Trooping in Kansas started off on a great note: not too hot, not too cold, nice little breeze and flat! Somebody must have heard our prayers and granted us at least nice mornings till noon. The afternoons we pretty much spend on the struggle bus with winds picking up and giving us a hard time. I never ever encountered winds like that. One time an eye almost got blown out (the right one), not a tailwind by any means!
When you travel in group, you give and take. Zach learned how to take it easy and enjoy the social aspect of touring-cycling, Lauren learned to be the caboose of a 4 wagon train in stead of a 2 wagon one, Jacob learned how to rise and shine early in the day and I learned how to eat out (which I hardly do) and enjoy little local all-American dining places. Apart from that, we all but Jacob (who is the source) took the snoring. One night I thought he rolled over a raccoon and hold on to it while it tried to escape. Hey it could have happened cause we were sleeping in a barn, Jacob on his tarp cause he didn't feel the need to put up his tent. 'Trapped Raccoon' almost stuck with him as his trailname.
On the other hand, being a group, you multiply joy and divide sorrow. It would have been though to handle this one host hitting on me a little too obvious all by myself and as for the joy, we filled up Kansas' voidness with laughter. We shared experiences, camping tips, tales and drafts. I'm happy I was not on my own there in the dust bowl.
So Kansas will be remembered pretty much as windy, some tumbling weeds, the occasional cow and mini, almost ghost-towns sprouted around a big cement monster (grain silo?). It might not be the worst place to live in but it for sure is not attracting the crowds. You know you're in a rather off-place and loosing it when you find yourself, after x-amount of miles cruising through the same empty empire, conversing with a cow. I guess that's why they hauled in the zebra's and the camels cause after that many miles you might want to just talk to a kudu for a little while, right. Exotic Animal Inn sure caused some distraction in my day.
I like Kansas though, the cowboy hat and boots are a real deal here and some of my American-stereotypes came true (like people that great each other with 'howdy' for real, Pulp Fiction dinings and waitresses filling up your coffee cup, limitless).
And then when we gave up all hope, a tailwind grabbed us from behind and for two days we butterknifed ourselves through the plains.
Sleepwise we upgraded ourselves from sleeping on a dirt floor in a barn, to a living room carpet, to an actual bed. We had popcorn and ice cream for dinner in a church and did our utmost best avoiding something that goes by the name 'Texas Tack' and is described as being a 'Parasitic Thorn' to cyclists. You do not want to run into these guys.
And then disaster struck. My water bottle, the only relic I still had with me from Belgium, started leaking. All this time, we stuck together, made it through and now it gave up on me, just like that. No choice but to throw it away and never look back. It felt like losing home-base.
Still recovering from the loss, disaster struck again. A crash. The gravel off-shoulder took Jacob off guard and wrecked him AND he took me down with him. A bruise and a scare but both we and our bikes were OK. This wreck toppled us into Mountain Time, we climbed the Colorado state line sign and it was all good. I did not see it coming though but landscape-wise there's just but one thing worse than Kansas: eastern Colorado.
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