Day 5--Tailwinds to Kansas!

Fierce thunderstorms last night pelted the hotel.  I was on the top floor and it sounded like the hail was going to come clear through the roof. But the passing of the storm brought a welcome change for today.  The wind was at our backs!  In a way it was a shame that we had such a nice day on such a short day—just under 40 miles.  US54 had smooth, wide shoulders (except in one short construction zone in northern Oklahoma) and with the tailwind everyone was in Liberal, Kansas by noon. For me this is the third new state (I already had Texas),and since the group left Los Angeles, this morning was the sixth state line that they have all crossed.

 

Today’s ride was through typical Great Plains geography—occasional small towns, grain elevators, wide open skies, relatively flat roads and for the third straight day the Union Pacific Railroad ran parallel to the highway.

Twenty miles into the ride, we had our first sag stop (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, sag stands for “supplies and gear.”  Although maybe the g should stand for “grub”.  Today’s stop was set up outside the Chamber of Commerce in the suggestively named Oklahoma town of “Hooker.”  When I asked the lady from the C of C if the town got it’s name from a particular “industry”, she laughed and said that it was actually named for a Civil War general named Joseph Hooker.  However the Chamber was not reluctant to capitalize on its name with a range of T-Shirts, postcards, etc. that reference the more commonly thought of definition for the town name!

Not far from Liberal was the Welcome to Kansas sign. Since I rode most of today’s ride solo, I let my bicycle pose as the photo prop for the welcome sign picture.

With such great riding conditions, and such a short ride, we arrived before lunch and before the rooms at the hotel were ready.  After going over to the Subway, one member of our group who I rode with the last two days on the paceline, Rod, said that just down the street from the hotel was one of Liberal’s attractions—Dorothy’s house from the Wizard ofOz.  For those of you who don’t know, although I knew my wife as Dot, her given name was Dorothy. 

How could I not go visit Dorothy’s house?  Especially on the morning after her beloved Washington Capitals evened up their Stanley Cup Final playoff series with the Vegas Knights at one game apiece.  If you need a little more background on the significance of that playoff  to my ride, see the 2^nd post in this blog entitled, "Do Cycling and the Stanley Cup Mix?"

The data  and "video" from today’s ride are at:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1608848179

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2742002165

https://www.relive.cc/view/1608848179

For those of you who have posted comments.  I was unable to respond to them until today (technical glitch).  But now I have done so under your comments, so go on back and see my snappy repartee (yeah, right!) where you commented.   Hopefully I'll be able to do that going forward.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have favorable tailwinds again for our 83 mile ride to Dodge City, Kansas.  Right now I’m dealing with a saddle sore issue.  I’ll see how it is in the morning and hope to be able to ride.  I don’t want to have to pass up a day with good tailwinds!

Bruce

Day 4--Everything's OK in Oklahoma

Today was another day of battling the headwinds on US54 with a paceline for 72 miles enroute to Guymon, OK, stopping to see Big Tex (nothing like Big Tex that I remember from the State Fair in Dallas), watching cows stampede as we rode by, and then overwhelming the staff at a burger place here in Guymon when we all walked across the street to eat after arriving at the hotel!


As usual, we departed in two waves from the hotel--with the slower riders (that includes me) leaving at 7:00 am and the faster riders at 7:30 a.m.  Today I initially headed out solo as I passed some slower riders but didn't see my riding buddies from yesterday.  Over the course of an hour I gradually closed in on a solo rider ahead of me, but before I could catch the lone cyclist on the horizon, the paceline caught me, and I rode with them for pretty much the rest of the day.


Our cue sheet said to make sure we stopped at mile 19.0 to see the cowboy statue at the side of the road.  If you've ever seen the talking Big Tex at the State Fair in Dallas, you will probably not be impressed by what we saw.  But here's the Big Tex in Conlen, TX (a little out of focus):

Our mid-morning sag stop was supposed to be another 10 miles up the road at a Dairy Queen in Stratford, TX but the DQ had been closed.  The building was taken over by a BBQ Place.  It smelled great...but they wouldn't have anything ready for at least another hour.  The owner, however, said that next year he'll have BBQ bags to go...so if you like good BBQ you may want to book this Crossroads Cycling tour for next year!

Unfortunately I have no photos to share of what to several of us was the highlight of the day--the cattle stampede! As we passed a farm/ranch along the road, several of the bulls eyed us and then began running along the fence.  They were joined by a calf and soon there were 8 or 10 head of cattle running along trying to show us that our 13 mph pace into the wind was nothing to write home (or write in your blog) about!  But I am anyway!

Just like yesterday, there is not a lot to see along US54.  Some farmers lease out part of their land for the power companies to erect wind-driven windmills.

While the later part of the morning was spent on smooth paved shoulders, Texas could not let us leave without one last 10 mile stretch of rough "chip seal" pavement.  But finally smooth pavement returned as we headed for another state border....this one my 28th state in my quest to ride my bike in all 50 states:

We crossed the border in the appropriately named city of Texhoma, Oklahoma and steadily clicked off the last 20 miles to Guymon. And then at least a dozen of us crossed the street to Round Top Burgers, which recently opened in a building that on the outside looked like an old WWII Quonset hut, but served great burgers and they really hustled to handle the unexpected influx at 2:00 pm.  Tonight we have a group Italian dinner at Luigi's, and then tomorrow is a rare day.  Only 39 miles to Liberal, Kansas.  So it will be a later start (hooray!) and they'll let us know tonight how much extra sleep we can count on.

As usual, here are my Garmin and Strava data and the Relive video:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1606708539

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2739540857 

https://www.relive.cc/view/1606708539

To those of you who have posted a comment, I'd like to respond, but there seems to be a problem that when  I try to log into respond something gets lost in the "translation" between my laptop and the blogger software. So I can't add my own comments. Therefore, in tomorrow's post, I'll respond to everyone's comments thus far.  (Technology is great when it works!)

Finally, to my good friend Paul Meinke who is today near the end of his Mississippi River bicycle tour with America By Bicycle, and as a kid growing up in Rock Island, Illinois became a fan of the hometown Rock Island Railroad, you should know that the "Rock" is alive and well along US54.  Disguised as the Union Pacific, for the last two days (and again tomorrow) we have seen a string of automotive trains, container trains, grain trains and even a general merchandise train.  And when our pace group waves, about half of the engineers toot their horns back at us.  Long live the Rock, Paul.

Until tomorrow when we have the shortest day of the tour,

Bruce



Day 3--Welcome to Texas, Y'all.

Today the tour finished with New Mexico and moved into Texas as we rode 95 miles to Dalhart.  Unfortunately most of the day was spent riding into a strong wind from the Northeast.  For me, Texas is the one state on this tour in which I’ve already ridden. But this is a first.  I’ve never been up in the Panhandle.  But some things about riding in Texas are just as I remembered them—specifically chip seal roads!  Fortunately a little more than half of the ride was in New Mexico, but riding over the shoulders paved with asphalt and paving stones was a jarring experience!  Whenever we could we moved over onto the edge of the regular asphalt paved highway (virtually the entire trip was on US 54). On that smooth pavement without the vibration of the chip seal surface our speed increased noticeably.  But it didn’t take long for the inevitable return of the chip seal to both the roadway and the shoulder.

Today there were three sag stops where riders can get water, Gatorade, some snacks (power bars, carb loaded snacks, and fruit.  The third rest stop had fresh red cherries among the offerings…mmm!).

To make it through the day I rode with three others in a “pace line.”  Each person takes a turn at the front of the line to break the wind for the other riders and then circulates to the back.  We each took turns at the front of one mile.  The three riders…John, Rod and Tom…were all guys in my age group. 

There about 30 riders on the tour…most of whom are going all the way across the country.  The majority of the riders are of retirement age (because who else has seven weeks to ride across the country).  There are a couple of couples making this ride—three from the U.S. and one from Switzerland. There are also single riders from the UK and Canada.  It is a very friendly group—we all are people who have the same interest—cycling, and we spend the whole day together.  There are also about eight staff—three women and five men (including the couple from California who own the company).

Today we saw the large stockyards entering Dalhart, a state border, lots of open spaces, some wind vanes, and many freight trains running on the Union Pacific (former Rock Island Railroad) line that paralleled the route.

Here’s some photos (including one of the paceline from the rear which was very hard to take while riding--explains why it's out of focus)  and some of the data from the route:

Any here's links to the data and to the "relive" video:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1604869161

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2737385469

https://www.relive.cc/view/1604869161

Tomorrow is 72 miles to Guymon, Oklahoma, with very little climbing (hooray...but we still will have wind.)  My cold seemed better today but tonight I’m coughing again.  But generally it’s becoming less of an issue.  Here’s hoping for an easier day tomorrow.  Hope you are enjoying reading about this trip.

Bruce

Day 2--Las Vegas-Tucumcari. A long 109 mile day.

Today on Memorial Day it’s appropriate to mention a British World War 1 song, “It’s a long way to Tipperary” because today on Memorial Day it was “a long way to Tucumcari!”  109 miles along New Mexico Highway 104. 

A pretty decent ride until the last 32 miles. We had a sag stop at 77 and then Highway 104 became pretty straight, stretching to the horizon.  There were no towns, no houses, and hardly any other roads intersecting.  It seemed like you rode and rode and the only place you got was up the next hill.  Pretty demoralizing.  And then when you finally get to Tucumcari, there’s one last little uphill and then it’s a long way through Tucumcari to the hotel.

In the early part of the trip there’s a long slow upgrade, but fortunately it was on a newly repaved roads.  While some of the route looks like Texas, as we go along suddenly we reach the end of the plateau and have a very scenic, twisting descent.  Unlike Texas there are several plateaus showing stratified rocks, green trees…a very different view. 
At one of those plateaus there is a road that goes up a 7-9% grade for about ¾ mile.  The Crossroads crew calls this “the wall”.  Aptly named.

Fortunately today I did not have the problems with cramping that I had yesterday.  Throughout the day I rode with several different riders, went to dinner with a few of them, and came back to the room quickly to see the Caps in the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals!  Let’s Go Caps!

Here’s a few pictures from today—the cows kept an eye on us as we went by, we saw wide open skies, a down hill from the plateau, “the Wall” looming in front, and the end of the “demoralization highway” as you enter Tucumcari.  Plus the Strava and Garmin Connect data and the Relive "video".

https://www.strava.com/activities/1602807551
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2734979655
https://www.relive.cc/view/1602807551

Tomorrow is a "short" day.  Only 95 miles to Dalhart,Texas (and an hour lost when the clocks move ahead for Central Time.

Hope you’re enjoying the trip.

Day 1--Santa Fe to Las Vegas, NM. A hard day for me.

Today was the first riding day as we pedaled 73 miles from Santa Fe, NM to Las Vegas, NM.  Leaving Santa Fe we began a climb which carried us over Glorieta Pass, 20 miles out, at an elevation of 7400 feet.  The trip also gave us a view of Pecos National Park as much of the route we rode on was the remnants of famous US 66.


For me it was one of the toughest days I've ever spent on a bike.  Starting at an elevation of 6,500 feet with only a few hours yesterday to acclimate made the climbing very difficult.  Especially as I still am trying to recover from my cold.  With 3,700 feet of climbing over the day, my legs just weren't ready for it.  Several times in the last 20 miles I stopped as cramps gripped my legs, even as I spun lightly trying not to put pressure on them.  But, I finished the ride, and so for me, day 1 was a success! 


Although I was a new rider on a tour where most everyone has been riding for two weeks from Los Angeles, everyone was very welcoming, talking with me as we rode, encouraging me on.  It's a great group!


Here's some pictures showing our five mile ride on the shoulder of I-25 near Glorieta Pass, the historical marker at Glorieta Pass marking the battle fought there in the Civil War, a sign to remind us that the frontage rode we were riding on was part of famous US 66, the signs for Pecos National Park (look at the stratified hills in the background.  And finally, for my Amtrak, SEPTA and other railroad friends who hoped I'd see the Southwest Chief near Glorieta, there's a picture that shows not only the empty railroad, but the old style semaphore signal that controls activity on the line.

Tomorrow's a new day...a new challenge.   There's a lot less climbing.  But we ride 109 miles to Tucumcari, NM.


For my cycling friends who want to see all the cycling data, you can either check my strava data, or garmin connect data.  There's also a 'video' called 'relive' that shows the ride against a satellite view background.Here's the links. 


https://www.strava.com/activities/1600602377


https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2732373351
https://www.relive.cc/view/1600602377


Hope you enjoy following along.
Bruce

Getting to the Tour

Things got off on the wrong foot on Friday when the airport bus that my daughter was dropping me off to catch to BWI didn’t show. She had to go to work so after about 20 minutes she ran me back home and I grabbed the car to drive up to the airport.  But Memorial Day weekend traffic on I-95 was horrible and the usual 25 minute trip turned into an hour and a quarter.  it looked like I wouldn’t make it.  I got to the gate just as they were boarding the flight to Albuquerque.  To paraphrase Maxwell Smart as Secret Agent 86 on the old TV show “Get Smart”, “….made it by that much!” (Sorry to those of you who are post-baby boom.  I’m sure that you don’t have any idea about that reference!)

The flight to Albuquerque was uneventful and this morning, to get to Santa Fe about 65 miles to the north, I took the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, a commuter train service that runs between the two cities and goes south from Albuquerque to Belen, about 20 miles to the south.  There are a number of suburban stops north of downtown and I was surprised at the numbers of people boarding—most looking like day trippers up to Santa Fe. The train ended up being pretty full. There were two cyclists with hybrids boarding at downtown Albuquerque.  I would imagine they might be going to Santa Fe and will then ride back.  I think it’s pretty safe to assume they’re not heading off on a two week tour!

My friend Guy, who lives in North Carolina, is a hot air balloon fan.  In fact, today he is volunteering at a hot air balloon festival somewhere in the Raleigh/Durham area.  He made sure to tell me which side of the train to sit on to see the balloons that Albuquerque is famous for.  The sky was dotted with them on the shuttle ride to the train station, and a few were close by off the right side of the train, just as Guy said. 

The train arrives in the heart of Santa Fe.  From there I took a 15 minute bus ride to the hotel, met a few of the people who were either riding the tour, or working as part of Crossroads Cycling.  The other person starting tomorrow in Santa Fe, Greg, met me at the hotel where he had arrived a few hours earlier, and we walked to lunch.  Later in the afternoon we got our briefing for how the tour works, and then I worked with the mechanic to make sure my bike is ready for tomorrow.  I took it out for a round trip into Santa Fe. What a delightful, artsy town.  Unfortunately I did not stick my camera in my jersey pocket, so you'll just have to take my word for it! 

Since I have not ridden in 11 days due first to the weather and then my cold, my 13 mile ride was somewhat challenging.  I began to cough a lot, and it was a bit of a struggle.  I think that might be as much due to the elevation (6500 feet) as to my cold.  But regardless, tomorrow morning I am off at 7:00 am for the 73 mile ride to Las Vegas (unfortunately not Nevada where the next day the Capitals open up the Stanley Cup Finals), but New Mexico.  We'll do about 3,800 feet of climbing during the day and when we go over Glorieta Pass at 7,400 feet, it will be the highest point that this coast-to-coast tour will reach.   How will it work out?  We'll see soon enough.  Come back tomorrow night to find out.

Bruce

 

Do Cycling and the Stanley Cup Mix?

This has been a hectic week leading up to the trip. About a week ago I came down with a cold which got worse.  Remembering my experience two years ago while on my cross-country trip, I headed right to the doctor.  I've been taking a couple of different medicines since then and am finally feeling a lot better, although I still don't sound great.  Although I fly out to Albuquerque tomorrow evening, I won't get to Santa Fe until Saturday and won't begin riding until Sunday, so I hope to be feeling much better by the time I push off.  Between the rain and my cold, it will be almost ten days without riding, but I'm confident that once in the saddle I should do fine.


Two years ago I scheduled my cycle tour to make sure that I wouldn't be leaving until after the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  For those of you who don't know, except for my half dozen years in Texas, I have had tickets to the Washington Capitals since the team started in 1974.  With what seemed to be an innate ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the playoffs, the Caps have only made it to the finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs--and that was when we were living in Texas.  When I was selecting a tour for this summer back in November, the Capitals were off to a terrible start which was not unexpected given all the players they had lost to free agency.  I said there was no way they were going far this year, and in fact I thought they might not even make the playoffs.  Well, Wednesday night they won their third round series against Tampa Bay and will begin the Stanley Cup finals for only the second time in their history next Monday night.  And here I will be, far far away. Maybe that's the way that the hockey gods decided to punish me for my lack of faith after 43 seasons of undying allegiance. 


Since the games will be on TV at 6:00 pm in the Mountain Time Zone, every couple of nights I hope my tour mates will understand if I'm antisocial and don't join the group for dinner.  I'm not missing a moment of the Stanley Cup Finals (especially if I have to wait another 20 years for the Caps' next chance.  My Caps jersey will be stuffed into my bag to wear while watching the games!


Here's the day-by day itinerary for the trip:
Sunday  May 27  Santa Fe-Las Vegas, NM  73 miles
Monday May 28  Las Vegas-Tucumcari, NM  109 miles
Tuesday May 29  Tucumcari-Dalhart, TX   96 miles
Wednesday May 30  Dalhart-Guymon, OK  72 miles
Thursday  May 31  Guymon-Liberal, KS  40 miles (this almost qualifies as a rest day!)
Friday  June 1  Liberal-Dodge City, KS  83 miles
Saturday June 2  Dodge City-Great Bend, KS  85 miles
Sunday June 3    Great Bend-McPherson, KS  65 miles
Monday June 4   McPerson-Abilene, KS  63 miles
Tuesday June 5   Abilene Rest Day
Wednesday June 6 Abilene-Topeka, KS  106 miles
Thursday June 7  Topeka-St. Joseph, MO  85 miles
Friday June 8  St. Joseph-Chillicothe, MO  87 miles
Saturday June 9  Chillicothe-Kirksville, MO  75 miles
Sunday June 10  Kirksville-Quincy, IL   74 miles
Monday June 11  Quincy-Springfield, IL  107 miles
Tuesday June 12  Springfield-Champaign, IL  88 miles


A total of 1309 miles in 16 days of riding (if you add them up and they don't equal 1309, it's the infamous "rounding error"!)


I'll post a little bit again on Saturday from Santa Fe giving you a glimpse at the group I'll be riding with.  They'll already have two weeks in as they pedal from LA-Boston.  There is one other rider joining in Santa Fe--he's going as far as Abilene.  I'll try to post a little bit every evening after that day's ride.  I hope you'll enjoy the trip!


Bruce

Riding Across Middle America

Next weekend I will begin my latest long distance bicycle trip, a 1300-mile, two week ride from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Champaign, Illinois with Crossroads Cycling by Big Dream Bike Tours.  A couple of people, remembering my trip in 2016, have asked me if I will have a blog for this ride.  I wasn’t planning on it, thinking that a trip across six states, as opposed to a cross-country trip attempt, would be of little interest to most people.  But as the trip approaches, I realize that it is really part of a much longer adventure.  One that started decades ago, but only two years ago came into focus.  And this blog will really be the first part of the story of the rest of that quest.  And even if not that many people are interested, this blog will serve to help me always remember this upcoming ride.

For those who don’t know, in 2016 I attempted to ride cross-country, from Astoria, Oregon to Portsmouth, New Hamsphire, with a group from the America By Bicycle tour company.  A little over a week into the trip I came down with bronchitis.  An antibiotic and two days of rest (nothing as frustrating as riding all day in the van while everyone else is on their bikes enjoying a gorgeous day and a tailwind!) and I was back on the bike.  I thought I was getting better but soon began to feel run down and struggle a bit.  The terrain got easier as we headed east, but for me each day became more difficult.  Finally, when we reached Minnesota with three weeks left, there was a day that I felt so bad that I stopped and got into the van with about 40 miles to go.  That night, with three weeks left until the end, I knew that I could not continue for that long.  So in Mankato, Minnesota, after 2,007 miles, I ended my trip.

With that I abandoned my dream of cycling across the country in one trip, but a new challenge arose.  When we had biked into South Dakota, as soon as I put my foot down for the state line crossing picture, I had set foot in all 50 states.  When I told the people around me about completing all the states, someone misunderstood and congratulated me on so much biking.  I thought about that as I drove home to Maryland about a week later, and although I had not achieved my cross country trip goal, a new challenge was born—bike in all 50 states!  

In the last year I’ve picked up five new states and have now ridden in 27, and I plan to complete the quest for all 50 by my 70^th birthday at the end of the summer in 2020.  I’ve given myself that deadline because realistically long distance bike touring will likely become a bit more difficult as the years go by.

The trip I will begin next week (which is actually a segment of a cross-country journey) will go through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.  Since I have already ridden in Texas when I lived there, this trip will add five new states.  On the way home from Champaign I will rent a car and drive up to Iowa to take a ride, east to South Bend, Indiana where I will ride up toward Niles, Michigan, partly on the Indiana Michigan River Valley Trail.  Then I’ll head home, but later this summer will do the Hotter N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, TX (for the 15^th time) with a friend from my Tuesday/Friday bike group.  Driving down I will stop in Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana to ride in those states, and in Mississippi on the way home.  That will bring my total to 39 with 2 years and 11 states to go!  The toughest to get?  Alaska!  But there’s a bicycle tour that I plan to take next summer which will add the Last Frontier.

I’ll be flying out to Albuquerque on Friday, May 25 and start riding from Santa Fe on Sunday, May 27.  I'll try to blog each day of the coming trip and will focus on the sites across the middle of the country, as well as writing a little bit about the cycling itself.  I’m not a great photographer, but I’ll add a few pictures too.  So if you are interested, check back often. If you can stand a daily dose of my trip, you can subscribe below to be notified of updates.