The Long Way Around

We're getting ready to head out.

The weather is brisk. It's in the 40s, which is actually warmer than the morning a few days ago.

I went to sleep at the equivalent of 9:30 last night an woke up at 4:30 (5:30 local). Early, dude.

My tolledance for morning is increasing. I so miss going to the gym. We're all starting to get into patterns in the morning. Tweaking, wrenching, checking, etc.

This will be the second full day with my new plug cap. Gotta keep on keepin' on.

After fetching gas, the Skipper decided to not turn over. Lame.

Rolf is on it, hopefully it'll turn over soon.

Apparently, there are 'tall giraffes' at Garden City, where we are staying. There are also some 600 hotel rooms and over 60 (61?) restaurants.

Hot.

This is the most city-like place we've been in this trip thusfar.

Side note - Rich's fuel pump is apparently shot. I have heard they're gonna cannibalize Joel's bike further, then buy a new one in Wichitaw. Or however that's spelled.

Btw a post is going to come in out of sync. I sent a picture and post that hasn't reared it's ugly head yet

Pulled in to Kansas some 20 minutes ago. Waiting or my roommate to show up.

I am shocked at how much corn the rest of Colorado had. Once you get out of the mountains, it's just wide open corn.

Good times.

In that sense, Colorado does mirror California, in the western half being the more scenic and the eastern half being agricultural.

My bike is nasty as hell. Covered in bugs.

The grossest part of this is that right now, here in Kansas, flies are eating the other dead bugs (which undoubtably includes other flies). Gross. Fly cannibalism.

On that note, for Colorado and Kansas, I literally had so many dead bugs on my face shield I can barely see through it. Morbid.

Would not be surprised if this post comes in first, but ultimately, this is what I try to look through every day. This has been cleaned several times, including this morning.

One of the checkpoints.

Everyone got lost on this one.

The road everyone's GPS said to take did not exist. It had been changed since the maps were loaded. That's what we get.

We ended up following crazy signs through corn fields into the middle of nowhere. Without my GPS I probably would have died out there, lost, after eating lots of corn.

Though I'm not sure it was actually food corn. There are different kinds. I did not know his till Rich told me.

Ethanol corn, food corn, and some other corn I don't give a crap about.

Sometimes it's logging serious hours just sitting there trying to ride in a reasonably straight line.

And that was today. Gone were the majestic sweeping mountain roads of Colorado, replaced by the endless corn fields of both Colorado and Kansas. Highway 50, as a direct route, truly does become the loneliest highway. It becomes a blur of slow, short hills and alternating passing / no passing lanes. Its flat, and there are no real turns save switching from one highway to another.

Imagine a map of Kansas. Now take that map and lay it on the table. Now you also happen to have a reasonably accurate topographical map as well. Sigh.

The checkpoint towns were near or quaint. The rest was almost actually throw-away and could have been ignored completely. I spent more time frantically checking my mirrors for troopers than concentrating on the difficulty of the road.

Oh well. Tomorrow will actually be more of the same.

Nonetheless, not all of the country can be majestic and serene. Some of it has to be hum-drum. We're just at that point now.

Dropped from 3rd to 5th. Almost everyone ahead of me has extended range fuel cells. That's my fatal flaw, were I actually gunning for #1. Pulling over to get gas or to pee or whatever.

Oh well. The competition aspect of it is more for the fun surrounding it than seriousness. It will be nice if I place somewhere decent, but not necessary.

Mostly still caught in awe and wonderment about the variation of lifestyles in the US, even wihin the same few hundred miles. Can't stop focusing on that.