Week 6 - Only two states left to go!

"Carbondale, IL?! Boy, when Art came in for a check-up last May and told me about his upcoming bike trip, I didn't think he'd make it out of Milpitas!" So went the reaction of the venerable Dr. P. at the PAMF when I saw him this morning for health reasons of my own. "And you can tell him I said that," he added with a twinkle in his eye.

After six weeks of riding, many friends are stunned when they hear the news that Art and Ben are still on the road and that by now they've rolled through KS, MO, and IL. So far, they've had zero days of riding called on account of weather, which is kind of amazing, considering that through parts of KS they had to re-route their trip because local roads had been washed out during recent flooding. And in fact for their overnight stay in Chanute, KS, they slept on an air mattress in a room that was under renovation because all the regular motel rooms were "filled with FEMA guys."

Over the last two weeks, they've ridden 70 - 100 mile stretches each day, because as the local farmers like to say, "You might as well make hay while the sun shines!" Temperatures were in the high 90s with humidity close to 100%, but no precipitation and no headwinds. And it was flat as a pancake, until they hit the rolling hills of MO and then the tougher Ozarks where Ben felt that the climbing was even steeper than in the Rockies because the roads were not graded as gradually.

For you cartographers, the overnight stops through KS and MO into IL have been as follows:
Leoti, KS --> Bazine, KS --> Hutchinson, KS --> El Dorado, KS --> Chanute, KS --> Pittsburg, KS --> Springfield, MO --> Ben Davis, MO --> Houston, MO (day off) --> Ellington, MO --> Farmington, MO --> Carbondale, IL

Since there are too many cities to cover each in detail, I'll just highlight a few.

Bazine, KS (Sun, July 15)
Art and Ben overnighted at a bike bed and breakfast. Yes, that's right -- a B&B known to cater to transcontinental cyclists. That night, they were invited down a dirt road to a neighborhood veggie potluck. Their B&B hosts brought deviled eggs. This was lucky for Art, because once they hit KS, Cliff Bars and veggie chili disappeared from the local markets.

Hutchinson, KS (Mon, July 16)
The guys arrived late because they stopped in Great Bend, KS for lunch and to get a wheel trued. Between Bazine and Hutchinson, they rode past Hendricks B&B and Exotic Animal Farm in Knickerson, KS where they got a good look at some llamas and ostriches out on the KS plains. When they got into their motel room in Hutchinson at 7:30 p.m., Ben fell into his normal evening routine -- conking out on the bed for an hour or two or, in this case, three before Art could rouse him to take a shower and eat some dinner. In Hutchinson, Art was going to try to get some new tires because after 2000+ miles, he felt that his bike tires looked bald.

Ben Davis, MO (Sat, July 21)
They arrived in the dark after riding 72 miles from Springfield, MO which is where Art had his wheel rebuilt. See Art's own post, Hangin' out in Springfield, MO. They had hoped to make it to a motel in Houston, but it was just a bit too far. So they heard they could camp behind the town grocery store and indeed it was true because there they met another cyclist, Tim from Monterey.

Houston, MO (Sun, July 22)
Breakfast was at the Horse Creek Inn, a motel run by Ea (short for "Andrea") and Pony (who is probably part Native American). Having ridden only 17 miles from Ben Davis, they arrived at 9:30 a.m. just as Ea was putting out freshly baked zucchini bread and making a pot of coffee from freshly ground beans. It was about time for a rest day, so Art and Ben decided to spend the night at the inn.

During the day, they went down to the swimming hole with Pony where Art donned a snorkle and mask to see a big flat back turtle swimming in the murky waters below. Art finished his copy of the Economist, which he had picked up back in CA. They did their laundry and hung it out on the line to dry. That night, they dined on salad greens with tomatoes fresh from the garden, and Pony sauteed some tomatoes with red onions, garlic, and basil to form a pasta sauce. Art threw in some tofu that he'd found at the local Walmart, and Ben ate a roast beef sandwich and broccoli with Ranch dressing that he'd also bought at Walmart. Art never did buy new tires in Hutchinson, but later he discovered a slit in one tire probably from rolling over some broken glass near Springfield, so he fixed that with Super Glue from Walmart.

Carbondale, IL (Weds, July 25)
After Houston, they hit the Ozarks. They rode 72 miles to Ellington on Monday, and 61 miles to Farmington on Tuesday. Carbondale is the home of Southern Illinois University. Mercifully, the weather was in the 80s and not too humid. It looked like they would have clear weather to cross the rest of IL, but there would be a lot of hills. And finally, good, organic, expensive produce was starting to appear in the markets again.