New Bike

My wife was so kind as to send me a pic of my new bike. It didn't arrive in time for the tour and is a "crash" replacement from the car kaboshing me prior to the tour. The bike store has it in the window. To ride this thing I have to get faster.

I'm such a proud papa...can you actually birth a bike?

McPherson, KS to Abilene, KS 62 miles

Thunderstorms after the ride yesterday.

A sign that although not true, I promise Leslie, I promise.....

Roy, "the rabbit" preparing to leave, me just looking dumb.

No Dorothy, we didn't take a wrong turn in Kansas. I wasn't following .........uh he who shall not be named.

Well I'll actually start today with last night. We have been very fortunate to miss the rain the past few days/weeks. There have been numerous violent thunderstorms, but we have missed them all. This group knows how to live, because the weather has been magnificent. I am posting a pic of last nights thunderstorms that we were able to ward off by wearing our rain jackets. I had to walk in the rain to Applebees because I missed route rap due to uhmmmmm....watching the end of a movie. Good thing that Tracy doesn't read these blogs. Anyway when I got to Applebees I had to sign the menu, because we have now reached rock star status. They also took the groups pic, sans me and will hang it. I took a pic that was so apropo. Sorry for publishing the picture honey....apologies in advance.

Today we started with a headwind for the first 22 miles. It was brisk and was our pennance for missing all the really bad weather. After 22 miles we turned North and the wind turned into more of a cross wind for at least 20 miles. Right now the gods are fully appeased and as I write this they are from the SW. You might wonder why we talk about the wind so much. The weather on these trips is the absolute determinant each day to the difficulty. Our favorite topics in order are: the wind, food, beer, saddle sores. Occasionally a micreant like myself will actually mention how much he misses his wife and children.

Anyway today it started out with Roy, Harold, Greg and me together fighting the wind. Greg soon flew the coop and teamed up with Geoff. Our threesome (that doesn't sound good does it?) eventually became a foursome at the SAG when we picked up Jim H one of the staff and a very strong rider. At mile 39 I was dropped after coming off a pull (thats when you always get dropped) and hung about 100 yards back for miles. I had too much dignity to say "hey slow down". No use chasing them as you will be exhausted when you catch them. What does a dog actually do when he catches a car? Anyway I biked solo for the last 24 miles and made good time averaging 18 mph for the entire ride and getting to the hotel at noon. Meanwhile Greg was dropped by Geoff and picked up my old slot on team "every man for himself".....lol. I actually prefer frequently to bike solo as you don't have to pay attention to the paceline and you can crank up the rock music. I think I may be the only Ipod guy.

Everyone seems to think it is dangerous to have an Ipod, but I only put it in the right ear and can hear the traffic quite well. I'm not sure what the heck these people are thinking of when they bike but on hilly days I am probably rocking out to Zeppelin or playing a little CCR. Maybe a little Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Fastball or Darude for the modern set. Barbie amuses herself by thinking of rock bands that begin with each letter. Stu, the Dos XX man is working on his next "the most interesting man" moment. Craig is telling jokes and humoring whoever he is riding with. Some are writing their blogs as they ride. Give me nice music. In fact, I am working up a special climbing blend of music for the Abilene to Topeka 105 mile day.

Anyways, we are here in Abilene and unfortunately the Brookville Hotel is closed tomorrow as well as today. They are a James Beard award winner and this is truly a disappointment as they have the best fried chicken (sorry mom), biscuits and mashed potatoes all served family style. On nights prior to and including the rest day we are on our own for dinner, which I like because I am not tied to the 6 p.m. dinner time. Too early for me as I apparently sleep less and eat later than any of these "older" guys. LOL

I only have 2 more days of riding, so only a couple of more blogs. Although I will miss the gang, I have a lot of catching up to do at home and at work and am looking forward to some free time. The trip is exciting but 7 weeks is a long time and my 4 weeks has been plenty long enough for me.

Thanks for all the comments, but hold the lines because we have a winner. Tom D. was able to quickly point out that I was part of a group that set the all time record for being lost. Thanks Tom.....LOL Also, if you are wondering why each day we play match the caption with the pic, eblogger just doesn't have a mechanism (at least not one I have figured out) to match captions with pics. It is a hit and miss propostion.

As my friend would say......

Stay thirsty my friends...

Ty

Great Bend, KS to McPherson, KS 64 miles

Greg looking dapper, more Kansas.

Today the skies were gray and it looked like we would be riding in the rain. However, there is one sure way to prevent rain and that is to wear a Craft (read hot) rain jacket. If you wear a jacket it won't rain on the outside, but it will rain on the inside. You can get rather wet on the inside but not from the rain. By the first SAG stop, Greg and I were soaked and shed our jackets. The group owes us their grattitude since it is obvious we prevented the deluge. Over the next 5 miles or so post SAG we dried and it warmed up and became real nice.

Once again we had a cross wind. Actually the wind was slightly perturbed but not cross. LOL Sometimes it was a quartering headwind, but mostly a cross wind of 20 mph or more. Nothing spectacular to tell, except I startled Greg while riding by yelling "Roy, slow down". We were trying to chase down Sam and had closed to within 50 yards. He whipped his head around, his bike followed and clipped my front wheel. We all know what that means. The next thing Greg heard was this swishing noise as my bike and I were travelling in the middle of the ditch through the grass. I hadn't panicked and after a brief laugh we were on the road again. These things happen so fast and are sure to wake you up a bit. We didn't catch Sam which served us right. Another rider, the Dos xx's "most interesting man" had a brief crash today as well with only his pride being the apparent injury. We all know who Stu, oops I mean the Dos xxs most interesting man is.

Today, lots of grassland, wheat, oil wells and cattle. As we head east, Kansas becomes more rolling terrain rather than the flat wheat fields that most Americans visualize. Tomorrow is "Abilene oh Abilene the prettiest town I've ever seen" (you probably don't know the song). It is the 9th straight day of riding and we are rewarded with a well deserved rest day the following day. I only have 3 more riding days until I leave the tour in St. Joes (north of Kansas City).

I am enclosing a few pics, which I hope you will enjoy.

And remember.....go Celtics. Rooting for LA is like rooting for Microsoft.

Ty

Dodge City Kansas to Great Bend, Kansas 86 miles

Mounting my trusty steed "blackie".

What happens in the van, stays in the van.

A model 50 or 60 "poppin Johnny" 2 cyclinder.

Today there isn't a whole lot to tell. We biked, ate, drank beer, did laundry and napped. A man has to know his limitations. The scenery looked a lot like the past several days although we did see a lot of wind mills on a wind farm and many more ready to be erected.

We left Dodge City early this a.m. and someone immediately took the wrong route. I am still trying to find out how someone can get lost less than 2 miles from the hotel, so we can ridicule them. Each tour there seems to be someone who can't seem to follow their cue sheets. Maybe they are just too used to having their spouses ( I would say wives but that would be sexist, have to be PC) tell them, oops recommend, what to do.

The land is rolling with irrigated wheat, lots of grain elevators, trains and wind farms with the occasional oil well. Great Bend isn't super interesting, but it is consumate middle America. Great Bend is named for the great bend in the Arkansas River and is also home to the largest inland wetlands in the U.S. In Kansas????? You bet.

Anyway Stu and I went on a scavenger hunt for wine and beer. His sponsor is Budweiser and his jerseys read "powered by Budweiser", so he has to be careful in public what he drinks. More on Stu tomorrow and the next day. We had to get wine for Craig (medicinal only) to thin his blood so that his arm improves. Yesterday at the doctor, when Craig said his gynocologist recommended he get his arm lanced, the doctor laughed. How funny is that.

Anyways, as Kirsten my daughter says, the convenience store had height measurement markings on the inside of the door. This is so the clerk can accurately describe the height of the robber. Wow! A first for me. You know you are in trouble when the surrounding stores are Popeyes, a furniture rental center, a ck cashing center, a discount laundromat and a liquor store. I love the federal stimulus program.

Actually, we are in a nice hotel again. Tracy has done a fantastic job of locating better hotels in each of the cities. In my mind, only one average hotel so far. Tracy, I'm expecting a discount on my next (4th) Crossroads Tour. On another note, Craig thinks he is in good with Tracy but I told him that the sign that he is "in" is when she lets him talk on the radio. More on that later.

Overall the group is real strong and the riders all get along real well. It is a very good group and the comraderie is stronger than when I did the ride in 2006. Greg, Harold, Roy the Rabbit and I biked together until the 71 mile point at Pawnee Rock. I visited that in 2006 so I left my "posse" to go ck the rock for Pawnees while I headed into town to investigate trouble in the local saloon.

I have a feeling the rabbit is going on a breakaway tomorrow. We will have to be ready for that. My feeling is....let the rabbit run. I am going to eventually get to McPherson and lunch at Montana Mikes. For those of you reading, even though we get in early, the day is packed with chores after the ride. Cleaning our chains, water bottles, laundry, route rap, preparing for the next day and then getting to bed early. It is critical to get in a routine and anyone that knows me knows I hate routine.

Hope all is well with everyone.

One final thought.....Memorial day is to honor the men and women who have given their lives in order for us to live the way we live today. Honor them and say a prayer for all of them tonight.

God Bless..

Oh and in closing I want to say, I miss my wife and daughters dearly......

Ty

Liberal, KS to Dodge City, KS-82 miles

Me in the tunnel at the hideout.





Mr. America, aka Superman, aka Craig with his usual tough guy look.









The wheat looks purple, must be the lighting. The Dalton Gang hideout.

Testing out the sasparillo?

The 2 vigilantes who appear happier than before they were arrested.....maybe it was the beers.

I loved some of these signs in boot hill. There should be a law that cause of death in everyone's obituary. I mean come on, dead eye killed by red eye.

Shouldn't all cemetaries have a motto?

One of the local townspeople coming out to greet us....or maybe a rider who got a T shirt in Hooker, OK

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A very pretty day. We left Liberal for Dodge City. We had a cross wind most of the first 60 miles except for about 10 miles into the first SAG where it turned into a headwind. The first SAG stop was the hideout for the Dalton gang before their ill-fated attempt to rob not 1, but 2 Coffeyville, KS banks at the same time. Needless to say, after 20 minutes the gang was pretty much wiped out except Emmett Dalton who although thought dead, made a full recovery. After 15 years in prison (he claimed he never fired his gun) he lived a full and happy life and became a leading citizen and proponent of Tulsa. If you haven't read about the Dalton Gang, you should just google them up. Makes for some interesting reading.

Anyway, at the hideout the Daltons constructed a tunnel leading from the house to the barn in case of unexpected visitors, particularly the local law establishment. The Daltons had a penchant for robbing trains and probably should have stuck to their knitting (train robbing). The railroad got (I love to talk Texan) and started posting armed guards in the train cars, which put a stop to the train robberies. Bob Dalton was the brainchild behind robbing the Coffeyville banks, and really wanted to put an end to this talk about the James Gang (not Joe Walsh, but the original James gang). "Hey why not rob 2 banks at once. No one has ever done that". He forgot that Coffeyville is where Emmett went to grade school and sure enough someone recognized them. Well, we all know that a catastrophe is a series of small events that seem to go awry at the same time. The local townspeople all headed over to the hardware store where the proprietor started handing out Winchester rifles......Well, we all know what happened next.

After this visit we headed off to Dodge city with a 20 mph tailwind. We must be living right. It was absolute fun as Greg and I sometimes reached speeds of 34 mph and were averaging about 28 mph. I had gone on a solo break at the 40 mile mark (Greg caught me at 60) and we were trying to stay out front. Not to be as Harold the Hammer, caught us 3 miles shy of town, arrested us and sure enough we ended up in the Dodge City slammer. We have pics to prove this story is at least partially true, although Marshall Hal allowed us to have a few brews in the pub prior to incarcerating us (or is it inebriating?????).

We visited Boot Hill and a small museum. Some of the headstones, actually headwoods but that just doesn't sound right are pretty amusing. I am including a few for your enjoyment.

Craig finally had his arm problem (remember he wrecked on day 2 or day 3) taken care of. He had a large bump filled with fluid who should not be named. At route rap he took a sterilized x-acto knife and cut into it in front of all of us. Particularly to the dismay of Tracy. In spite of all my antics Craig has now taken the heat off of me. The hotel however is backcharging him for the cleaning bill. Just kidding......Actually Craig went to the doctor (we have a gynocologist and a cardiologist) and he took a scapel to the arm. Mr. Ironman will be back in action soon. Stay posted.!!!!

All in all a great day. Hard to believe we biked 82 miles before noon.

Guymon, OK to Liberal, KS-40 miles

Superman, AKA Craig. He has his own fan club.

Me with my white arms and farmers tan. Decided today to work on that

Hooker, OK

Kansas, Dorothy, Kansas



The B-25 helped protect your freedom. Yes Dorothy those are machine guns.

We started off a little later today since it was only 40 miles. Just a warm-up ride. We crossed from Oklahoma into Kansas today, so one more state line crossing. My average was very good as the wind was not in the face today. We averaged a little over 20 mph.

I just realized I only have 6 more rides left to get to St. Joseph, MO (Kansas City) and then my tour is over. Seems to have gone by very quickly. Not a lot to report today. Jim H. had a flat tire today so we assisted him in return for him to pull more than his share on the way into town. We visited the air museum in Liberal prior to coming to the hotel. They have over 100 vintage aircraft including a B-25 which is the same model of plane that Jimmy Doolittle used to bomb Tokyo from the aircraft carrier Hornet (I always have to have a little history in my blogs). We stopped and ate at El Amigo Chavez's Mexican food which had very good Mexican food. They also "specialized" in steak and seafood. The only thing missing is Italian. I am glad we stuck to Mexican food. After lunch and a few Modelo Especials, we limped into the hotel and took a nap. LOL If I ate like this every day, I would need to take a siesta as well.

Also, stopped in Hooker, OK where you can buy shirts like "support your local hookers", and "all my friends are hookers". The Hooker Horny Toads are a football powerhouse in these parts. This evening we ate at Napoli's an Italian restaurant that was most excellent. The restaurant is in an old Rock Island line train depot/station. Just as we were seated a train rumbled past and we could feel the vibration. Cool. I skipped the tour of Oz which has a replica of Dorothy's house and repleat with a yellow brick road. Maybe too much Mexican food and Modelos.

We have a couple of 80 mile plus days coming up, but the weather looks to be favorable. I will probably end up going solo tomorrow since we have a tailwind. Tomorrow, also we will visit the Dalton Gang hideout. They were involved in the deadliest bank robbery in history when they tried to rob 2 banks simultanteously in Coffeyville, KS. An interesting piece of history. Tomorrow night we end up in Dodge City, KS so I am sure I will have more to tell.

Sleep tight (bonus points for finding out where this sayingcame from)

Ty

Dalhart, TX to Guymon, OK 73 miles

Crop duster near the Texas border. We did see it in action.

Having our pics made under "Big Tex" at Stratford, Tx
This here is oil country.

Windmills, here the wind always blows.


Oklahoma is OK!

Yes, he ate every bite!

The days are starting to run together. I can remember my room number from yesterday, but had to try my key in 4 doors already. Thank goodness that the key only fits one door. As Greg says, today was a "recovery" ride even though we rode 73 miles into a headwind. Our definition of a difficult ride has changed over the past 3 weeks. We are all a bunch of crazies. It is fun being crazy!

Most of the riders inhibitions have gone and so we talk a lot about food, tires, our bikes and our bottoms. And blog of course. We think of sleep, eat, recovery, bike. sleep, eat, recovery, bike. repeat process again. You can judge a rides difficulty by the average response to a question after the ride. If its a hard ride you will usually get a 1 to 3 word response. Yes, No, I don't know, uh huh, or just a head nod. We now share laundry which makes life a little easier. I am posting a pic of Harold's lunch which is a 5 or 6 egg omelet and 2 biscuits the size of a small pie. Anytime you stop at a truckstop in Oklahoma, you are going to get plenty to eat. Plenty of stares too if you happen to still be wearing your bike outfit. Not a lot of guys wear Spandex in these parts.....at least not and get away with it.

We did see our first pumpjack on the tour today. Thats for pumping oil for those of you not familiar. Yesterday we saw our first grain elevator on tour and our first flat land. Irrigation systems, cattle, grain......what else is there. Oh yeah and a crop duster in action. The country is pretty and it feels great to be riding across the open land. We got a lot of honks from trunks on the other side of the road as well as the trains. They know we are cross country riders and are offering encouragement. That feels really good.

Another Super 8 but this one is really nice. My definition of a "nice" hotel room has changed dramatically. My room last nite was unexceptional, so I am excited that I have a nice room tonight. Last night was the first night I have slept all night since the tour began, so maybe I should be sleeping in more dumps. Ha.... Overall the hotels have been excellent. Seriously. I think that helped today as my legs were pretty strong and I was able to stay with the big dogs today....Harold the Hammer, Roy the Rabbit and Greg-he who shall not be named. I think I am more like Scrappy Doo (Sccoby's little nephew, I think). Harold is the "hammer" because he can crank out the wattage and hammer most anyone into the ground. Roy the Rabbit can just dart away from me pretty much anytime. And Greg is just Mr. Consistent. He is the one that climbed 15,000 and did 135 miles on a ride once. I am just lucky to be the fat white guy that can sometimes hang with them, if only for a while. That is if they let me. It is actually a very good feeling to be part of a paceline that works. Today we had a strong headwind particularly after about the first 50 miles. The 4 of us worked together like a machine. They would be embarrased by my description of them, but they are all very strong riders.

Today I had on my primal "skeleton" jersey. One of my friends called me Darth Vader this a.m. All black and gray as I also had on black leg warmers and black arm warmers. Unfortunately, I don't have a great close up shot. Also, I have been having a few back problems so encouragement from the other riders can be very helpful. One thing is for certain-everyone will have a bad day over the course of the tour. The Darth Vader outfit and some tunes such as "stranglehold" helped and were appropriate for today.

I am also posting another video of the paceline earlier in the day before the wind became real strong. There is a prize for the first caller to correctly identify what Roy is actually saying. My answer to him was less than 3 words. Hope all is well. All in all a good day. If you are above the daisies instead of below them it is a good day. Maybe today was an exceptional day. Tomorrow an easy 38 mile ride and YES!!!! we get to sleep in until 7 for the 9:15 start.

http://tytalk.com/guymonvideo.wmv

This is the video clip.

Well.....til later ya'll.

Ty