Day 34: La Crosse, KS to Dighton, KS

Total Distance: 69.3 mi
Moving Avg: 12.3
Moving Time: 5:38

Route Summary:
US 183 S to
KS 96 W

Today was not a good day. It started with me breaking my mirror as I was
exiting the motel room this morning. I suspect breaking the mirror was
responsable for the poor quality of the day. 

The only thing wrong with the day was an unfortunate incident after
lunch. As many of you know, I had my gallbladder removed several years
ago due to gall stones (and by the way, if you are considering gall
stones, I'd recommend against them). The lack of a gallbladder does not
play a big role in my life, but it is occasionally annoying. After I eat
fatty foods, especially if I haven't eaten in a while, I sometimes have
to use a restroom. Badly. This phenomenon is pretty predictable, it
starts about 15-20 mintues after I eat said food and goes away when I
use a restroom or after about 25-30 minutes. 

As you can imagine, this might be problematic. Until now, it was not a
huge problem. It did happen, but I was able to just wait it out and find
a restroom in the next town. Well, it happened again today, after a
cheeseburger in Ness City. I was about 20 miles away from the next
bathroom, so I figured I'd wait it out. After 15 minutes, it was clear
this was not a viable stratagy, so I started looked for a farmhouse to
ask to use the restroom. I soon found one, but when I rang the doorbell,
no one answered. Looking through the window, it was clearly
abandoned. Very sad Nick. I'm going to cut the story short, for a
vareity of reasons. All I can say is thank god for moist towelettes and
plastic bags.

In other, non feces releated, news I met another biker today. He was
also going solo, and had come from SF via the Western Express route. I
talked to him briefly about it and am still very undecided about which
route I shall take. He was also towing a BOB trailer, but it looked
about half full and he had no paniers. I'd guess he was carrying about
half the weight I am. Wow! Talk about packing light. I plan on sending
some stuff home at Pueblo (where I also plan to rest), but I don't think
I could deal with going as light as he was. 

I'm definatly on the High Plains now. It is quite beautiful in a way, you
can see for miles in every direction and there is NOTHING THERE. At one
point, I looked around and could count the number of trees I saw. Other
than those, it was all just gently swaying grass. I don't think I could
deal with living here at all, but it is still a nice place to come
through. The land slopes ever so gently up, so I actually gain a decent
bit of elevation during the day, but the hills are almost imperceptable
(I say almost since on a bike pulling weight *every* hill is
noticable. These are just less noticable.)

The tailwinds also continued today. I like tailwinds a lot. A lot. I
hope they stay a bit longer. 

I've been watching the Tour de France on TV. I know it goes without
saying, but: WOW! Mental note: do not enter Tour de France.