Today’s Date: June 30, 2024

Today’s Start Point: Newton, Kansas

Today’s End Point: Eureka, Kansas

Today’s Miles: 73.19 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 2,608.95 Miles

According to the weather forecast when I woke up, there was an 80% chance of rain starting at 7:00 am, with thunderstorms throughout the day. It looked like it would be a wet ride. However, the prognosticators were wrong, I didn’t see any rain all day.

Today’s route was 73 miles, starting out with 30 miles east into the wind, 17 miles south with a cross/tailwind, and then 20 miles east into the headwind again. There was no services throughout the 73 miles-no gas, convenience stores, restaurants. Whatever I needed to eat or drink, I packed with me.

The sky looked threatening all morning, with dark skies to the north and south of me. Thanks to the storm front, the high for today was only going to be 77 degrees, a welcome respite from the last few days. As with most early mornings, the wind was under 10 mph, so the going was relatively smooth.

This part of Kansas is either corn or cows. If the theorists are right and cows are a possible cause of global warming, we are in trouble. They are everywhere throughout my trip.

As I rode away from Newton, I started to enter the Flint Hills. Throughout the day, there was not much flat, just a series of ups and downs. If I didn’t have any wind, this would have been fun, but as the day progressed, the wind picked up steam and I found myself having to pedal on the downhill sections.

While I was on the initial section going east, an animal that I think was a bobcat ran swiftly across the road. It was definitely feline, but about the size of a dog. I am not sure what it was, but I am going with bobcat.

I eventually went south and for the first time in what seems like days, I was not fighting a headwind. My pace was rapid and the undulating road became more fun. I was almost disappointed when it was time to turn east again back into the wind.

By now, the wind speed had increased to over 15 mph. The road east was a two lane highway with a speed limit between 65 and 70 mph (and by the looks of things the limit was purely advisory). For the first few miles the shoulder was designed by my favorite government worker that decided to put the rumble strip right in the center of the shoulder. Even though it was a Sunday afternoon, the drivers seemed to be more impatient than usual and I was getting honks and hand gestures (you know what I mean). The scariest part is when a car coming in the opposite direction would pull out into my lane to pass someone. All of a sudden I would look up and see a vehicle coming at me, not a nice feeling. Between a car and me, I would move onto the rumble strip in order to fight (and eat, sleep, exist, etc) another day.

During this section, I stopped briefly to talk to another bike traveler going in the opposite direction. We jointly commiserated about the traffic, and he said he was not feeling the love from Kansas drivers. He was thankful for his tailwind (I almost cried when he said that), and had only started his day’s ride at noon. Even though we were off the road, we parted ways after having various pickup trucks honk at us.

Just as I left him, I was shocked to find I had a long descent into my final destination of Eureka. I couldn’t take full advantage of the descent because of the wind, but it almost equaled out the effort so that I could make better progress.

I arrived in Eureka at about 2:00 pm, still not experiencing any of the rain forecasted. I settled in and was happy to see that the Pizza Hut across the street delivered (yes, I am that lazy). The temperature for tomorrow is predicted to return back into the low 90s, but hopefully an early start will again minimize the damage.