Blog from Dighton, KS,

July 14, 2005  

 

This update on our journey is being written from the library in Dighton, Kansas.  Looking at the past few days, Jack reports on: 

 

July 12, 2005   (the 34th day of the journey)

 

We went to the JR Truck Stop in Ordway to fuel up for the day.  We've learned that every little town has its group of local citizens that meet for coffee at 6:30 AM to solve the world's problem. Ordway was no exception.  The meeting had already begun on the front porch of JR's when we arrived.  I told the 8 guys that I could tell that they were the "brain trust" of the town.  All readily agreed and Mr. Reimschneider quickly took on the role of spokesman.  It was quite a jolly group and we enjoyed much kidding.  As is the case all along the ride everyone wants to  know where we are from, how far I've ridden, how far each day.  I eventually told them about the fund-raising effort and gave them sticky notes with the rideforjim.org weg site.  After we went inside to have b-fast, two of the fellows followed us in to follow up on our effort to promote cancer research.   It turned out the Mr. R. was a six-year survivor of cancer himself.  He owns about 20,000 acres and farms the hard way he said, compared to back east, since he has to irrigate everything he grows.   He has done quite well for himself with his 8th grade education.  He said he had the same teacher for 8 years, and after that amount of time he had taught her everything he knew so he quite going to school. 

 

On the road that day I met several cyclist going west, Eric, from Montreal, works for IBM and was riding to Oregon.  Jacque and Mary Lou are from Paris, France and are riding from Chicago to Denver.   They gave a very positive recommendation for the steak at the resturant in Eads.  The 63 mile ride that day was harder that the miles would indicate since it was into a strong headwind all day.   

 

July 13, 2008

 

The local resturant in Eads did not open until 7:00 and I was anxious to get on the road early to pass some miles before it got too hot so Philip heated water on his little backpacking stove and made oatmeal.   We added some packaged Salmon that Nancy had sent to us and had a little b-fast picnic.  It looked like a perfect day for riding since I even had a slight tail wind helping to push me.  Less that 5 miles into the ride I had aNOTHer flat tire.  At this least this one was on the front, which is much easier to take off the bike.   I had been told about the "Texas Tacks"  which are tiny, about one-quarter inch diameter burrs that are on the ground, are very sharp and easily capable of puncturing bike tires.  I inspected the tire and found numerous little spines from these guys in the tire where they had even punctured my Kevlar, bullet-proof tire.   They are most frequently found in grassy areas or in gravel I now know and I had ridden in such areas around the camping area of the city park where we had camped. 

 

So I took the wounded tube out and replaced it with a new tube and pumped it up.  Before I could even get the wheel back on the bike the tire was flat.  So I pumped some more and the pump jammed and would no longer pump air.  Philip had already passed me and by this time was way ahead of me.  So I decided to patch the wounded tube but first had to find the hole.  This is more difficult that it is at home when I just put the inflated tube down in a bucket of water and look for the bubbles to rise.   I tried pouring water on the tube with little success so finally licked and spit on the tube.  Even the first round of spitting on the whole tube did not reveal the breach.  Do you have any idea how much spit it takes to cover a whole bicycle inner tube?  This was Sunday morning and no one stopped to see if they could assist but I suppose I would not want to stop to help some guy standing by the side of a lonely highway spitting on a bicycle inner tube at 7:00 on a Sunday morning.  I found the hole, the patch worked but the pump did not.  The worst curse word I ever heard my dad utter was "Horse Collars".   So I laid enough "horse collars"  on the poor little pump to harnes 100 21 mule teams and surprisingly the little pump got the message and started doing what it is designed to do....  pump air!!!    It may have helped that I also took the pump apart and discovered that the "O-ring"  had gotten out of its little groove and need to be pushed back into position.  I had called Philip on the cells and he came back to assist putting everything back together and get me back on the road. 

 

After that I met 9 riders heading west.  We always stop to compare stories about what lies ahead.  Among them were two young guys from Sweden, a middle age couple and several other combinations of riders.   Arrived in Tribune, KS in the early afternoon having ridden 58 miles. 

 

So that day I crossed the line into Kansas which feels like a real milestone.  At this point we have been on the road for 5 weeks and have covered 2042 miles.  Tribune turned out to be a like a big "road family" reunion.  Emerson and Copper were there as well as a really nice couple from New York  who were heading to Washington state.   Also the Swedish guys arrived and this morning there was another fellow at the site who is a grad student at Columbia. 

 

July 14, 2008. 

 

Today I rode to Dighton, KS,  for 72 miles.  This town of 1300 has a great pool so I cooled down, showered and now am at the library.    Next on the agenda is perhaps finding a steak dinner.  Not surprisingly the local Dairy King, which I located on arrival, is closed on Mondays.