Day 12: Dodge City to Syracuse

June 19, 2005

We woke up again at 5 AM. Wasn't feeling too bad, but still vowed to hold myself to no more than 40 miles, no matter how good I felt. The church had originally set out some donuts and yogurt for us, but they surprised us by getting up early and cooking another virtual buffet of food. There were eggs and fruit and all sorts of other goodies that help on the ride. Took a little bit for the team to get going, since they knew that another 100 plus mile ride was coming up. Stepped outside and the smell of cows was very strong with the stench being so strong that I could taste it. We eventually got going and we headed out of town, with me somewhere in the back.

Didn't get too much down the road before the smell picked up in intensity. I was breathing through my nose, but the air seemed almost dense with the smell of manure. I know it was supposed to smell like money, but egads it was bad. I was actually feeling pretty good about everything, though, and picked up on the speed. Was booking it down the road passing people up when I came up to a historical marker sign. Having just promised myself to stop at every one of them, I promptly pulled over and checked it out. It turned out to be a Santa Fe trail spot, where you could still see the trenches beat into the ground a 150 years ago by hundreds of wagons. They had a quote on one of the signs that said it was the muddiest, most rutted out piece of road ever traveled and I laughed out loud since the team (including myself) had complained about the quality of some of the roads we had traveled. Some of the signs also pointed out a large ditch cut into the hillsides. Turns out that way back when some guy decided to bring water into the area by funding a 90 mile long ditch. For years, hundreds of men and boys slaved away by digging into the hard soil. When it was finally done it had a leaking problem that couldn't be fixed and the whole thing was abandoned. Took a moment to reflect on the history, really taking in all the countryside and imagining what life was like was back when. On my way out I found a sign that said the wagons were lucky to travel 12 to 15 miles a day, taking weeks to travel 600 or so miles.

I got back on the bike, having seen the whole team pass me up, but feeling good about things in general. As I traveled along, I could see the ruts paralleling me alongside the road. I wouldn't have even noticed them or known to look if I hadn't stopped at the site. The wind was a gentle cross wind so nothing holding me back this time. I zipped along and it wasn't long before I started passing teamates again. Made it to the first rest stop and talked with my teamates. Found out that they hadn't notcied the ruts, which I felt bad about, but at the same time it was an instant confirmation that I should take the time to read the history.

Ate a little bit and headed back out on the road, knowing that I was only going to ride another 20 miles or so. Came up on a sign that said scenic overlook. Knowing that there wasn't much more than endless plains and gently sloping hills, this piqued my interest. Pulled over to check it out and found that it was a slightly elevated point that overlooked a massive cow farm. I guess people in Kansas think that thousands of cattle in one area is beautiful. I couldn't figure it out, but I took a picture anyways.

I was feeling so good on the bike that I considered staying on for the rest of the day, but after four or five days of being sick I was leery of pushing my immune system again. So at Mercedes stop, I pulled over and put the bike up. I rode the van up to the next rest stop, passing up a sweet 6 mile stretch of newly paved road that the construction workers opened up to us. Mercedes told them about how dangerous it was for us to bike on the roads and they invited us to ride the road, telling their workers not to drive on it at high speeds and to let us through. I guess having to work so close to traffic themselves gives them some sympathy for us as well.

Stopped at lunch with the van and Nick Weaver, the other driver for the day, asked if I would like to drive for him so he could get out on the road. He had been battling his own ailments for a while and he was itching to get on the road again. I agreed and started down the road thinking it would be a fairly easy task for once. (Driving is more stressfull sometimes than biking.)

But with over a hundred miles to bike, the day the cyclists started to stretch out further and further from the fastest to the slowest. So even though there was only another 50 miles or so left to the end when I took over, I drove at least twice that distance trying to take care of everything. To make it worse, a strong head wind picked up and a lot of the riders slowed to a crawl. Throw in some rolling hills near the end and I could see why some riders were pretty disheartened. Fortunately, nothing really major happened along the way and only regular driving was required to make it through the day.

Our hosts in Syracuse opened up their homes to us and the neighbors chipped in. Last year the riders were in another Kansas town, not having a place to stay in Syracuse. They asked the hosts there if they knew of anyone in Syracuse, which it turned out they did. They called up an old friend and he gladly volunteered himself and his neighbors. We cold called them from the information we had last year and they gladly invited us back again. Amazing. They were such wonderful hosts too.

It seemed that the whole neighborhood came over. There was a great cookout, Mrs. Lewis made some of the most fantastic cookies, and there were drinks for everybody. In fact, the food was so good that it deserves a second mention. The team could not stop eating the cookies, they were so good. The burgers and all of the side dishes were so good too. It's true that a 100 mile bike ride makes everything taste better, but even so, this was good food. And the neighbors were great as well.

I had an opportunity to talk with several of them and ask them questions about the small town life. Most of them enjoyed it, but pretty much everyone agreed that it was a dying way of life as the kids would usually move away. I talked to a farmer about farming and a farm machine seller about farm machine selling and to other people about the similar careers that you never hear about in the city. I really enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about the rural life and I've found that there are certain aspects of it that are quite appealing. I don't know that I'll ever live in one, but I don't think I would complain about moving to one too much either.

I should also mention that the hosts had a piano, but even better, they had a lot of sheet music. Although a lot of the churches we have stayed at have had great pianos they don't have much in the way of music selection, other than the hymns. And while hymns are fine to play, they're not really that technically difficult so they get a little boring. So I played all the sheet music they had. I thought I might be annoying the hosts with all the playing, but when I stopped, Mrs. Lewis asked me to keep playing saying she had never had such wonderful playing while making dinner before. I don't know if that is true or not, but she didn't really need to twist my arm to get me to keep playing anyways.

Before going to bed I did a little system check on myself and determined that I was feeling pretty darn good. After only two days in Kansas, we were hitting the Colorado state line and I was not going to limp out of the state. So I determined to ride the whole distance the next day. Went to bed on the floor and passed out ready to hit the road again.