July 13 Day 33 Scott City to Tribune and Day 34 Tribune KS to Haysville CO

We got up slowly because this day was to be short, only about 45-50 miles, so we figured we had plenty of time. We were also prepped for another time zone change where we would gain an hour. So the day had possibilities.

After some deliberative between a motel restaurant (It's Sunday you see) and Dennys, we decided on Denny's for breakfast (I had seen it the night before going to pick up the subs), so we biked down to the other side of town (not very far) only to discover that I was in fact, less than observant, and it was a grocery store, and so we ended up riding back up to the other restaurant, which was quite good, except our order wasn't quite right. Andy decided this wasn't his town. This was confirmed when we left and began pumping up his tires and one of the valves just broke off. Unpatchable, obviously, so we are down to one tube.

The wind wasn't too bad, mostly southern and a little in our face, but nothing like 2 days previous, so we set out into total flatness and took in the sights. Flatness, Zen, and then FEED LOTS. On one side of the road was grass with a few cows grazing across the most vast country we've ever seen, and on the other, cows squeezed together in their own feces, not a blade of grass, eating corn out of big cement troughs, looking pretty miserable. There is so much country out here, we just really didn't understand the necessity of such operations, and there were many, and even more off road. "Feeders".


At this point we had pretty much decided that the first part of Kansas was far superior to the flatter western portion. The flatness must do something to the human psyche.

Although in Dighton, there had been a four story building called "The Skyscraper of the West" our vote is for these grain elevators that are the main disturbance to the linear, treeless, horizon.



At a county line we crossed into Mountain (wannabe) Time, and gained that precious hour, so when we rolled into our destination town around 2:15, we were pretty excited to have many hours ahead of us.

It ended up being our first night of camping with fellow bikers, and the numbers just kept growing.

We first ran into Emerson and Copper (who look exactly like their names) who were just pulling into town. They had met at a sustainable living homestead in Oregon where they were learning to build cob houses and had randomly decided to go on this trip together about 3 weeks later.

Jack and Phillip (father and son), were doing the whole TransAm and sticking to the route. They were from Ashland, VA, but Phillip had gotten excrutiating tendonitus in the first few hundred miles and had opted to buy a car in Missoula Montana instead of bailing on the trip.

There were also 2 Swedish fellows coming from SF, and we didn't get their names, although we gave them good directions to Lindsborg.

A bit later, Michael pulled in, in matching bag and jersey, having come from New York and taken a more northern route, he had just gotten on the TransAm for the first time.

Everyone swapped stories, from being shot at in Eastern OR to going on a cattle buying outing, and it was nice to talk to some other crazy bikers, or as we decided travelers, since none of us would consider ourselves hardcore cyclists.

This was our abode for the night.


This morning was a bit of a struggle for me. I had 3 flats before we even left town and we ended up having to use our last tube (keeping our fingers crossed until Pueblo), but Michael, Copper and Emerson continued to hang out and wait for us so we could share a proper meal together. It turned out to not be as proper because the restaurant was closed, so we picked through the grocery store and loaded up on overripe bananas for 10 cents. No one seemed in a hurry to get off, and even though we had all woken up at 5:30ish, we didn't really get off till 9:30.

The riding today has been fantastic and the southern wind pretty kind. We passed into Colorado (WOO HOO!) about 15 miles into our trip. Michael is riding with us and definitely keeps a quicker clip than we do. It's awesome to have an additional traveller for a bit, although it does throw off some finally established routines, like how to pee on the side of the road.



We had awesome veggieliscious subs from a gas station (that just opened 2 weeks ago and was quite a find) in Sheridan Lake (which should be Sheridan Nolake as there is just a big bowl of sand). The super friendly clerks in the shop were joking about their lakefront property.

As soon as we left Sheridan (about 30 miles into the trip), the scenes started to change, our air started to dry out, sagebrush appeared everywhere, mini mini mesas, and a sure-fire western feel.

Right now we're stopped Eads, CO about 20 miles from our final destination for the night, where we've already run into 3 more cyclists previously unknown to us.

Tomorrow or Wednesday we hope to be in Pueblo, CO to spend a day with friends and prepare our bikes and ourselves (hopefully) for the ROCKIES!