Friday, July 3, 2009

The Great Milkshake Debacle of 2009

It was actually cold this morning. Weird. And damp. We said a few words to the Londoners and hit the road. The arm warmers finally came out of the dark crevices of the panniers. For Jordan, anyway. I should have followed his lead but instead took the group out too fast on the first few miles because I was trying to warm up. Next time. We began the day with a 38 mile stretch of no services. Just farmland, and power poles, and fence, and a stand of trees here and there, cars passing by occasionally. It's a good warm up for the 75 to 85 miles we'll go without any stores or commerce out in the desert states.

We did about twenty miles and had a break on a bridge over a small river. Clif bars, oranges, bananas, and the like. We've been seeing a lot of touring cyclists lately. Kansas seems to be the place where those who started on the east and those who started on the west come to meet. We saw few at the start of the tour and it'll probably peter out again at the end. Before, we'd stop and chat but now there's enough where we just wave and shout a few words at reduced speed. I believe we saw eight today. We got into Newton around mile forty and were feeling fine. The place has near twenty thousand people so it qualifies as one of the biggest towns we've ridden through. They had a full service grocery store called Dillon's. I got acquainted with the salad bar. Every kind of Clif Bar. All kinds of organics. A jumbo produce and bakery section with La Brea stuff. Cool.

Then it was another eleven miles to Hesston where Jeremy visited the post office to pick up his wheel. They had some strange lunch hours so we went over to the library to kill some time. When business resumed, Jeremy picked up the wheel and transferred his tube and tire over, made a few brake adjustments, and was good to go. He also shipped his previous wheel back home. We slipped a few empty fuel canisters in on the sly. Although I suppose that might be less objectionable than when we shipped all of our full fuel canisters inside the bike boxes. Hey, we're in the sticks out here.

A final nineteen miles on the new wheel and we arrived in Buhler. The town is really nice, around 1500 people. All of the stores are open and well kept – they even had a coffee shop but it closes fairly early in the afternoons. We also visited the pool. It felt amazing to get in the water and there was a high dive as well. When we began stopping at pools in the Midwest, the attraction actually was the water. At each pool we go to, less and less time is spent on the aquatic recreation in favor of ogling the various female lifeguards. The pools have been an oasis from the heat but also from the frightening lack of attractive women. If we could trade a hundred slumping old barns for one lifeguard, morale would go through the roof.

Then it was the milk shake debacle of 2009. For whatever reason, the dairy connoisseurs among the group have been craving milk shakes for the last few nights. We got some at Sonic but it just wasn't the same as the down-home, stirred-in-the-metal-cups variety. We went to Joey's diner in town after the pool. The place was understaffed so we had a look at the menu and waited ten or fifteen minutes to come up to the counter and give our order. At which point, we were told they were out of ice cream. Soul crushing. Earth shattering. We thought we could just get some regular ice cream at the grocery store across the street but it had closed while we were waiting to order. It may seem trivial, but when you've been dreaming of something for so long and then... it was comparable to torrential rain storms.

We slumped back to the park and felt slightly better because the showers at the pool had fine water pressure. Then we bitched to each other a bit more before talking to a gentleman who was an accomplished tourist himself. I guess he lives in town but he had done RAGBRAI five times, and ridden through Yellowstone in 31 degree weather in June, and all kinds of other loops and connections and solo jaunts. We traded some stories and then conked out.


Getting flatter now.

First food break.

Same place.

The man has a new wheel.

It's farm country.

7 comments:

  1. glad to hear your enjoying the pools, brie and I have been teaching all sorts of children to swim while you guys have been gone.

    what are you guys doing for the fourth? i hope you can find some good fireworks. and guess what also starts on the fourth? the tour! dad's getting excited already. you guys will have to start getting newspapers or something to stay updated with the race.

    have a good weekend guys! not that you have any concept of days anymore

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  2. Hi guys,

    California has ice cream and milk shakes as well as an ocean.

    We'll be sure to have lots of ice cream for you when you get home.

    Take care. Ride safely.

    Cheri (aka Mike's Mom)

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  3. The Old Guy:

    No ice cream! That's un-American!

    Enjoy the cold while you can. It will soon be a distant memory.

    Tomorrow is the Scripp's Ranch Old Pros ride. TDF starts tomorrow. If they have no new in the boonies I'll let you know que pasa.

    Are you having fun yet?

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  4. Wanting and not getting a milkshake, hardly the great milkshake debacle of 2009! I do feel your pain, though. Keep up the pace? How many miles a day are you doing, total miles, average speed? Lets get some stats!

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  5. Hey guys!

    hope you all are enjoying yourseleves. Nice blog post mike, it's fun to follow along on your adventures. Hope you guys aren't giving the lifeguards too much trouble...

    i'm jealous of you vagabonds, enjoy the experience of living simple! you all are too cool for going this far, keep it up!

    brie

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  6. The Old Guy:

    Fabian Cancelera won the opening stage time trial of the Tour. He's still the fastest time trialist in the world. Contrador was #2. Armstrong was #10. Good showing by Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer.

    I did the Scripps Ranch Old Pro Ride. Left leg locked up going up Pomerado on the last hill. Painful, straight out leg lock. I had to walk up the hill and it looked like I had a peg leg. Leg locked solid, would not bend. An old guy like me stopped and said take a Tums. Said it was full of calcium and would help. He was right.

    Sorry about the head winds. Try to draft or ride in echelon formation and conserve energy. The real hills are coming in Colorado. And once you get past that, its baking inferno time. Are we having a good time yet? Remind me again why do we do this?

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  7. Hi Guys,

    Adam's mom told me about the blog and I've enjoyed following your adventures. Mike, you do an excellent job of capturing the events and emotions of the day and the "flavor" of the areas you're riding through.

    I'm in awe of what you guys have accomplished already. I'm praying that you guys will be blessed with many more acts of kindness (like unexpectadly having your meal paid for), as you make your way west.

    And yes, there still is an ocean out here. Adam - you'll have to give us a call when you get back and are ready to hit the surf with Doug. You do remember surfing -- right?

    May the wind be at your back.
    God Bless. Teresa

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