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| Grandpa Lost His Mind |
A Journal - Crossing America by Bicycle |
| June 14, 2007 Miles 65 Total miles 2612 Ended at: Chanute, Kansas |
| I didn't ride yesterday because the tires on my trailer were just ruined from wear. By the time I realized I had a serious problem with the tires, I was away from any bike shops. On my route, there are few bike shops. The nearest place I knew I could find replacement tires was in Wichita, Kansas which was a little over 50 miles away. I finally decided to call, Burley, the manufacturer of my trailer. I suppose one thing that sets this country apart from others is how we do business. I explained my situation to Chad Ash, who is a district manager at Burley and before I knew it, he said he would send me some new tires by overnight air express. When I opened the box, he had also included two new tubes. There was no charge and I owe Chad Ash at Burley a huge thanks for getting me out of a bad situation. |
| Shailesh and Nita are the owners of Carriage House Motel in Eureka. They knew I was having problems with my bike because I had to stay there for another day waiting on the tires. The delivery of the tires was quite a bit after my check out time of 11:00 AM. They told me not to worry about it and I stayed at the motel until the tires arrived. So, I got a late start today but was relieved that I had new tires. |
| I wasn't using my head yesterday when I needed trailer tires fast. I was calling all over the place to try to find a pair. Jerry Welch, who I met once at a motorcycle race in Ada, Oklahoma, had been following my trip and sent me an email weeks ago and told me he would be my support man as I rode through central Kansas and that he would bring me anything I needed in the way of parts, food, cheerleading, or anything. If I had called Jerry, I wouldn't have lost a day and a half of riding. Since I am not on any kind of time frame it worked out okay but Jerry, I sure do appreciate your offer. I really do. |
| Before I left I made a run down the main street of town and took a picture of these old buildings. A lot of my riding in Kansas has been on county roads. I like that because there is very little traffic and the drivers are always friendly. There are a lot of bridges built by the WPA back in the thirties which are still in use today. When I was in the northwest, I saw signs which showed how a lot of the mountainsides had been reforested by the WPA after wildfires had ravaged the areas. The WPA was supposedly rife with corruption but a lot of their work still stands. |
| It rained on me for several hours today but it wasn't that bad because it was fairly warm. Temperatures were probably in the 80's. The last big rain I was in was in Canon City, Colorado and I about froze because it was very windy and 45 degrees. I didn't take too many pictures today. This is one of the country roads I was on. I thought I was going to have another hilly day but as I got near Chanute, it flattened out again and after the rain stopped there was only a slight wind so it was actually a good day for riding. |
| I saw a lot of these pretty orange flowers in the ditches today. The Kansas state flower is the sunflower. I have yet to see one. |
| A barn which has seen better days in the middle of a wheat field. |
| I saw no other riders today. I was told a couple of days ago that I need to change my route out of Chanute because the road I was going to be on has been torn up and is in terrible condition. I have already planned my route out of here tomorrow which will only add a few miles to get me back on track. |