Day 58, Newton to Eureka, KS

Miles – 74

Miles From Start/To Finish – 2,642/1,703

Ave Riding Speed – 8-22 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 8.25

Weather – Mostly Sunny and 88

I was up at 6:15am, opened the curtains, per our mutual deal from the night before, and walked down the hall for breakfast. I had the scrambled eggs and turkey sausage with a small glass of apple juice to quench my thirst and a cup of coffee. The Holiday Inn Express was super clean and the Wi-Fi was awesome. The Wi-Fi was the main reason we stayed there. I had a family meeting on-line last night with my parents and siblings and wanted to make sure to be on it. Kim joined me shortly after I was done eating and had cereal and coffee.

We quickly showered, packed and rolling our bikes out the front door at 7:45am. We took a side street heading south for about a half-mile and hooked up with our route heading east on E. 1^st St.  It was a great ride for 26-miles. There was little wind, and it was coming from the south, clear skies and we were making great time pedaling through the countryside on the 2-lane, no-shoulder highway.

We stopped for a short break and then crossed Hwy 77. A half-mile up, and gaining speed. I heard what sounded like a shotgun go off below me and Kim screamed, startled by the noise as she was right behind me, and felt my bike wobble. I quickly stopped and looked down at my rear tire. Son-of-a-gun, it looked like I blew a tire. We both stood there for a moment to take it all in.

I thought about walking my bike down to the next approach but figured that would not be a good thing for my tire rim. Kim laid her bike down on the side of ditch and walked to the bottom of it to see if it was dry. It was, so I walked my bike down to the ditch, off-loaded my gear and tipped my bike upside down. After reviewing the damage, I could see that I blew a tube, from the tread side. The tube had a rip in it about 8-inches long. I ran my fingers along the inside of the tire and found nothing. I then used my knife to pick away at any foreign object stuck in my tread. I found a couple small pieces of glass and picked them out.

Soon a rider pulled up. Mark was doing the TransAm as well and started his trip on June 9^th. He was a seasoned long-distance rider and making very good time. Mark asked if we needed any help and I told him I’m getting pretty good at this and thanked him for the offer. He was doing over 100 miles today so he needed to get moving.

Within a few minutes a pickup truck pulled up and the man asked if we needed any help. He was a rancher who lived in Hutchinson and was out checking on his cattle herd. The rancher mentioned that when we crossed Hwy 77, we entered the Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie. It represents less than 4% of what once was of the that vast ecosystem cover the US. The land is not farmed and is only used for cattle grazing. The left and went up to the next approach and turned around. He stopped once again to make sure we didn’t need any water. For having a flat tire in the middle of the Kansas countryside, we had a couple great conversations with a couple cool people.

Another interesting tidbit about Kansas is that there is over 40,000 miles of post fence rock. Limestone fence posts quarried locally and weigh 250-450lbs each. This was the most readily available option, as there are few trees, during the time when the “open range” was being fenced in.

After pumping my tire with my small hand pump, we rolled my bike up on the road and reattached my saddlebags and continued east 12 miles until we reached Casseday. The rancher told us that if we turned left when coming into town, versus turning right to continue on our route, there’s a small store. We followed his advice and a quarter-mile down we rolled up to the Casseday Country Store. We walked into the part store, part restaurant, and grabbed a Gatorade, water and chips. Kim went to use the bathroom and I stepped outside by our bikes.

As I was opening the Gatorade and young lady, wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a ballcap, was walking to the store from her parked pickup truck, and smiled and started up a conversation. Shelly was a cattle rancher from the area and knew everyone’s name that walked in or out of the store. We asked about of ride and told us about her cattle and goat ranching. She said most of her goat meat is shipped to the coasts. I had no idea that was a thing. Kim returned and we continued talking. Kim told her about lobular breast cancer and our fundraiser. Shelly shared that Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which accounts for 1-5% of all breast cancer, is very prevalent in her family and that when she was 16, she had her ovaries removed. We gave her our card so she could send a note or follow along. Shelly gave us her phone number and a card and said if we needed anything, anything, along the way to call her. I told her she was awesome and she said she wasn’t sure about that. She was genuine and took the 10-minutes to chat.

We pulled out of the store and headed south on Stoney Creek Road/Flinthills Road for 16 miles into the increasingly stronger headwind, and turned East after reaching the small community of Rosalia. Hwy 54 was a major thoroughfare with heavier traffic. The 2-lane highway had a shoulder a little wider than the width of our bike setup. The wind was coming from the south so it didn’t hamper our ride much. The rolling hills had some climbs, but we got to enjoy the downhills as well. Just outside of Eureka we came up on road construction that went the 3-miles through town. They were retarring the road so the narrow lanes were coned-off. We rode our lane through town and would pull over regularly to let the building traffic behind us pass by.

At the east end of town, we pulled into our overnight spot, the Blue Stem Lodge (motel). We checked in, rolled our bikes into our room and agreed we are no riding back into to town where we passed the grocery store and local restaurants. Oddly, there was a Pizza Hut across the street, so that’s what we settled on. We had lemonade, split a pizza and side salads.

Kim is checking the maps for the next couple overnights. We’re coming into the weekend again and that always makes things interesting.

The picture is of a heard of cows that eventually began running along the fence line with us.