Date: 2007-05-10
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Miles today: 0.0

5-8-07Dighton, Ks96 miles today1939 miles totalToday started early since the restaurant opened at 5:30am and we wanted to eat and be on the road by 6:30am.We walked to the restaurant and got there just ahead of the crowd. There was National Guard there that were heading to Greensburg, Ks to help with the clean up of what once was a town before the tornado hit it.I forgot to mention two things in yesterday's journal. 1- The Best Western was full when we got to town. We never even thought about the relief effort going on. They called and found us a room in another motel.The second thing was when we were riding yesterday, we came across an area where the tornado went through, but it was a rural area. Power poles were snapped off and laying in fields for almost a mile.We left after breakfast this morning. It was still just dark enough at 6:30 that we turned on our tail lights for about half an hour.It was also very nice out with temps in the upper 40's.This area was a part of the Santa Fe Trail. We passed by the historical Ft Larned about 6 miles west of town.We headed towards Rush Center and I saw two bikes coming at us. We stopped and talked to the second and third bicycle tourers that we've seen on this trip. Their names were Beverly and Cathy and they had started in Pueblo, Co a few days ago and were heading to Yorktown, Va.We talked for about 20 minutes and got some info on some motels coming up.I got their picture and we headed on to Rush Center, where we stopped and had a soda and talked to some locals at the store.We headed west and rode through Alexander. That's another small town that had services listed on our maps, but they were closed down.From there we headed into Ness City and found a small restaurant to have lunch in.Not a lot happened today...we just rode and covered more miles than we've ever done yet. Our biggest mileage day before was 75.99 miles and today we blew that away with a 96.44 mile day. The only reason we stopped and didn't do a century today was because we got to the motel. :-))There's not a lot of choices out here, so we are taking advantage of the services when we can get them.We were both tired, but could have easily rode for another hour or two.The terrain is also all uphill for west bounders in this area. It starts on a slight up at Alexander which is below 2000 feet high and we gradually gain all day long. When we get to Pueblo, we will be at 4700 feet high.We had some wind in our faces again today, but it was only about 10mph.We were originally going to stay in Ness City, but it was so early that we decided to ride another 32 miles to Dighton.It's still green out here, but you can tell this is starting to get more arid.We got our room at Shay's and found food at B&B's Bar and Grill.I had two hamburgers for lunch, so I wasn't real hungry. I settled on 12 buffalo wings and a couple of cokes. :-))Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail. :-))5-9-07Eads, Co128.01 miles today (our 1st century!)2,067 miles totalWe did our first 100+ mile day and we crossed into Colorado today!!We got an early start and were at B&B for breakfast before it was light out. I had a good breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, toast and more coffee. (I made a pot of Starbuck's in the room before we left)We got to Scott City in about 23 miles and I had an early morning hotdog and a coke at about 9am. :-))When we headed out of Scott City, we were riding by some huge feed lots....thousands and thousands of cattle being fattened up for market.Just when I thought I had Mrs Gorp acting like a normal person and shopping at Wal-Mart, now she swears she's going to be a vegetarian after seeing and smelling those cattle.When we got to Leoti, I picked up my camera chip at the PO that Chief sent back to me, then we went to a deli and I had a BEEF sandwich while Mrs Gorp had a piece of bread with lettuce and cheese. I wonder if she knows where cheese comes from. Ha!! ;-))We headed on another 20+ miles and got to Tribune where we planned on spending the night. We went to the small truck stop first and I had a couple Gatorades. We were sitting there trying to decide what to do. We had already gone 71 miles and the next services were 58 miles away...58 miles and nothing but land.Mrs Gorp said she would love to do her first century ride, but didn't think her body would stand another 58 miles.I told her about the winds and how after we fought them all morning, they were now at our backs...and it was only another 58 miles to the next town. :-))I told her that if we got the motel room now, I could get in my bed and watch the Weather Channel all afternoon, or we could try for our first century.We headed out of the driveway and headed west. :-))I saw 3 mule deer, one with small antlers starting to form, 1 coyote, 2 pheasant, a baby hare, a bunch of hawks and 1,378,254 cows.We kept rolling and passed our record mileage of 96 that we set yesterday. We stopped to celebrate when we reached 100 miles. I gave Mrs Gorp a high five and then rode on. :-))We got to the Colorado border!! We took some pictures and left a good, smooth road in Kansas to a very rough road in Colorado.Mrs Gorp found a little shade by an abandoned cafe and layed down, flat on her back. She looked like....ummm, a million bucks. ;-))When she felt like she had layed in the shade long enough, we headed on.We got to Eads, Co and got a room...128.01 miles today!!...and I think we both could have kept on going for more miles if we needed to.I got cleaned up and we walked next door to the restaurant. I ordered BEEF. :-)) Mrs Gorp had six poor little shrimps that gave their lives to be her dinner....at least she's not eating any beef. Hummm.Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail. :-))5-10-07Fowler, Co.80 miles today2,147 miles totalWe crossed over into the mountain time zone yesterday and I guess I'm not smart enough to figure out if it will be light earlier or later. It didn't really matter though, because we planned on eating breakfast before we left, so we couldn't get started till after about 7am.I called Chief to tell him about the 94 mile day we did. He was sufficiently impressed and proceeded to use words like "Stumpy, you da man" and "That's the most impressive thing I've heard all year" and "Stumpy, you're my hero" and "Stumpy, you must really have strong legs to ride up those mountains all day long" and "You're such an athelete, Stumpy" and "When you're done with this ride, can I buy your saddle so I can hang it on the wall in my cabin??"Then I told Chief about the 128 miles we rode yesterday. Can you imagine what he said about that?? :-))We started riding west and for the second morning in a row, we had headwinds early, but they turned to tailwinds later in the day.I rode for about 20 miles this morning without my helmet on. I was just trying to tan my bald head and get rid of that "Voltron" look from when the sun shines through the air vents in the helmet and tans stripes on my head.I saw two riders heading towards us and we stopped to talk to Dana and Heather Arazi who has a website at www.bike4d.org riding to raise funds for deaf children. They started in California and are riding to Washington, DC. They were #4 & #5 long distance bike riders we've met on the road. Dana had problems with the spokes breaking on his Novara bike, but had new, stronger spokes installed and is now pulling a trailer instead of using panniers.We headed on and stopped at a small store in Haswell, Co for a drink. We headed on after sitting and talking for about 25 minutes.It's very desolate out here. We were riding along and I was scanning the horizon for animals and spotted 3 antelope. There are also lots and lots of prairie dogs out here and there were plenty standing on top of their mounds watching us ride by.I had gotten ahead of Mrs Gorp by about half a mile when I saw two more bike riders coming at me. I stopped and talked to Bob and Christina. They started in California and were heading to Stonington, Connecticut.I told them about John Galt and Dr Dolittle, a couple hiking buddies of mine from that area.They were #6 & #7. Out of all 7 of the riders we've seen so far, none of them started in Oregon. I guess it's still too early for those riders to get over the mountain passes.We headed on after getting pictures and I spotted a couple more antelope.When we pulled into Sugar City, Co, we saw a small restaurant on the corner. I was hungry, so we walked into this adobe looking building and were surprised to find some good Mexican food. I had a smothered burrito and 2 tacos.We were only going another 5 miles to Ordway for the night, but when we got there, we couldn't find the motel. We really didn"t look too hard. :-))I told Mrs Gorp that since we had tailwinds, we could go on to Fowler and be 18 miles closer to Pueblo...our destination for tomorrow. She said OK and we headed on. We made about 16mph and got to a nice motel in just over an hour.Mrs Gorp saw a laundry on the way in, so she was a very happy bicycle rider. I've never seen anyone that likes a laundromat as much as she does.I just act like it really doesn't matter to me whether my clothes get washed or not and she does them every time. :-))We were riding on a slight incline all day again and could see the Rockies in front of us. There's lot's of snow on the mountains we could see. We found out the really big mountain to the northwest was Pike's Peak. We'll be in those mountains in a couple days.Another great day on the Trans Am Bicycle Trail. :-))