Old friends

Gary Broughton from XC 2005 and ES 2008 as well as Don Berens from ES 2011 came to visit and ride from Latham to Brattleboro. It was great to see old friends.

A typical day

I set my alarm for 5:45 for most mornings. But it has awakened me only once. I shave and dress quickly and am out the door to put out the pumps. I collect the tour map, easel, and sign-in sheet from the lobby and put them on the truck.

I have some breakfast and then go to my room to get ready. Up to 15 riders are on dawn patrol early release so we load their bags onto the truck. At 7:15, the faster riders' bags get loaded. I typically ride to the first SAG. After a short break I go to the hotel in the truck and deliver luggage to the rooms. When the vans come in, I get the drink coolers ready for the next day and fill the ice chests.

I am off dinner duty now, but paid the dinner bills most of the time for the first month. It is a busy day and I am more tired on many days than if I was just cycling. I do enjoy all aspects of the day.

Rain at last

We have not had a drop of rain while riding until today--five weeks into the tour. Even then, the rain did not happen until the later part of the ride. The locals need it. Marysville residents had their first rain of the month.

Helmet decorating

A CrossRoads tradition is to decorate helmets upon departure in Champaign. The riders gathered for a photo. They were quite creative.

I decided to just decorate my head with a large pipe before we arrived in Champaign. Perhaps that is why I appear in a pensive mood if not a painful one.

I had to put on a tall hat to cover the pipe. I feel better now as lots of Tylenol helps relieve the pain. By the way, many riders are existing on Vitamin I (Ibuprofen).

Last few days

We awoke in Quincy to the sound of thunder. The day's ride did not start until 10:15 when the storm had passed. The mileage for the day was 107, meaning that all riders were not at the hotel until after 6. Several of them called it the best day of the tour. A tailwind likely helped after the previous day's tough headwind.

The ride to Champaign the next day had a nice tailwind the last 40 miles. I was off the bike by then. Carol, Robin, and I had a nice dinner with Champ Walker and his wife Roni. Champ pedaled a hundred miles to see us averaging over 20 miles per hour.

Quincy

I missed this leg six years ago. It was 48 degrees with a thunderstorm at the start. Not my idea of a day at the beach. So I had only my second day of full-day cycling on this trip. And it was a hard one with difficult headwinds all day. I cannot remember being this tired after a day of riding.

Jeff and Roberta on their tandem. Always upbeat, even on days that are not friendly for tandem cyclists.

Mike, Rich, and I having a laugh at the SAG today.

Chillicothe

I often wondered what the name of this town meant. There are four other towns in the US with the same name I asked our server tonight. He said that it is the name of an Indian tribe.

We stopped in Mayville today. The locals had prepared delicious cinnamon rolls up until 2009. Three people asked why we had not notified them in the past three years that we were coming. Apparently a lack of communication. They would love to serve us again. We are one of their few contacts with the "outside" world.

My friend Barry crashed outside St. Joseph in 2005 just a few minutes after I left the tour. We rode together in 2008 on the Eastern Seaboard tour. Robin and Carol took Wendy out of town last night to find the scene of the crash. The photo is of Barry and Wendy at the scene this morning. I was very happy for them today.

Lots of climbing today. I counted 75 hills through 47 miles when I got into the truck. It is just a warmup for tomorrow when there are 148 hills. No wonder, we will pass near thousand hill state park.

St Joseph

The riders crossed the Missouri River today. I was driving the truck so could not look at the river. The bridge over the river is in horrible condition. The road is only two lanes without a shoulder. A new four-lane bridge is being constructed adjacent to the current one and will be a welcome replacement. I remember being a little terrified crossing the bridge on the bike in 2005. With no shoulder and impatient drivers, it was nerve-wracking.

St. Joseph marks the city where I left the tour in 2005 due to numb and painful hands. I thought at the time that I would never again do another long distance tour. I am so glad that I reconsidered that thought. It is not just the riding, but the many wonderful people that I have met in the intervening years.

Topeka

I think that the ride to Topeka is my favorite of the tour. I really enjoy the scenery and the rural feeling of the route. I believe that it is the most rural portion of the trip across America. Riders saw bison, elk, guinea hens, and coyote.

Abilene

A day off for staff is not necessarily a day off. Up at 6:15 to clean my bike and then off to the car wash to clean the vans. In the afternoon, I must fill all the drink coolers and fruit coolers and get ice. Craig helped but the afternoon chores still took ninety minutes. All but one rider went to the same dinner establishment tonight. It was three hours before I got back to the hotel. Dinner on an off day is not paid by CrossRoads so preparing twenty plus tickets took the better part of an hour.

Picture taken at Pawnee Rock and a license plate in last night's restaurant parking lot:

Making our way through Kansas

We spend a week in Kansas. Great Bend is our home for tonight. The city is named for a big bend in the Arkansas River which originates in Colorado. Although I can see evidence of the river in the never-ending line of cottonwood trees as we pedal along, I have never seen the river. A local told me today that the river is frequently dry in Kansas as Colorado frequently takes all the water. He blamed the cantaloupe farmers in SE Colorado. I did see a dry riverbed entering Dodge City yesterday thinking it could not possibly be the Arkansas. I picture how full it is in our mountains and what a draw it is for white-water rafting.

A peloton of CrossRoads riders: