Day 28: I Thought Kansas was Flat

Abliene to Topeka
Miles: 107  Climb:  4,836
Total Miles:  2,048

I thought Kansas was flat.  The Kansas we were in today was anything but.  We rode 107 miles of hills.  Hills, hills, and hills. We climbed as many feet today as we did some of the days in the mountains in Colorado. It rained on and off all day. And we had headwind for much of the ride. The headwind prevented us from getting good momentum on the downhill to carry us up the next uphill, so it was hard work the entire way. A couple riders took the SAG wagon after the second SAG stop at 77 miles.  At least we got rain and not thunderstorms as predicted.  Because of the rain the temperatures stayed in the 70's, which is cool for this area this time of year.

We rode a scenic highway though the Flint Hills, an absolutely beautiful area also called the Bluestem Pastures.  This region is unlike the Kansas we've ridden through the past three days. We rode a quiet country road through green rolling pastures and dark green valleys.  No big wheat fields or feed lots here.  The scenery was so bucolic that it made a very hard ride almost enjoyable.  Along the way there was folk art by the road from time to time.  I didn't stop for a picture of the very cool wooden buzzard sitting on a fence post.  At that spot I was in a foul mood about the weather, the hills and my sick bike.

I had problems with my bike today, slipping gears, missing gears, jumping out of gear, clunking into gear.  Not a good situation for a day of hills.  I decided to ignore the Garmin for both distance and speed, and just ride from SAG stop to SAG stop to the hotel.  I was tired and so was my bike.  I rode alone, at a much slower pace than the I normally ride, and coaxed my bike to the finish.  The mechanic put on a new chain this evening, but the gear jumping and slipping continues, so I'm ordering a new cassette to be overnight delivered to our next hotel.  Hope that fixes the problem.  But tomorrow may be another frustrating day.

The bikes were really dirty from the rain and road dirt, so it took longer than usual to clean them up when we got in this evening.  The hotel set up a cleaning station for us and provided a big stack of rags, which were gone before everyone was done.

Tomorrow we have a 90 mile ride to the north and east to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then we have a rest day on the Fourth of July.  The forecast is for rain all day.