Hills and Headwinds

I swung south today after Trenton, Ne, which is where BRAN started in June. For those not familiar with BRAN, it is a 500 mile bike ride across Nebraska over the course of a week. I went on it this year for the first time and used it to train for this ride. After Trenton, I turned south and headed to Atwood, KS, which is where I ended up staying. Mason suggested this route to me and said it was decent. I decided to try it as I was going to turn to Kansas eventually and it was a beautiful ride. The only problem was the15 mph headwind. I don't mind hills as long as the wind is light. It is days like this that make one question why they ride a bike; why they put gear on it to catch all the wind possible; and then tell people it's fun. The only thing is...it is fun. Getting out and hearing, seeing, and feeling nature while also quenching a desire to travel is worth the days of hard work and frustration that occassionally come. It's what adds to the experience. Travel is not about where you go so much as the way you got there. Days like this I get off my bike and have sea leg experiences from wobbling all over the road. I'm sure the people who saw me eat tonight were wondering what bus I fell off of.

Atwood has a beautiful lake and park and as I rolled in I was greeted by a field of sunflowers that reflected the color of my gear, because safety yellow is cheap!

On a different note, I had a burr in my town shorts when I put them on. Thankfully it was only one and it was on my side.

The tortoise loses

I am now in McCook, Ne. The last couple of days went pretty well and I had free camping in the last two towns. I ended up getting a flat today and I still don't know why. I went to put my spare on and then it blew. Then I thought my pump was bad, as it is starting to be. Figured my first flat was only a slow leak so I put that on and figured I could walk to McCook and fill it up as needed. I made about two miles that way and pumped twice. I still had eight miles to go and was stopped to put more air in when a guy named mason came out from behind his house and asked if he could help. He wound up giving me a ride and dropped me off at the campground and told me to look up his sister in Kansas and I could get some water. Go figure you ask God to stretch you on a trip and he let's you meet such amazing people who will help out strangers. Even crazy ones on bikes! So now I am off to fix my bike. Amazingly the walmart in town had the right rube and more than one.


Oh, and with the title, the first of these two days was filled with countless turtle roadkill. So the hare wins.

Hills and sunflowers

I made it to Red Cloud today. As the title suggest, this was a day with a decent amount of hills and both wild and cultivated sunflowers. There were about five golden fields and numerous stands along the way. I am now riding the first half of BRAN in reverse. This was another 57 mile day and my seat is needing a couple days to get used to it. Red Cloud is the home of the Willa Cather SHS. Everything in town is pretty much named after her. This is a neat little town, but all the cool little shops are pretty much closed down or close early. It is amazing to see how much even these small towns seem to get affected by the economy after surviving through so much already.


The bike and gear held together great again today. It was another late start but gave me a chance to sleep in, practice breaking camp, and have some pesonal time with God before the road and all the random songs that go through one's head. A routine I wouldn't mind keeping.