I forgot week 4; I was so excited to be visiting home that I forgot to write one. So here are some extra special, extra tired, extra crispy thoughts from week 5:
• Orange Gatorade tastes enough like real orange that it freaks me out, and I don't like it. I'm also allergic to the red kinds of Gatorade, so I'm stuck with original lemon lime and some kind of blue blast. Right now, I'm going through lemon lime.
• The hotels out here are very hit and miss. There have been some great ones (tonight and last night for example) and some terrible ones. Breakfast also varies. Sometimes there's enough for me to feed myself and save some for lunch, but sometimes there's not even enough for one satisfying breakfast.
• We've been pretty lucky with the weather so far. Cross your fingers that it stays that way.
• Kansas has a lot more hills than I was lead to believe. I've never been on hwy 36 before (the DoT preferred bicycle route), but I extrapolated from my experiences driving the interstate from Denver to Kansas City. Norther Kansas is significantly different.
• Kansas is the sunflower state. I saw more sunflower plants growing in our backyard (~5) than I have in Kansas (~0). But all their branding and signage is plastered in bright yellow sunflower outlines.
• I need a lot of water when it gets hot—maybe twice as much as I regularly drink.
• How many places close at 6? If your guess was lots, you're right.
• There is a really cool bug that looks like a cricket but with yellow wings like a butterfly. I want to find out what it is.
• The flies out here bite. Ouch!
• The world seems to run on fried chicken. I'm running on fried chicken. I bought some bread today too, so for the next little while I can run on that too.
• Bikers and truckers seem to love me. Cars are ambivalent.
• I haven't fallen off my bike in over a month.
• I'll be in Kansas longer than any other state.
• Megan worked it out that we can take days off in big cities, near people we know. That's a big relief. Her plan also mean that (after the next rest day) I won't have any more 5-in-a-row biking days. It's going to be luxurious!
• My favorite energy bar is now the Cliff white chocolate macadamia nut. It used to be peanut butter.
• I miss my regular routine. I find myself absentmindedly lesson-planning or discussing politics with myself. Sometimes I suddenly become aware that I've been composing emails in my head.
• I can eat a lot. I do eat a lot.
• The bicyclist's outfit looks ridiculous.
• The first day back on the trail, I thought I had left my trip odometer at home. I did a full day without it, and it was surprisingly challenging. Usually I can use it to correlate a certain gear with a certain speed to make sure I'm pedaling at 90bpm, but without it I'm lost. Finding an appropriate tempo by feel is challenging when exhausted.
• The solar charger is very helpful. The GPS tracker is somewhat helpful (when it works, it's good). We've had phone reception 99.5% of the trip so far—way more than the AT&T coverage map would lead me to believe.
• Nobody really cares where I'm going or what I'm doing on the bike. If I don't volunteer the information first, nobody will ask. Sometimes people just tell me where they're going, like, "I'm haulin' a load to Texas." Maybe that's a graceful way of starting a conversation or some kind of secret trucker code that means they want me to tell them where I'm going. I always tell them though :)
• There needs to be a secret signal for bicyclists to use. Maybe the ASL sign for bike? I wonder what that is.
• The grind is starting to wear on me. Initially, I could recuperate fully after a rest day, but now I feel like I'm losing a little bit of power and stamina even after rest days. I think that trend will continue, making the trip harder and harder as I continue. The weather won't help. It was 100°F today, though I stopped before it hit its max. I stopped at 99°F.
Another week, another post! By next week, I'll have cracked 2000 miles. If I started biking in Paris and went in a straight line, I'd be in Cyprus now. If you took out the downhill parts, I'd be at the top of Everest. If you took out the flat tires, I'd be on cloud nine. Enjoy the pic of yesterday's sad but filling dinner (chicken). Happy biking y'all.
