Day 27 (7/19): Eads, CO --> Scott City, KA (105 miles)

Days miles: 105 miles

I awoke, ready for action and ready to try out my idea. It was 6am..so the day was still young and the heat still low. I started to strap all my gear onto the handlebars in as logical as one can do for such a thing....then I took my tent an tried wrapping it around the frame of my bike...one of the panniers I tied rope around so I could wear it as a back pack...I then put my sleepin pad and fly rod on the seat-post-rack..figuring they were light and it shoudl be able to hold them....


Well...the back-pack idea lasted about 2 minutes and I quickly abandoned that idea when the rope started to cut my arms off (or at least it felt that way)...the seat-post-rack broke 110% off after about 14 miles....and I lasted with having all my gear piled high onto my handlebars for about 24 miles (with all the gear piled on I could barely see over the top of the pile...toss in a 20-30mph headwinds and it's def dunna be a good ol' timie).

I took a breather in a small town called Sheridan Lake, called Loretta to tell her of my woes, and went into the only store in the town to see if there was some water before I trudged on towards the state border. That's when things got a lot better....

There was a fella behind the counter called (well, i never got his name, so I'll just call him Mr. Thunderbird)....I told him of my situation and right away he came out to inspect my bike...five seconds after that he said we could make a rack out of PVC pipe...before a word could get out of my mouth he was off towards his workshop and tossing together a new rack for my gear...

20 minutes later we were done and I was loading the gear off of the handlebars and onto the new rack made of PVC pipe....It was awesome...a lot wider, lighter, and stronger....things were looking up and it now seemed I would not have to hitchhike thru all of Kansas...

I thanked Mr. Thunderbird a million times over and was off, crossed into Kansas around high noon and kept on trucking for until 9pm that night....althoguh I then had to swithc my clocks ahead one hour seein I entered into a new time zone....

I was pretty dead-beat-tired...fighting headwinds all day, 90 degrees...no shade...no scenery...just tall and lonely silos on the horizon marking the precise location of a town...

I stocked up on food in Scott City...pitched a tent in the city park (camping is free in Kansas...hurrah)....and fell asleep....although I had only covered 105 miles that day my legs burned as if they had ridden at least 170....I was ready for sleep and hoping the next day would bring tailwinds to nudge me across the plains a bit faster.....