• It's not really week 6. I counted 5/21 as day 1, which was technically the first day of biking. So it is correctly the end of week 6 for the biking part of the trip. But the driving part started on 5/18. So technically I'm halfway through the 7th week if we count driving.
• I'm starting to slowly fall apart. 2000 miles is an awful lot to bike. The trip is still terrible and fantastic and harrowing and contemplative. I'm getting what I need and want out of it. My body is starting to protest. It's not fully on strike yet, but I'll have to keep my eyes on it—make sure nobody's unionizing.
• For the rest of the trip (assuming I can keep up the pace), I won't need to bike more than 4 days in a row. That provides a lot of relief. The rest days definitely help.
• My saddle soreness is becoming increasingly problematic. Here's an experiment you can try at home: replace your office chair with the most narrow, uncomfortable, unforgiving seat you can find. Point a heat lamp at it and flail your legs about for 10 days and nights without stopping. Then tell me how you feel.
• Luckily, I have a whole new line-up of medications to try out! Some things dry, some lubricate, some de-redden, some kill bacteria, some help with pain. I don't know what a couple of them do, but they were recommended by a trustworthy biking website.
• My knees are feeling better. They don't hurt like when I was seeing the physical therapist before the trip. They still hurt but in very different ways.
• I missed visiting Topeka. Bummer!
• My back still feels good. That was a big part of the decision to ride a hybrid (so my back could be more upright). I think I made the right choice.
• I should like I'm 100 years old, complaining about all my various maladies and symptoms. As much as it might appear otherwise, I'm still having a great time. This is a lot more challenging than I originally anticipated, but I'm here, I'm doing it, I'm having a blast.
• Kansas is crazy pretty. The gently rolling hills, the green grass, the wide sky, and the complete absence of abattoirs made the state very fun. Sure, the roads were narrow, the scenery was repetitive, and the towns were few and far between. But that's part of the charm I think.
• Kansas has some serious self-esteem problems. I bought postcards from every state I visited (except the 4 miles I was in Nebraska), but no country stores, gas stations, nor shopping centers sold Kansas themes postcards. When I asked, their response was usually along the lines of, "but why would you want such a useless things?" I also did not see a single rest stop, visitor center, welcome center, or informational booth along the way. Of course, I was not on the interstate, but still...
• Cherry Gatorade looks disgusting. They put something in it to make it look opaque. So it's like a weird combination of milk and water. It looks like it should be a lot more viscous than it is too. Oh well. I don't have to look at it to drink it.
• The battery on my phone should be fixed now. When the Apple genius pried the back off my phone, it looked like the battery had swollen to twice its original size. The back of the phone had stretched and bent to accommodate the new size, leaving an 1/8" gap between the back of the phone and the size of the phone. Hopefully this means more battery life, more hours using Endomondo, and more pictures during the day!
• Clean laundry feels miraculous.
• When I was younger, climbing in the Swiss Alps, I have a distinct memory of being pushed past the brink of complete exhaustion and oxygen depletion to the point where I could barely stand to keep climbing. Dad pulled out an orange (or clementine or something) and passed it over to me. It was the sweetest, most delicious thing I'd ever eaten. Since then, whenever I'm pushed past the point of flatlining, food starts to taste extra amazing. That hasn't been true on this trip. Food is good, or great, or bad, but good food never becomes knockout fantastic. Rather than experiencing the goodness of food firsthand, it's almost like I'm looking down at my mouth as it eats something and listening to it describe the flavor. I've noticed some of my other senses starting to work that way as well—if I touch something not, I don't get the immediacy of 'ouch that's hot' anymore. Instead I get a delayed variant of, "Hey man, Frank just told me that thing's hot. You should be careful." It's like my brain is decoding the signals as if it's hearing them, not as if it's experiencing them. Very cool and weird.
• I'm proud of my journal. It's getting well used and is starting to look like the journal of a real adventurer. I like that.
• I want to quit some of the time. Not all of the time, but every now and then I get a strong urge to pack up and head home. My motivation not to quit usually comes from one of four places. 1) What would my wife think about me stopping here? 2) What would 40 year old Hunter think of my quitting? 3) If I quit now, would Dad be consoling or congratulating me (I try not to think about Mom's reaction; she would probably try to convince me I should have quit weeks ago)? 4) How epic would the story I'll get to tell after all this is over be if I quit now? Usually some combination of those four factors works.
• I am not ridiculously tan yet. I've been using SPF 50, which I think has been working.
• I have bruises from bug strikes. I guess in Kansas, the bugs are so big and I'm going so fast that they hit me with enough force to leave a mark. Weird, wild stuff!
• I'm looking forward to Missouri. Megan found a really cool trail (the Katy trail) that is built on an old set of train tracks. I'm going to do 1 day on the highway and 3 (ideally) on the trail before my next rest day in St. Louis. Hopefully the weather holds.
• Hot days are hot. Anything above 92 starts getting very uncomfortable. Anything above 100 is unacceptable. The problem is that the temperature and humidity aren't going to get better as I navigate further south. Maybe the Rocky Mountains weren't the toughest part?
That's it for this week. Look at this fried bread dipped in pesto and maple syrup: unexpected but amazing!
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