July 3, 2001.
Scott City to Tribune, Kansas. (48 mi.) Mile 2145
Last
day in Kansas
What a difference the wind makes.
Today it was back in our favor. We passed about a half dozen eastbound
bicyclists today, all of them grumbling about their headwind. Usually we wish for
tailwinds for our fellow cyclists, but this is hard to do when those cyclists
are going in a direction opposite ours. We started early, had a good ride, and a low mileage day. Because of the spacing of services, we had a choice
between riding 48 miles or over 100. Our choice was easy, as the temperature
climbed into the 90s again by noon.
An early morning
start and a tailwind make for a pleasant ride.
(click
here for sound effect: Kansas state bird, the meadowlark)
The wheat harvest is
just wrapping up in western Kansas. We missed most of the heavy truck traffic
last week, but we are still passed often by big trucks and harvesters.
Truckers in Kansas usually gave us a whole lane of space when passing.
This
evening we are across the street from a major truck stop where we met truckers
from all over the U.S. involved in following the harvest across the country.
When I ordered a milkshake at the Burger Bar, I was told that the harvest crews
had wiped out their supply.
When we saw these
Wide Loads in our rearview mirrors, we rolled off the road and hit the ditch,
giving them space
to pass. Later, the drivers thanked us when they saw us at the truck stop.
They said many cyclists just "hang out there" in the way. Our tactic
was as much a survival maneuver as a courtesy.
Tribune (pop. 918) is
named for the New York Tribune. Horace Greeley, famous newspaper editor, was
supportive of the western farmer and rancher. Though Greeley never lived in
Tribune, the town decided to name itself in his honor. There is a small museum
in town dedicated to this history, which a number of townspeople tried to get us
to visit. We were more focused on the truck stop across the street from our
motel, however, since they had cold frosty drinks, a laundry, and a trucker's
lounge where I could work on this journal and connect to the Internet.
I knew Mike must have
been really hungry because he contemplated buying a pound of chicken gizzards as
featured on the truck stop menu. An eastbound cyclist had told us we would be
going through what he called "The Gizzard Belt", where chicken
gizzards suddenly started appearing on menus, then just as suddenly,
disappeared. We told him he could anticipate the house specialty would be
catfish burgers soon, as we had just come out of The Catfish Belt farther
east.
The Weather Channel said
we are in for even hotter weather and evening thunderstorms tomorrow. This is
our last night in Kansas, where we will remember the people as the most
extroverted and friendly. When we were looking forward to flat land for a
change, Kansas delivered. We are beginning to feel anticipation at seeing
mountains again, as we slowly gain elevation to the Great Plains, and then the
Rockies beyond..
