july 31--the end of mike's journey

Mike, richard,and I started this morning as usual at 6:30. We ate breakfast down the road and despite a chilly morning and steady rain, we set out for christiansburg. We took a short break at 9:15 at max meadows and then set out again in our usual formation: mike leading, richard in the middle and me in the rear. It was still raining. Mike was about 400 yards ahead and around a curve when I heard a collision, metal on metal.
I moved up to get a view of what happened--a couple of cars blocked my sight--when I saw mike and his bike lying on the pavement. Mike was struggling to get to his feet and yelling at a young man, "what were you thinking?".
A sheriff's deputy drove up momentarily; the young man/driver (of a chevy blazer) was panicking; mike was bleeding from cuts on his upper body.
Mike's bike trailer was destroyed as the chevy pulled out of a side road and rolled over it and also destroyed the bike's rear wheel and derailleur. The little trailer probably saved mike from serious injury.
I went with mike in the ambulance to the wytheville hospital. They dressed and stitched his wounds then released him. He's very lucky.
When it became clear that we wouldn't be able to get his bike to a repair shop today--and as his post-trauma soreness increased--mike decided to end his journey (3800 miles) in southwest virginia. His wife is on her way here now from connecticut.
I will be sad tomorrow morning, especially, when richard and I set out in the dawn without mike.

july 29--virginia at last

41 mi from church hill, tn to bristol, va; 3126 logged miles. It was a short riding day but I'm happy with that because my left arm still hurts. Like yesterday I followed the holston river up the valley. I'm pleased also because I'll see, in a few minutes, mike and richard...we separated at berea three days ago when I was too injured to ride. They are riding into bristol from the west (kentucky) while I came up from the south (my sister's house).
This morning I was trying to negotiate a lower rate at a nicer motel (unsuccessfully) when I remarked to the manager "I'll bet you see all kinds of people stay in this place" to which he replied, "yeah, you're a first!".

july 28--clinch mountain

72 mi from halls crossroads,tn to church hill, tn; 3089 logged miles. I injured my left arm in berea on 7/25 and couldn't ride the next day and even yesterday. So, my wonderful sister drove the 130 miles from knoxville, picked up me and my gear and took me to her house where I spent the day recuperating and...playing bridge. She then got up this morning and drove me to a starting point where knoxville traffic wasn't a safety threat. Thank you, carol! So I restarted my journey today just outside knoxville.
I had pain in my arm while I rode today and I'm glad the ride is done. I'm riding up the great, long valley of the cumberland/appalachian mountains...I'll continue that direction for several hundred more miles until I reach front royal, va.
Hand written bulletin in a restaurant in blaine, tn: "found: two coon dogs that answer to 'poott' and 'butch'...will keep them until the owner comes to pick them up"
The kingsport, tn police chief stopped me outside rogersville, tn...as I was riding toward him I was frantically trying to figure out which law I had broken; surely I wasn't speeding. In fact he wanted me to tell him about bicycle touring. He plans to ride his 1985 model schwinn from memphis to kingsport. Do it, chief!
Tennessee and montana are in my mind tied for the designation of 'most beautiful state'.
30 more miles until I reach virginia.

july 25--abolition center in kentucky

37 mi from danville to berea, ky; over 3000 logged miles. Met katie,56, runs a recycling operation in paint lick (the indians painted the trees to mark a salt lick)...she started life poor and got a ged and college degree and seemed so alive.
Berea college started in 1855 as an abolitionist college dedicated to educating "mountain people" and I admire the school.
I was riding my bike, unloaded (and less familiar to me), around berea when I had a fall. I went to the ER, to rule out a fracture of my left arm, got registered as a patient, when multiple trauma patients from a motor vehicle accident came in, then a thunderstorm and a loss of power. I suggested to the nurse that I had just a sprain and would rather return to my motel. She smiled and told me to come back if my pain worsens. My friend mike is 35 miles behind with an infected carbuncle on his coxyx so I may wait for him while my arm heals.
Some older people on the route still talk in wonder about the summer of 1976 when a couple of thousand riders came through, the first time, on the route.

july 24--shortcuts and heading for appalachia

71 mi from hodgenville to danville, ky; 2975 logged miles. We were off route the entire day to avoid the wide arc that the prescribed route takes to the north...probably saved 40 miles by taking a more direct heading to berea. Kentuckians are the most friendly--and curious about what we're doing--of the people I've met on the trip. A number of times people have remarked wistfully about how they would like to do this journey.
Continued hot and muggy today, heat index 101.

July 23 – 62 mi from the Rough River to Hodgenville, KY. 2904 logged miles. Good ride but really hot. Great Southern lunch including cornbread and coconut pie at the Brooks General Store Café in Sonora, KY. We’re staying in a cabin next to Lincoln’s birthplace. We can’t see the log cabin where he was born because the modern building that encircles it is being refurbished with stimulus funds. I plan to go off route tomorrow to take a more direct route to Berea and get bike supplies at a shop in Danville

July 22 – 74 mi from Sebree to Falls of the Rough, KY. 2842 logged miles. Really muggy today, that made the ride strenuous for me. BTW, I bought a tie-dyed T-shirt in Elizabethtown, Illinois, and it’s ugly and one of my riding shirts. The pastor’s wife last night at Sebree said transcontinental cyclists are highly motivated “movers and shakers”, honest, harbingers of new attitudes. There’s a gathering at our motel of Louisville Moose members, curious about me and Richard; I’ve found that if I go off-route even a couple of blocks, the people are curious and friendly…on route, they’ve seen lots of cyclists. Tomorrow we enter the Eastern Time Zone and plan to stay at Nancy Lincoln’s birthplace. Will be 97 with high humidity.

(image of the mill at Falls of the Rough: millpictures.com)

july 21--kentucky

84 mi from golconda, ill to sebree, ky; total logged 2763. Cool day--mid 80s--and we decided to make some miles. Fun on the little ferry crossing the ohio. More amish. Monarch butterflies mating in front of the bike as I ride. We're staying in a hostel at a baptist church in sebree, really nice people. I'm feeling well even after a long day.

bicycle haiku 5

the answer my friend
is not blowing in the wind -
it's riding a bike
(jaberwock)

july 20--closing the bar

71 mi from carbondale to golconda, ill; 2683 total logged miles. Very hilly ride today, I wasn't expecting that. We're in golconda, pop. 700, a former ferry site on the ohio river--the cherokee trail of tears came through here in 1838. (A common theme I've encountered reading roadside markers throughout this journey in every state has been the suffering of native americans in the 19th century.) We had dinner at the local bar, which closes in two days...another phenomenon of the towns I've passed through is their economic decline.
I had my second flat today: my rear tire tube failed around the core. I'll need to find a walmart--the rare growth industry in small town usa--and buy another tire tube.
Tomorrow we plan to ride 28 miles east following the ohio and ferry across to kentucky.
I'm seeing no more cyclists headed west on the transam--the start season is over.

july 19--moving toward the ohio river

56 mi from chester to carbondale, ill: 2612 total logged miles. We climbed out of the mississippi floodplain and headed due east. I saw miles of corn and soybeans. Hot and muggy day. All three of us had work done on our bikes in carbondale; I added a kickstand and clipless pedals and had a general tuneup done. I stopped at a po and mailed home my sleeping bag. In the last two weeks I've sent home or discarded at least 15 pounds of stuff and, today for the first time I was able to maintain richard's and mike's pace. We enjoyed a good meal at a hunan restaurant in carbondale.
Tomorrow we turn south and will track the ohio river for a day and a half before we cross it on a ferry.

july 18--lewis and clark again

49 mi from farmington, mo to chester,ill; 2556 total miles logged. We awoke to dark clouds but left anyway...soom after, farmington's power went out and its tornado sirens activated. 25 miles down the road I got my first real soaking rainfall of the trip. Fairly strenuous ride to the mississippi floodplain. Met a couple of young english chemistry students while we were sheltering from the downpour.
Lewis and clark crossed the muddy mississippi at what is now chester in nov 1803...I thought I was finished with them. Chester is also the hometown of the creator of popeye and olive oyl and I've seen statues all over town. Two younger guys have joined our caravan...they sleep later than we do, then they catch up. The five of us are spending the night at the FOE (eagles) club...in a small building (called the "shack") big enough to hold nine sleeping berths hung from the walls. The best feature is the low-priced beer in the club.
Tomorrow we ride along the mississippi levees for a while and then turn east for carbondale.

july 17--out of the hill country

63 mi from ellington to farmington, mo; total miles logged 2507. Rode by a fascinating place, johnson's shut-ins SP, the site of some of the oldest rocks on the planet that form the core of the ozarks...they had reduced open hours and unfortunately we didn't get to see exhibits. We also skirted today the highest point in missouri (1700 ft) at taum sauk. Richard, mike, and I are staying at a wonderful hostel in farmington...we're riding together...they're stronger and faster than I but we agree on the day's destination and I get there.
Faermington's a charming town, attractive old homes, free of the scruffiness of the ozarks.
Today the humidity was lower and riding was easier. Tomorrow, illinois.

july 16--still slogging the ozarks

30 mi today eminence to ellington, month; 2444 logged miles. Couldn't get a 2nd night motel room in eminence so I rose early and rode; it wasn't so bad without the heat of the day and before the truck traffic got out. Pretty area--hardwood forests intersected by creeks and rivers bathed in blue humidity. Met a couple on their way to sf, recent grads of sacred heart college in ct, on their way to sf, late starters, I hope they don't bake in utah/nevada. Met a recent purdue grad in the laundromat who works for the month dept of conservation trapping and tagging reptiles, "getting paid for fun".

bicycle haiku 4

my schwinn has left me
for another bicycle
it'll never work
(taylor)

july 15--descent to eminence

46 mi from houston to eminence, mo; total logged miles 2416. The combination of steep ozarks hills, very hot and humid weather, and nasty logging and construction traffic make this part of the trip the hardest. At the end of today's ride I climbed the 500 foot hill out of alley springs to descend into eminence and that was exhausting. Richard talked to two young men coming from the east and they also were spent.
Eminence, on the jack's fork river, is an old-fashion resort town that specializes in guided rafting and canoeing.
I'll probably take a rest day here and wait for mike who is still a day behind me after recuperating two days in ft larned, ks.
I stopped at the eunice, mo, post office and mailed my bike cable, padlock, and a shirt ahead to bill and ann, another in a series of steps to lighten my load.
Right now there's thunder, lightning, and rain in eminence, month.

(image of eminence from http://michaelokeeffe.blogspot.com/)

july 14--"as bad as it gets around here"

71 mi from marshfield to houston, mo; total logged miles 2368. I started riding in the dark and by 8:30 it was really hot and muggy. A man at the cafe in hartville told me that the heat index for today (106 degrees) is as bad as it gets in the ozarks. Took a break after 50 miles in bendavis and a couple of local men told me they admired what I'm doing.
Five miles outside hartville I came upon a field full of violet-hued wildflowers, so gorgeous!
I'm tired and depleted, time to sleep.

july 13 -- ozarks roller coaster

58 mi difficult ride, total logged 2296, one steep hill after another, depresses the joy of downhill slaloms. Everton to marshfield, missourah drivers haven't risen to their evil reputation. Beautiful wildflowers (the entire trip) a silent pleasure of cycling...lots of cute farmhouses today. Hot and humid weather now, I'm out of bed at 4 am, on the road by 5, and riding later than noon is oppressive. Passed today by a group of virginians headed to their state, on a tight schedule, they seemed grim.
The key to getting thru the ozarks is to deal with each hill as it offers itself to me without thinking about miles traveled or schedule.

(image of ozarks from kiki.bikesacrossthe.us/category/missouri/)

bicycle haiku 3

rotten opossum
squashed snake, beloved family pet -
all lie still by road
(claire petersky)

summer bike ride slows
nature's beauty takes my gaze
- bright moon in your eyes
(marco)

july 12--starting the ozarks

Rode 66 mi today from pittsburg, ks to everton, missouri; total miles 2236. About 15 mi before everton the terrain abruptly became hilly and the angle is often steeper than with mountains in the weast...I guess the ozarks and appalachians are geologically older and more eroded.
Had breakfast and a piece of dutch blueberry pie at cooky's cafe in golden city. The waitress insisted I sign her "biker book"--she says she has a stack of three-ring binders collected over the last seven years with cyclists' stories and autographs.
I've been warned several times by westbound riders that missouri drivers don't like riders and take dangerous risks...
I'm staying the night at a hunting lodge that doubles as a bike hostel in the summer. The owner, a retired PR guy from illinois, says it took ten years before the locals at the gas station down the road to invite him to participate in their friday lunches--people here like their isolation (going back generations) and probably don't like it when wierd looking people on bicycles roll through town.
Richard the PE teacher showed up again--at the hunting lodge--and said he got sick back in chanute. I'm glad to see him.
I expect tomorrow to be a hard riding day.
(Image of Everton Mo from radek.com)

july 11--530 mi in kansas is plenty

65 mi chanute to pittsburg, ks, 2172 total travel. Weather finally registering on the oppressive meter. Missouri is a stone's throw. People here talk with a twang, not with that flat midwestern accent in the west of the state.

bicycle haiku 2

phone rings, girl punctured
ride to her aid, love my job!
she smiles, rides away
(the bikerescue man)

july 10--a day for mechanics

Traveled 68 mi from eureka to chanute ks, total travel 2106 mi. Bumped into richard, whom I first met in breckinridge, again in eureka--i can't keep up with him and felt better when he told me he is 55 and a phys ed teacher!
Seven miles outside eureka I came upon a woman walking her bike--her chain had broken. (Broken chains are the main mechanical problem touring riders face.) I have a chain tool but we couldn't repair her chain. We flagged a passing p/u truck and off they went to a bike shop somewhere in these parts.
Ten miles further I had my first flat (in 2100 miles). I leaned against a shaded bridge rail and fixed the flat and also put my spare tire on the rear because the used tire was wearing.
Met two young men, recent high school grads from massachusetts, riding from yorktown to sf. They had the same appealing combination of sweatiness and eagerness that I see in other young people on the transam.
Just west of chanute I saw an abandoned RV trailer factory--that event must've hit this town hard.
The weather has been sunny but not stifling hot and I've had a constant, mild headwind.

(image: downtown Chanute from tripadvisor.com)

july 9--newton to eureka ks

Rode 73 mi, total 2038. West of cassoday I saw two birds--they looked like hawks of some sort--doing a mating routine when, suddenly, one of them broke off to dive bomb me. This animal stayed just behind my helmet, screeching, and aseveral times dove to within inches of my helmet. After five minutes he left me alone--he may have been angry about the hundreds of roadkill birds I've seen on this trip.
I met in cassoday a 75 y-o man, retired wichita fire chief and he talked and talked, mostly about his grief over his parkinsons diagnosis and loss of his excellent health. We had a bbq lunch together then he rode (on his bike) with me the next 20 miles. I enjoyed him (named don foster). An hour later I met a 52 y-o man traveling on his bike from town to town looking for work...he told me he thinks "obama doesn't like this country".
I had dinner with a couple from san diego doing the cross country ride who can't agree when to get up each morning (she wants to sleep late).
I'm astonished, riding through these hollowed out kansas towns, to see the stately, turn-of-the-century architecture that remains in old bank buildings, churches, courthouses, and hotels. In the more prosperous parts of the country structures like those would have demolished long ago.

(image of Eureka, KS courtesy of bike4sudan.com)

july 8--a greener kansas

From hutchison ks to a county park 8 mi east of newton ks, 54.5 mi, total 1965 mi. Rode into a headwind all day. .ore humidity and green lushness, I've left behind the semiarid, ranching west kansas. Met a group of five 20-somethings in newton on their way to astoria...the young ones usually are more unkempt and frayed and have less piled on their bikes than older folks and I've noticed they're less judgmental about what they've experienced...more wide-eyed wonder about what they're doing.
I saw, east of hesston, a sunflower farm, a sea of blazing yellow! West of hesston I came upon a large turtle and watched him trudge across the road.
I'm in a campground that appears to be used for drug deals.
I hope the wind settles a bit before I arise in the morning and trudge on. I'm beyond half the distance to reston.

july 7--still following the arkansas...to salt city

75 mi today, larned to hutchinson ks, total 1910 mi. Went off route because I wanted to see hutchinson, which sits on a huge salt deposit and has the largest salt mines in the world...I also rode thru the quiviria wildlife preserve today, beautiful, and it too sits atop salt beds making it a major nesting spot fpr migrating gulf birds.
I'm staying the night in an old lutheran church that has converted its basement into a hostel for cyclists...I'll have the place to myself tonight.
Left mike in larned...the doctor prescribed vitamins a, c, and d and aselenium and a new saddle. He' spending rest days in larned so his bum can recuperate.
This morning ran into a father and four of his nine kids cycling to oregon...none of the kids looked like they were enjoying it.
The weather the last four days has been unseasonably cool and that has been marvelous.

bicyle haiku 1

downhill bicycling
forty, fifty miles per hour
should have fixed brakes
---jonathan neske (www.neske.biz)

july 6--fort larned

Rode 99 miles today, total 1836. Plesant weather! Met a couple mid-50s enjoying riding with each other across country, an assortment of young riders going to different destinations, and, most impressive (I've been hearing about him on the trail) a young man named jedediah who works with troubled teens in an outdoors program in NY and who is HIKING the transam trail--he's going to meet his sister in sisters, or, and she is hiking the pacific crest trail.
I'm sitting in the waiting room of the larned, ks, hospital while my friend mike is being examined--i think he's suffering from a severe case of that affliction that strikes cyclists, butt or crotch soreness. I'll know in a few minutes. I've been very caring of my body in that region, applying generous amounts of baby rash (zinc oxide) cream. Otherwise, I've had to cope only with sunburn so far.

july 5--following the arkansas river into the breadbasket

Rode 74 mi today, total 1734 from tribune ks to dighton ks. We've had a wonderful cold front the last three days and riding conditions have been good. Last night in tribune saw a major storm, several inches of rain but I was dry in my tent. Enjoyed a pleasant chinese buffet in scott city where I was treated to a brilliant talk on kansas politics and farming by an 80 y-o woman farmer.the kansans i've met are friendly. I'm staying tonight in a century-old hotel in dighton, a town which is home to a publication entitled Feed Lot Quarterly--this is definitely beef country but -kve noticed most cafes offer buffalo burgers.
I'm hoping tomorrow to ride 97 miles to Larned, a fort builtb in 1860 to enforce settler rights to the land around the arkansas river

july 4--ice cream fireworks and the wheat is too wet

60 mi today from eads co to tribune ks, strong headwind but the road was flat.I'm looking at a US map and...I"ve come a long way! (1667 total mi) mike and I are camped in the city park and got free use of the city pool.
This is wheat harvest time and the wheat trucks roar down the highway. We stopped and talked to elevator/silo operators and they won't accept product that has 12 percent or more moisture and the rainfall in recent weeks plus the cloudy mornings lately make the farmers anxious.
Lots of the restaurants and cafes listed on my bike map in these small towns are no longer in business--this happens often, another sign of what's happening in rural areas. Increasingly I rely on gas station food.

july 3--eads CO, grain trucks

I rode 114 miles today from pueblo to eads because there's not much in between.1600 mi total. I'm tired. I'm camped in the city park and just behind me is a weigh facility and silos and it's harvest time and trucks are constantlyb coming thru and creating swirls of dust. Across the way are several boomer cyclists studying their little acer computers and beyond them a group of sagged younger riders enjoying one another.over at the motel is another group of sagged cyclists, saggers are weenies! We're just a few miles from the site of the 1864 sand creek massacre of the comanches.
Into kansas tpmprrow.

july 2--bike central on the transamerica trail

53 miles today from canon city to pueblo CO, total 1485. The bike shop here in pueblo is located in a run down part of town just so it can be on the route to serve the bike needs of cyclists going in both directions because by this point in the journey most bikes need some tending. I had a new chain put on my trucker and bought a chain repair tool. I also mailed home my cool weather clothes--three pounds I won't need to pedal around.
Today I rode past the federal prison in florence where many who were once atguantanamo are now held--looked foreboding from the highway.
Pueblo is an industrial town...I rode thru it on the way to the motel. Nice neighborhoods, pretty city park right in the center, deteriorated downtown. It and lewiston IDare the largest towns I will pass through.
Saw a bison herd yesterday...majestic animals, they aren't cows, two of them, as I rode past, turned and faced me and snorted and scratched the ground with their hooves. I pedalled more urgently.
Tomorrpow into the bleak expanse of eastern CO--western kansas.

july 1--descent

100.3 miles today, total 1432.
Left breckenridge at 6:45 and climbed 2000 ft over 11 mi--i realized again what I had learned in china: my lungs and body will not function at peak over 10500 ft altitude. I walked the bike the final 1.5 mi to the hoosier pass summit. I descended 6500 ft over 90 mi but there were a number of minor climbs on the way down and the updraft headwinds were ferocious. Over 100 mi the scenery changed from high alpine forests and meadows to semiarid high desert fed by the arkansas river.the temp increased throughout the day from 40 to 95 fahrenheit--had to beg water twice. I'm in canon city CO--had a great meal at an italian place. I plan to ride tomorrow a half day to pueblo where I will get bike maintenance done and mail home my cool weather clothes. Today was my first century on a fully loaded bicycle.