06/11/00 Atwood, KS to Hoxie, KS

This morning I left the school at 6:05 after inflating my tires with a bigger pump . They may ride better and I may spend less effort peddling with the increased pressure. I’ll have to adjust my mileage on my computers to compensate for the increased pressure. The Catholic church in town was my first destination – for a free breakfast. Had biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs and OJ. Good way to start a day of riding. When I sat down to write this I found that my zipper was unzipped – again! At least I had biking shorts on underneath my riding shorts. Left the church at 6:30 a.m. and stopped at a QT on the way out of town. Rather than walk in with my helmet on, I thought it would be more friendly to take it off. As soon as I set it on my bike it fell off between my bike and the store wall. Went in and bought a bottle of water and sports drink for the first leg of my ride.

Finally started out of town at 6:45 a.m.. I was really making time this morning and knew that a lot of other riders were still at the church eating breakfast. This would give me a better chance of getting to the next town - Hoxie - sooner and with it the privilege of selecting a prime location for sleeping in the school! About 2 ½ miles out of town, while riding 6 inches or so from the edge of the pavement, I moved my left arm slightly so I could use my mirror and see traffic behind me. In doing so it caused me to swerve ever so slightly to the right off the pavement and into a patch of sand inconveniently located to catch my tire. Not being prepared for this sudden departure from good cycling I desperately tried to get my bike back onto the pavement, but instead found myself falling sideways onto the highway directly in front of two other cyclists coming from behind. Unable to get my left foot out of the pedal strap, I landed/skidded to a halt on my left leg and arm with the associated battle scars showing that the road had beat me this round!. I was not really hurt - only minor skin scrapes and lots of embarrassment. The cyclists passed me asking if I was all right and continued on their way. I picked myself and bike up, smoothed my feathers down and took off riding again. As soon as I got back on my bike I reached up to touch my helmet. It took a few seconds to realize I had touched my head instead of my helmet! I looked back at the scene of my accident and not seeing the helmet, realized it was 2 ½ miles back the way I had just hurriedly come. So back to town I went, peddling as fast as I could. I guess by this time everyone else (or so it seemed) had finished breakfast and were leaving town. I must have passed 30-40 bikes going the other way. So much for well laid plans, of being among the first to get to the next school and the prize of being able to choose where to sleep. : ( Arriving at the QT I found my helmet was where I dropped it, I headed back out of town – again. I was fortunate that I had the wreck, otherwise who knows how long I might have ridden before realizing I was without my helmet…. Funny how God works to get your attention!

Now I understand why cyclists snap their helmets to their bikes!

Back on the road I had to recover the 2 miles to just get back to where I returned from and then vainly attempt to get ahead of at least some of the people I had passed. With 27 miles from Attwood to Oberlin, I at least had plenty of miles to attempt to catch up. It was cool as usual this early in the day, but the ever present wind began to pick up. The wind began to blow from the southeast giving a quartering headwind. This is not as bad as a straight headwind, but it still slows you down. Made it to Oberlin about 9:30 a.m. where I stopped at a QT for something to drink and snack on. This time I was careful not to drop my helmet and left it and my gloves on the bike before going into the store.

Drank some OJ and then headed downtown to try and find the cemetery where I thought one of the BAK clues and medallions was hidden. Oberlin, among other small towns of north Kansas, has a number of brick paved streets. Brick paved streets seem quaint, but trying them on a bike at any speed faster than walking is like riding an antique "bone shaker". I didn’t realize this as I started down one of the streets into town at 15 mph. Immediately, I realized this was not the speed for riding on bricks, but went a little farther until I started feeling things coming out of my pockets and off of my bike! Fortunately I had my helmet on securely , but guess what – I had forgotten to put my gloves back on! I looked back and there was my billfold and ONE glove lying on the street. Only one glove fell out so I was lucky or so I thought. The other glove was no where to be seen. I assumed it was somewhere back up the road so I turned around and rode back a block and there it was at the start of the brick paving. God sure has to nudge us frequently sometimes. You can rest assured that I paid special attention to my riding gear from then on! There wasn’t a cemetery downtown, so rode back to the east edge of town to the local cemetery. Didn’t have any luck finding the BAK clue/medallion in the cemetery so rode back to town and took a picture of Main street America. Then it was on to Hoxie about 10:20.

The ride out of town wasn’t too bad until I started up the never ending hills. The hills weren’t high or steep only very lloonngg. In addition, the wind had now shifted to the south coming directly at us. I checked the windspeed several times by riding back north with the wind and found it was only blowing about 8-10 mph. This may not seem like much, but add a 12-15 mph bike speed thus creating a 20-25 mph headwind, coupled with the undulating terrain (i.e. hills) and the temperature in the low 90’s, your endurance begins to drain very quickly. Now was the time I should have been tanking up on liquids. Maybe all of this was getting to me. I began to yodel, sang crazy made up songs, mooed at the cows and even tried to whistle like a bird (try it with a dry mouth). This was going to be a day, in my history book, that ranked up there with walking through 4’ drifts for 5 miles to get to school when a kid! Something to tell my grandkids about!!! People were starting to catch the SAG vehicles for a ride into Hoxie. SAG stops were a welcome respite with water, fruit and cookies. One rider had a recording altimeter on his bike and found that we gained 1700’ in hill climbing while loosing some 200’ feet in elevation from Attwood to Hoxie! By the time I arrived at the SAG stop just north of Selden I knew I was headed for trouble. I had found on a 70 mile ride prior to BAK, what the signs of dehydration were for me. I was starting to chill and feel unpleasant. When I arrived at the SAG stop I immediately drank a bottle of water and really ate the orange slices. I recovered quickly, but realized that I needed to be drinking more and did so the rest of the trip. Another woman rode in soon after me - obviously very exhausted. She was almost ready to call her daughter to call it quits. The SAG ladies and I told her that she could make it if she just kept trying.

As others began to arrive I felt like it was getting too crowded for me. As I didn’t want to be behind everyone again, I made sure my gloves and helmet were on and took off into the wind! While still some distance from Hoxie, some overly exuberant cyclist passed me and said that I was almost there. So my hopes perked up not knowing how far it actually was to town. I finally realized "almost there" meant different things to different people. Each hill I crested just revealed more hills to climb and more wind to push. Finally after 5-6 miles of slower and slower pedaling, I came up over the last hill and saw I was almost there and the road actually went downhill into town! Wind or not I was almost there!

I arrived in Hoxie about 2:30 p.m. – many others didn’t show up until almost 5:00 p.m. Went to the local QT for a pan pizza with Mark about 4:00 p.m. and then went back again for more pizza about 6:00 p.m. with Mark and Dave from Hays. I made my bed on the top tier of the bleachers again near Mark whom I had met last night. While getting things arranged I met a couple of guys who were from Olathe, one of whom was Dennis. The guy who had the sailbike was able to use it some today with the crosswinds, but he said it was not able to push him up any hills. He said he was going to modify it for better performance.

We had quite a storm after it got dark. Lots of lightning, thunder and some rain. The worst of the storm went by to the northwest of town. After staying up till I thought I was sleepy enough to stay asleep, I went to bed about 11:30. Everyone should sleep good tonight!