The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome.
– Helen Keller

Hello everyone,

Today was another tough day with a lot of climbing, more headwinds and a few unexpected obstacles, but more on that later. All things being equal, this would have been a marvelous day to ride as we traversed almost exclusively through pastoral farm settings and a few small but distinctive towns. There were a lot of horses, cattle, goats and I also saw a very large woodchuck, a couple of hawks, a vulture, a turkey and an assortment of road kill.

Our destination today is Topeka, the capitol of Kansas and from the looks of it a fairly bust town. The original oner of the Atkinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was from Topeka, the landmark Supreme Court Case, Brown vs the Board of Education which elevated discrimination in pubic schools originated in Topeka. The origin of the name “Topeka” is unknown according to Wikipedia.

By our first SAG and actually much earlier, we became well aware that our old nemesis , Mr Headwind would be back to harass us again today. Very early it kicked up and as we are all too painfully aware, it usually gets worse as the day progresses. The SAG was in a small town park that commemorated war heroes from that area and Kansas. It was very moving and well kept. The refreshments were very good, but i did not linger long because of the long miles and headwinds.

The miles tended to pass quickly but it was painful. If you check out the Garmin profile you can see all the ups and downs. There did not seem to be a lot of flats but we did change directions often and sometimes the headwind would turn into a cross window even a bit of a tailwind.SAG #2 was at mile 71 and it was welcome. It overlooked a lake resort and Eileen had quite bit of snacks / sandwiches/ wraps put out. It was good and I ate quite a bit because we still had 35 miles to go.

At mile 91 in the little town of Dover, there is a restaurant with the number 1 rated pies in the US. I would have stopped but the mileage was beginning to get to me and i figured that stopping might be permanent if my legs rested and I filled  up on coconut cream pie. I pushed on thinking that I only had about 14 miles to go. Around mile 98 there was a sign that the road was closed to local traffic only. I figured that i was “local” traffic and our queue sheet said that was the right direction so I ignored the sign. At mile 100, I saw that a whole bridge was out and construction crews were sort of working. I took a close look and the steepness of the climbs (up and down) and the about of mud dissuaded me from attempting to cross. The gap was only a few hundred feet and perhaps I wan’t thinking too clearly,  but I decided to back track and take the detour.

Well that added 4 miles to my ride just to get back to the “detour”. The detour was an old farm road which means the roads were not so hot and very steep. It was getting hot and the climbs were painful and seeming unending. I figured though that the route had to take me back to route 4 at some point. A few miles into it, I came to highway 70 and the detour directed me to get on the highway. Now riding on the highway is illegal or at least the signs say forbidden and something about fines. I rode around in circles for a spell and the decided what the heck, the detour said go that way so i did. I was only on the highway for about 1/2 mile and it was not a pleasant experience and exited to a “frontage road”. The good thing about the frontage road was that now I had a tailwind. The bad thing about the frontage road was a lot more climbing and I really didn’t know where I was. I figured keep pedaling until I run out of fluids and or I drop off my bike or hopefully, I reach a recognizable point of my journey.

Eventually, I reached a road that appeared on the queue sheet and it appeared to be in town. I went into a filling station and asked. “Where am I” and was told “Topeka”. I said Eureka and he said “No Topeka”. I figured quite while I was a head and he advised me that the hotel was only about a mile away. I arrived at the hotel from the wrong direction and tired.

Most of the group managed to find alternative routes to the hotel and some cheated and used Google Maps. I used my navigation skill and wicked sense of direction. Now Barry andRichard did manage to form the bridge out area and cut out the extra 10 miles. Barry asked if the construction workers if he could pass through and was told “If you are dumb enough to try it, go ahead”. It seems they were making wages as Barry navigated the climbs, mud and other obstacles but didn’t anticipate the head engineer/ foreman who was, according to Barry and Richard, a very large and formidable woman. Richard followed Barry’s lead and mud prints and came upon Barry apologizing profusely to the lady. The lay asked Barry if he could read English (Richard is from England) and said he could speak it but couldn’t read it. She said that she was going to call the police.

It seems that some others came through a little lady and she stood on the opposite bank and scared all the rest into taking my detour. She apparently screamed that she was going to call the police…At dinner and route rap, we ad a lively discussion on who made the “right” decision. I argues that by taking the detour and the extra 10 miles we actually got a decent tailwind for the day. Like my good friend Deeds used ti say “It is days like this that build character”. I needed to few extra miles and now my deficit sonly about 32 miles. Did I mention that we passed the half way point?

Tailwinds

Chuck