Day 31: Emporia, KS to Newton, KS

Total Distance: 76.1 mi
Moving Avg: 10.1 mph
Moving Time: 7:32

Route Summary: 
US 50 W

Well, I've been on the road for one whole month now. Sometimes it feels
like a lot more than a month, sometimes a lot less. I'm also just about
at the half way point. I've been estimating the total trip will be 3800
miles, but that is a pretty high estimate. It will likely be closer to
3600 or 3700. I've come 1858 so far. Thats a lot of miles. I'm also a
bit ahead of schedule. Of course, the Rockies will throw a monkey wrench
into the whole schedule thing. 

Today was not too interesting. The most interesting thing that happened
was that I got pulled over again. This time, however, I was not on an
Interstate and was not really doing much wrong. I had been dipping in
and out of the shoulder due to rumble strips (more on rumble strips in a
sec) and someone called the police (I suspect it was the asshole in the
blue Chevy pickup, but I don't know that). The officer who pulled me
over was very nice and polite. He understood about the rumble strips,
and basically told me to carry on as I had been. He didn't take my
licence number or anything. Although my sample size is quite small, my
experience with mid-western police officers has been far far from the
stereotype. They both did drawl, but that was really the only part of
the stereotype they fit.

As I said before, the Heroines raved about the roads in Kansas. While
they are quite well maintained, they are not everything I had hoped
for. Yes, pavement quality is a very important factor for bikers, but it
is not the only one. Yesterday, there were no shoulders for the entire
day. Today there was a beutiful and wide shoulder the entire way. Execpt
for one problem: rumble strips. I hate rumble strips. For most of the
way, they were not a problem, only taking up about half of the lane-wide
shoulder. However, for about 20 of the 75 miles of US 50 I rode, they
took up the whole shoulder. Basically, my choice was to ride in traffic
at the very edge of the lane, or to suffer from bone-jarring patches
every 10 seconds. I settled into a rythem of riding in the lane when
there was no traffic and pulling into the shoulder when cars approached
from behind, and it worked pretty well.

Today didn't feel as hot as some previous days, but I think that was
just because of the lack of humidity. It was 91-95 F. Pretty hot, all
things considered. The heat isn't as bad as you might think though. I
just drink lots of water, and I don't notice it much. The time I do
notice the heat is coming out of A/C'd places that I've been in for a
while. Not, as you might expect, because of the sudden transition to
hot, but because of the crystalized sweat salt all over my body. It is
just about as gross as it sounds; it looks like someone just took a salt
shaker and coated me, except it sticks better to skin. Just goes to
show, you really do need to consume salt (aka electrolytes). Yay for
Gatorade. 

I've found I have two basic modes of biking, which for simplicity's sake
I'll call Fast and Slow. Slow tends to dominate in the morning (well,
what passes for morning for me: early afternoon). Fast tends to come
later in the day, once I get into the rythem of things. Slow is
6-9mph. Fast is 12-20mph. (both on flat ground). It's hard to decribe
what makes these modes different (other than speed). I think it is
mostly heartrate, but it seems to be a binary sort of
distinction. Either I'm putting out lots of power and cruising quickly,
or I'm just chugging along. I suppose this isn't really all that
surprising, but it's kinda neat to note. 

Today, I spent a lot of time in the Fast mode. Even uphill I was
breaking 10mph. In the last part of the day, I was maintaing a steady 16
mph on flat ground with no wind. I'll bet some of the bikers in the
audience are going "16 mph? You're kidding, thats a crawl!". Try it with
40lbs in tow. It makes a HUGE difference. Every turn of the cranks, you
feel the weight. Even on flat ground, the extra wheel and weight are
very noticable. Also, do it day after day after day. 

This trip is making me intersted it doing other sorts of biking too. I
really want to learn to mountain bike, I have an urge to buy a stupid
looking BMX bike and learn tricks, and I've even thought about
racing. Usually, I really dislike competitive sports. Maybe it's just
the desire to go really fast.