets it drop to the ground and stares at it stupidly, nudging it with its nose. 

Smile. Or Else...

I guess that analogy isn’t entirely accurate though because Jamie had no clue he was playing. Seriously, check out the first picture I took of him- that is not a smile of joy. That is sheer terror. 

He was going to stay the night in that town, but it was only another 30 miles to Dighton, where we split the cost of a double room. It’s a new and different experience for me, having a riding partner, albeit for a short distance. Time goes by quickly, and someone is there to point out the things that you miss, like the extremely large bullfrog, dead and intact on the side of the road. That’s a new one. 

Jamie is also the first person I’ve met who is riding on the same saddle as me. Well, not the same saddle. I don’t think our two arses would fit and it would be quite a chore to coordinate the pedaling. But the same make and model: a Brooks B-17. Only his is black. And mine’s green. Therefore, mine is better. 

Not as Green as She Used to Be...

We agreed to split up in the AM- he’s up and out by 7:30, and I am happily comatose at that hour (even the hotel proprietor, Mark, commented with a certain reverence that he’d never seen a cyclist move as slowly as I in the morning). 

It was importan- hold on… my tent just blew away and I have to go get it out of the neighbor’s yard. As I’m writing this sentence, I am watching many of my belongings take a self guided tour of Tribune, Kansas. I need to solve this problem immediately. 

Okay, I’m back. 

It was important for me to get to Dighton because of a text I received from Amy, my longtime friend and colleague at THIS WIND IS INSANE. 

Okay, I’m ba- No, I’m not. 

Sorry… just chased my helmet and shoes across the city park. Socks? Gone. With the exception of the bike, everything is now in my tent. Including me. Half an hour has gone by since I wrote the last eight sentences or so.

Let’s just cut to the chase. Here’s Amy’s text, and my initial asinine response where I should’ve written “Thank You.” 

What I Meant Was "Thank You."

I panicked because Dighton was not on the current map I was using, and I figured she’d thrown a dart at a picture of Kansas and sent a package to whatever city it landed on. Also, Amy is our school’s biggest practical joker, and while the idea of riding a bike with an inflatable blow-up doll and a forty pound anvil tied onto the back sounds entertaining, I’m not in that mindset right now. 

But she did her research, and even made sure I wouldn’t hit Dighton on a weekend. She sent an uplifting package with a card signed from my “CVMS Family” that was… well… practical and fun. It cost me an extra hour though, because I sat in awe, thinking of the time and thought she put into this (I mean, her husband Dan even zoomed in on a pic of my bike to determine the correct tire size). 

  

I Just Ran Out Two Days Ago. For Real.

Yes. I Have Spare Tubes.

It's time for me to start dropping hints that I need a new Porsche. 

A late start means nothing though when you have metaphorical fuel like this. I even smiled when I was struggling through the first storm of today (as opposed to the tempest that’s currently raging over me). Check out the picture. Pretty cool because someone left a window open for me, and the storm (which turned out to be pretty violent with hail) was staying just to the left…err… south… of the route. 

That open window let in quite a draft though. 

As I grew closer to it, my speed started dropping. From 16 miles per hour, to 12. Then 10, 9, 8…

I heard later that the windspeed itself was much faster than I at 60-70 mph. 

My phone sent a loud emergency warning, and Jamie, safe in the town of Leoti, sent a text as well, encouraging me to cut the day short and stay with the host he’d found in town. 

7…6……. 5 miles per hour.

I’ve never been in wind like this before, and I came close to falling several times. Passing westbound tractor trailers created vacuums that would suddenly launch me forward, and oncoming eastbound ones created invisible walls that smacked me in the face. Both jeopardized my balance every time.

I was riding 4.5 mph on flat land at some point. I’m climbing a mountain, I thought. This is a what a Kansas mountain feels like.

Play to See Both Storms (including the current one)

Decisions, Decisions...

This lasted for ten very long miles. But just when I hit Leoti- when I was about to call it quits and take Jamie up on the offer- it was gone. No need to click any heels of any red slippers. 

And no need to stay in Leoti. 

Made it to Tribune no problem, and had dinner at the local pub, where a native name Mike paid my tab and left before I had the chance to thank him. Yes. Again.

Kansas, you were kind to me. But you were not the easy leg of of the trip I thought you'd be. You got some bite to ya'.

Still, I'll remember you fondly when I hit Colorado tomorrow. I wish I had the aches and pains I had back in Virginia, because I hear there's some pretty good, all-natural medicinal solutions there. 

P.S.

"So tell me... what do you do for a livi- never mind. Got it."