Cruisin' Round the Breadbasket

Kansas has proved to be a better state after all. At first I was quite disappointed with how mundane everything could be but I came to realize it was just the heat getting to me. After a couple of rain showers and cloud covered days, the weather has made for a more enjoyable ride. Even though the terrain is not very attractive, Kansas does have its moments after riding 40 mile stretches without any services.
One of our first nights in Kansas was after a 100 mile day and proved to be quite and entertaining evening. I had just sat down to eat a jar of pickled okra when an all out battle royale broke out amongst 15 rednecks. People were fighting left and right and the funniest part was when one guy tried to scissor kick another in the back of the head. There wasn’t much for me to do except sit quietly eating my okra and watch the whole event unfold over the next few hours. The sheriff eventually came after everyone disbanded and tried to settle things down for the night. After riding 100 miles a day for a couple of days you find yourself just staring at things for no reason, so this escapade gave me something more entertaining to stare at.
That same night, after coming form the bathhouse, we had the opportunity to meet a young lady named Bonnie who had recently had her trailer stolen earlier that day. We couldn’t just leave her on her own with these crazy rednecks so we decided it was best to adopt her to tag along. Considering the countless times we have been helped along our, this was the least we could do to help someone else in need. The company is great and has added a new dynamic to our group. I’m interested to see how things will pan out over the course of our journey.
We made a stop in Buhler, KS the other day to get some lunch and get Rich’s spoke fixed with the FiberFix. Unfortunately the FiberFix snapped in half and proved to be quite useless. As we were pondering over what to do next, Rich asked the girl at the delicatessen if there was a bike shop around. She said that her father was a big biker and could probably help. And help he did. In no time flat he was there with extra spokes and a bike stand. He even trued his wheel like a professional mobile bike surgeon. He was a really kind pastor in the area named Todd and was really excited to help us. He discovered that Bonnie had lost her trailer and wanted to help out even more so he offered to lend her a rack and a set of panniers in the hopes that she would return them upon arrival at her destination. We were all very fortunate to have run into Todd. He also met up with us down the road and gave her a cook set and better saddle for if and when she departs from our group. Things were looking grim but got turned around in and instant because of the selfless acts of certain individuals.
I’m interested to see how things will pan out over the course of our journey.
We’ve also been riding with our friend Tom that we met at the Houston Hotel in Missouri. He was a lawyer from D.C. and is quite a character. I think he likes hanging out with us because of our wild uninhibited nature and it reminds him of when he was in college.
So I’m here in Scott City, Kansas and things couldn’t be better. The bike is doing well and I’m in high spirits. Kansas is starting to get a little better but we all can’t wait until we get to Colorado. Every eastbounder we have passed has told us countless stories of how magnificent things are about to get for us. The next few weeks are going to be really exciting and I couldn’t be happier about it.