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Wutheringbikes Home -- TransAm Bike Ride
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Tuesday 13th July 2004
Walnut City Park to the Carriage House Motel, Eureka. 88 miles, our longest
day so far. The landscape was pretty flat - not as flat as an ironing board
but there is very little up or down around this part of the states. Cycled
to Chanute, initially, where we went to the City Park to restock on water
since the day was already like an oven. From Chanute we headed into deepest
rurality, went past Toronto Lake (just before this there was an uphill -
a rare thing and quite unwelcome in the heat), which was very quiet (not
one jetski to be seen) and had a bit of a flake out in the woods by the
lake. Too hot to move for a short while. Then on through Toronto where it
looks like nothing has happened since the day they built the place. It was
very hot indeed and the lady who sold me a half gallon of orange juice in
Toronto (Kansas) said "it's a 100F out there, you know". It felt like it
was at least that. Continued plodding on through the quiet farmland to Eureka,
we'd found it. Because the City Park had no showers (the swimming pool having
closed before we arrived), we opted for the cheapest motel we could find,
which was the Carriage House Motel, which gave us a room, all included,
for 35 dollars (about the price of a Youth Hostel bed in England). The City
Park had two other bikers in - Jason and another man who said 'I don't need
to do centuries anymore' (a century is a 100 mile day). We agreed utterly
and indeed we never did a century. It would, we thought, be more a sign
of bad planning than rugged masculinity. We didn't see Jason again on the
transAm, so we don't know if he finished. We got knews about Mark and Wanda
from cyclists heading east, but never heard again about Jason. Hope he's
OK. The transAm is a bit like the internet - things, and people, can disappear
and never be found again (unless google has cached them). We bathed (there
was a bath) - which was important given how much dirt had stuck solidly
and be baked by the sun into place - and then tried "Coors Light" - which
I'm a bit ashamed to admit. If a real ale fan is reading this they'll be
horrified. Suffice to say, it was like slightly alcoholic lemonade, with
a slight hoppy taste. It was very cold, which was the best thing about it. |
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Wutheringbikes Home -- TransAm Bike Ride
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