I felt a wave of homesickness last night. After dropping a few tears onto my camp pillow, I eventually drifted into a peaceful slumber on the gymnasium floor of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church. I'm in Boulder, Colorado right now.
I'm going to post a series of pictures soon, but for now I can only describe to you the scenery.
Since I'm a bit behind, I'll start with Kansas. Have you ever been before?
The most remarkable aspect of our journey through Kansas was the smell. The odor was an amalgam of stale livestock urine, fresh manure, and red Tabasco sauce. A few of us gagged as we passed our first animal feedlot, but we acclimated quickly. In the mornings, the dampness of the air would worsen the smell. My teammate Julio joked, "We should bike through Kansas in one day; we've got no business here." It turns out that he was right; we were all eager to leave. It took us three days.
The land was flat, the winds were cruel, the gnats bit, and most of the drivers were impatient with cyclists. The prettiest parts were the golden fields of wheat. The wind moved the grains--blond hairs swaying in a harsh breeze.
Here's a funny picture of us near the Kansas sign. We're strangely spaced, because only two of our riders were bold enough to stand near the sign, which was surrounded by brown mud and stagnant water.
Here's a post about my hardest day in Kansas. It's from the Texas 4000 website.
*****
June 19, 2008
Yesterday was by far our hardest day. We biked 108 miles from Dodge City, Kansas to Syracuse, Kansas. We battled challenging and dangerous winds for the entire journey.
The first 20 miles were quite pleasant, but during the second we had too much on our minds to enjoy the sunny day: a narrow shoulder about five feet wide, 20+ mph cross winds, and freight trucks jerking our bodies and bikes as they passed us by at 70 miles an hour. For the next 20 miles, we fought against strong headwinds, and I could only pedal at half my normal speed. My slowest pace might have been 8 mph.
The last 40 miles were just as hard, because we had to travel across rolling hills under the dry Kansas heat. It was only about 90 degrees outside, but it felt about 10 degrees hotter, because of the steaming asphalt.
There were so many moments that made me want to quit, and there were times that I wanted to cry. My lower back was hurting from fighting the opposing wind; my right knee was hurting at the halfway point; my thighs were burning. But, we all continued to pedal.
We all could have opted for the support vehicles to pick us up, but we didn't. I don't know what my teammates were thinking about, or what thoughts carried them through the day, but I do know that thoughts of home and of the community of cancer fighters that pray and hope for our safe travel made it possible for me to keep going despite all the pain and doubt.
That day was my hardest test, and after passing it, I'm ready for Colorado!
*****
In Syracuse we were going to stay in an RV park, but an ensuing lightning storm made it too dangerous to camp. We instead stayed in a high school gym, which still reeked of Kansas-cattle. The school didn't have showers. Since our bodies were covered in grit and grime, we became desperate pretty quickly.
18 of us ended up bathing in the RV park using a single garden house with freezing cold water and one bottle of Dr. Bronner's organic soap--in the middle of a lightning storm. My friend Peter took some pictures, which I'll have to post soon.
Our arrival in Colorado was welcomed by pleasant weather. And, even though our first stop, Las Animas, looked a lot like Kansas, the mere aspect of being closer to the Rockies made the unchanging scenery seem more brilliant and beautiful.
