Day 12 - Strong City, KS

For the first 40 miles today I was hitting head winds and it was pretty exhausting. I stopped off in Counsil Grove and did laundry and got food. By the time I left around 5 the winds had shifted and were now blowing south and my next 20 miles were going south. The sun was also behind the clouds, the temperature was down to 90 and the land was either flat or downhill so I did those 20 miles in less than an hour. That was probably the most fun I had riding this trip. For a few miles I was giong 35mph and on the flat roads I was averaging 18mph. I got to Strong City and there were storm clouds overhead so I got a hotel for the first time and it is feeling good to relax and get a shower. My back tire is going flat again, I think I pumped it up too much. I am now out of extra tubes and need to find a bike shop to pick up a few extra in case I pop it again. There should be one in Hutchison but I hope there's nothing wrong with the tire and I make it there.

Day 11 - June 26 - Harveyville, KS

I didn't leave until 10:30 so I was already behind for the day. I needed the sleep though and my leg was feeling a lot better. To keep from backtracking 6 miles, I took back roads for 19 miles, going south and west until I hit a highway. I stopped for a few towns for lunch and dinner then kept riding. I missed a turn near the end of the day and ended up in a small town far away from another town so I asked someone if I could camp in their yard. I set up camp and just relaxed. I'm starting to feel comfortable out here, and more comfortable sleeping in a tent.

Day 10 - June 25 - Clinton Lake, KS

I rode from Atchison to Lawrence. It was a fairly normal day, hot as always. I had a few close calls on the road. Drivers keps getting too close to me and blowing me off the road and one time when I tried to get back on I slipped into the road and almost got hit. At least the car behind that semi got over into the other lane. Lawrence is a pretty cool town, a liberal college town. I was really tired and wanted to get to sleep so I headed to Clinton lake which someone told me was 4 miles away and ended up being about 10. I really didn't have the energy to get there and there were a lot of hills. I finally made it to the park and right before the entrance I got a flat tire. I knew it was going to happen at the worst time, I was already drenched in sweat from riding close to 70 miles and had to dig through my gear for the tools to change the tube. Finally, I got to my campsite, set up and took a shower. I slept for 10 hours which was much needed, my left calf was killing me all day.

Day 9 - Atchison, KS

It's been a crazy few days. So much has happened since I updated yesterday, it seems like a few days have passed to me. After updating in Cameron yesterday, I went out to buy food and head to Wallace state park to camp for the night. On the way there, instead of going to the park, I just turned and started heading towards Kansas. It had cooled down to 100 degree heat index and I had a lot of rest and wanted to do more riding. It was about 6pm so the sun was starting to go down. I was going straight west on highway 36 to St. Joseph so the sun was right in my eyes but I had a wide shoulder. About 8 miles down the shoulder narrowed and since the sun was right in drivers' eyes and I didn't want to get run over by a semi, I pulled over a few miles later and asked a couple at a farm if I could sleep out there. They ended up being really cool and we just sat and chilled for a few hours and they made me food. There ended up being an amazing sunset, accompanied by some fast moving storm and low flying storm clouds that brought with them some much needed cold wind. I got some good pictures and had the best nights sleep yet camping out. I woke up once in the middle of the night because something was brushing up against my tent and I thought it was a possum or something so I went out to scare it off and it ended up being a kitten. I am a monster. Also, my tent was covered in about 50 snails when I woke up which was weird.

Anyways, I left this morning around 7:30am thinking I was going to stay in a hotel in St. Joseph for the day and rest up. I got to St. Joseph and didn't feel like resting, I wanted to keep going so I went on through to Kansas. It was fairly low temperature compared to the previous days and the land was starting to flatten out so I was making good time and feeling good. 35 miles later I hit highway 7 which is the glacier hills scenic route. I figured I'd check that out and ended up heading to Atchison. For Kansas there were some big hills. I rode about 20 miles down that highway and once I got closer to Atchison the hills just kept getting longer and steeper so I pulled in to the tourism center to see where the cheapest hotel was in town. As I was pulling in, a lady was asking about my trip and said I could just stay in her guest room. I though she seemed cool enough so I biked to her house, which ended up being this huge mansion overlooking the Missouri river. This was especially good timing because it stormed just a few hours later. The past few days were especially cool. Tomorrow I can leave with clean clothes and everything fully charged and start heading south through Kansas.

Day 8 - Cameron, MO

Yesterday ended up being pretty cool. I went to the city pool for a few hours, then went to set up camp in Crowder state park. It was the coolest night I've camped in so far, around 84 degrees, and somewhat low humidity. Also, no rain, huzzah. I slept pretty well despite some one's kind words, "Now I don't wanna scare ya, but there's rattle snakes out there." The only animal I even saw out there was a squirrel and he looked relatively harmless.

They had really nice showers there too but I left my camp soap in the shower and someone stole it. I was a little upset at first but I figure if I got one of the other Missouri campers to use soap, I did a community service.

I left really early today, around 7 am and it was a really nice ride for the first 24 miles to Gallatin. It was around 80-90 the way with a decent breeze. After that it got hot as usual and it has made for another hellish day. The heat index was about 115 which made the next half of the trip a lot slower and more difficult. Right now I'm in Cameron and have ridden 48 miles so far and currently can't decide what I'm going to do today. If I can find a cheap hotel I'll stay there for the night, if not I'll camp in Wallace and stay in a hotel in St. Joseph tomorrow.

Also, this picture sums up Missouri, church and fireworks, and it's across from a prison which just made it awesome.

Day 7 - Crowder SP, MO

I rode 30 miles so far from Milan to Trenton. I really need to take a break but since I arrived in town around 2pm today I should be ready to go by tomorrow. If not, I'll just camp another night. I'm pretty much on track, I'm just not fully adjusted to the long trips in the heat. The first twently miles I felt dead, but the last 10 I was feeling better but I'm going to quit for the day anyways. I've been at a McDonalds cooling off and browsing the internet for the last few hours. People have been very nice on the trip so far. I've had to stop at a few houses to get water and stop people to ask for directions and people have been nice so far. I hope to be in Kansas within 2 days but we'll see how the roads are. Kansas should be a lot flatter, but there's also a lot less towns and parks.

Day 6 - June 21 - Milan, MO

Today was another hilly day. Maybe the fact that the park I just left that was named "Thousand Hills" should have tipped me off. I had to take several breaks and at the end of the day was really tired. I ended up camping outside of Milan in some one's backyard. I wasn't paying attention to where I put my tent and I ended up sleeping under a street light that went off and on all night. There was also some sort of animal trying to burrow up under my tent where my head was. It took me a while to get to sleep and after I did get to sleep I was awoken by thunderstorms at 4:30 in the morning.

I was able to charge my cellphone and iPod earlier in the day in a park in a small town. Finding outlets is like a treasure hunt.

Day 5 - June 20 - Thousand Hills SP, MO

I left Quincy around 9:30 a.m. and after 8 hours of riding time I made it to Thousand Hills park outside of Kirksville. It was an 86 mile trip and I got caught in a storm for the last 10 miles. I got soaked but everything I had packed stayed dry. The rain let up enough for me to set up camp and get everything in my tent before it started up again. The land was fairly flat the entire way which made it easy to get there in one day. I was hoping to make it to a wifi spot in Kirksville, but the one I had mapped out did not have wifi and it was late and I was too tired to find another one.

Day 4 - Quincy, IL

Right now I'm in Quincy taking a break. I've planned a 75 miles ride tomorrow and want to rest up and let my sunburns heal. This also gives me a chance to organize all of my packs. When I left, I just threw everything together and left. There's a few things I can leave behind here as well.

Day 3 - June 18 - Quincy, IL

Hills hills hills... I rode 30.3 miles to Quincy today. There were hills nonstop the entire way. Normally, I would take regular breaks, but since I was going to visit my brother in Quincy I was just riding straight through. That was not a good idea, nor was I on a good route. I only rode this way as a trial run so if anything went wrong I was near someone I knew. I left camp at 9:30am and got to Quincy by 1pm. I was so tired that I had to stop and take a break just 12 blocks from my brother's house.

It ended up working out as a learning experience, but it was a bad day. There were no towns along the way, just hills. It was also up around 100 today as well, and just as humid because it rained the night before. Once again, I feel better about doing this trip as a result, 30 straight miles of hills in under 3 hours is pretty good, and all I really need to complete this trip in time is 40 miles a day.

The next stretch of my trip will be flat and have towns along the way where I can fill up on water.

Day 2 - June 17 - Siloam Springs, IL

This was a good learning day for me. I rode 57.3 miles in 4h50m of riding which is a little better than I was expecting. I was not planning for the hot weather. The weather had been nice the last month and I forgot to bring sunscreen. From what my temperature gauge said, it was 104 degrees around noon. I don't know if it was that hot, but it was at least 95 and the sun was killing me. My arms and legs got horribly burned but I made it to the campsite in Siloam Springs by 4pm. I can probably pace myself better, I didn't really know what to expect though.

On the way, I passed through a lot of small towns which was nice. I stopped off at a farmer's market in Plymouth and talked to a few people. Someone from the local newspaper stopped by and interviewed me for a story. It didn't seem like a very interesting story to me seeing as I was only 20 miles outside of my starting point of Macomb, but it's nice that people take interest.

In all of planning, the most important thing I forgot to pack was food. It was fine that I didn't have any at the time because I picked up food along the way, I just need to make room so I can carry food in the future.

It was a very stressful day and when I got to camp, it finally hit me... what the fuck am I doing? I have been planning this trip for a long time and I know I want to do it, but from the physical stress, I wasn't or couldn't think rationally. My brother came from Quincy to visit and bring me sunscreen and I felt better about doing this. I figure if I can ride that far on my second day in 100 degree humid weather with no sunscreen and then a thunderstorm at night, I think I'll be alright for the rest of the trip.

Day 1 - June 16 - Lake Argyle, IL

I set off from my house in Macomb later than expected. I had trouble packing and kept forgetting things. I ended up leaving around 8:30 pm heading to Argyle Lake. I ended up riding in the dark through the park which sucks when I already had trouble seeing because my glasses were fogging up from the humidity. The trip was only 10 miles and I was meeting a few friends who already had a campsite so it was ok I left late, but I don't want to ride in the dark after that.

It was a good way to start the trip, with friends in a place close to home.