Show me the MO, knee

Getting into Missouri presented a bit of change. Even though most of the western states were cut up using straight lines it’s surprising how geographical differences are actually noticeable. There definitely are cultural differences between the states which have likely influenced how the roads were built, which in turn influences how you experience the landscape. Routes in Missouri seem to meander a bit more, with less of the grid pattern prevalent farther west.

I’ve entered the edge of the Ozarks with its undulating hills. On the minor roads I have to constantly shift gears as I climb and descend. After an exhausting morning of riding country roads, I connected with US 50 which was busy but slightly better graded. The condition of the shoulder is terrible, though, sometimes thinning down to a foot or nothing, and either crumbled at the edge or obstructed by roadkill. I'm already missing the wide and clean roads of Kansas.

After a day and a half of riding the mediocre roads in the western part go the state, I got to Sedalia, the birthplace of Ragtime. It’s also the junction of the Katy Trail, one of the best rail trails in the US. I gladly traded the poorly paved shoulder of the highway for the well packed gravel of the trail. An even better feature of the trail is that it is well shaded with trees and cooler than the open road. Plus I get to avoid all the hills!

The Katy Trail leads up to the Missouri River then meanders along its valley all the way to St Louis. Along the course of the river, it intertwines with the beginning and end route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804. The famous trek was commissioned by the Jefferson government to map out the newly acquired territories of the Louisiana Purchase and lay claim to the lands beyond to the west, cementing the grand expansion of the United States towards the Pacific Ocean.  It must have been such a slow and painstaking journey, as I pass their outbound campsites every 15  or so miles, the best they could do in a day fighting against the strong current of the Missouri.

Crossing the Missouri

The heat and humidity has gone way up these past few days, There have been daily excessive heat advisories and people have been looking at me like I’m crazy to be on a bike. Although it was hotter in the Mojave, I’ve been sweating way more than in the desert. The trail is so well appointed, there are water taps on most of the trailheads every 10 to 20 miles, so I haven't even bothered filling my spare reservoir.

I remember when I graduated from grade school, our teachers had the class sing a saccharinely optimistic song called "Gee I'm Looking Forward to the Future". Part of the lyrics go, "Like the old Missouri we'll roll along, our dream now is bold and strong". It definitely was amusing belting out that tune with nobody else on the trail :)

The Katy Trail was once the route of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railway (M-K-T = KT = Katy), but was prone to flooding and eventually decommissioned. The towns in this floodplain never amounted to much, as the population favoured the much higher ground to the south. Although the trail has injected a bit of seasonal economic activity, services are a bit sparse in long stretches of the trail. Outside of Jefferson City, Missouri's state capital, there was a nice air-conditioned shelter for cyclists at Tebbetts that only charged $5 a night. it was tempting to stay there, but there were no food shops and I didn't stock up earlier. Regrettably, I continued on to Mokane where I camped out in in ball field, and across the park there was a motorcycle rally called Frogs and Hogs. They played loud live music until midnight and just as I finally got some sort of sleep in the hot and humid night, they set off fireworks at 3 am intermittently for half an hour. I guess those Harley riders never get enough noise during the day!

Doppelgänger

I've entered the Flint Hills region of Kansas — there are some good rolling hills in this area, and I've had to use my climbing gears for the first time since New Mexico. The land here is a bit poorer for farming than the plains area to the west, as a result there are quite a bit of original prairie grasslands that have remained intact. Since I'm prohibited from riding the Interstate in Kansas, I've mostly switched to small rural roads which have very little traffic, although I usually get wary of being chased by dogs when I pass a rural home.

The heat and humidity have been rising, with the recent heavy rains they've had here, the air is thick with moisture. It's bearable when I'm moving but when I stop it's like being in a sauna. Going into an air-conditioned gas station store magnifies the feeling when I get back out. I got into Emporia in a sweaty mess and looked for an air-conditioned motel room, a decent burger and a milkshake.

The next morning the air was still hot and heavy. There have been excessive heat warnings on TV, with the temperatures hitting the mid-30˚C plus the humidex. I've been slapping on sunscreen religiously but it seems to make heating up worse, I feel like a basted turkey. A bit of a tailwind was a slight consolation, but after lunch at a truck stop, the heavy midday air started getting to me. I took a lengthy rest stop at Melvern Lake, a park by a large reservoir, and ran my head under a faucet to cool down. A nap under a tree was a nice break, and by the time I got going there was a bit of cloud cover.

The clouds ended up being a rapidly approaching storm. Ten miles to Ottawa a massive black cloud was sparking lightning bolts into the nearby hills. I pedalled as fast as I could, scanning for places to duck into in case the storm spawned a tornado. Soon the winds began to whip wildly, too strong for me to stay on the road. I found a knoll with a grove of trees to hide under just in time. I set the bike down on the ground and lay low behind a large tree with my tarp, and watched as small twigs and small branches broke and flew off into the soybean field beyond. It was a suspenseful half hour, but I felt somewhat safe being downslope and under this tree's umbrella. When I got back on the bike and reached the leafy streets of Ottawa, there were broken branches and leaves everywhere. I found a cozy and clean motel and let out a sigh of relief.

It's interesting coming to Ottawa, Kansas. Once in a while a google search of my own city would send me to one of their sites. But the other strange thing is that my dad went to school here in his university days. Ottawa University (not to be confused with the University of Ottawa) turned 150 years old, a couple of years older than Canada! I spent an hour looking around the campus which was super quiet for the summer, and chatted with one of the curious groundskeepers.

One of Ottawa's claims to fame is the oldest operating cinema in America

I pushed off into another hot and humid day. The town has a Walmart distribution centre so the roads in and out of town have their good share of truck traffic. Just as I needed a break, I pass a nice apple cider mill. I drank a half gallon of fresh pressed juice and napped under one of their shelters to let the afternoon heat pass. I crossed into Missouri, somewhat thankful that the long slog across Kansas was over.

It was so hot, even the cows took to swimming

Amber Waves of Grain

I left Pratt well rested and fed thanks to my wonderful hosts. They even drove me past their unpaved farm road to the highway with a mini tour of the fish hatchery in the area. Still a light headwind to contend with, plus a bit of highway construction.

Typical Prairie town with diagonal parking on the main street

This one had a funky independent coffee shop

Heading into Wichita, the traffic got heavier. While it was more of the rolling farmlands of wheat and soybeans, it had less of the small town charm of the western part of the state. I stopped at a supermarket to get some food for lunch but after riding out for a few kilometres, I couldn't find a good spot to have a picnic so I just spread my tarp beside a highway ramp.

Technically Kansas' largest city (Since Kansas City is mostly in Missouri) Wichita is home to a lot of aviation industries and the hometown of the Koch brothers. There's big money here but the place doesn't really show it. I got into the western part of town in the late afternoon, where he highway had turned into a freeway lined with big box stores and its vast parking lots. It was a complete change of scenery  a bit disorienting with the heavy traffic. I settled for a motel among the fields of asphalt and left figuring out how to get across the urban sprawl for the next day.

Crops hold up the highway

Pull the door, not the trigger

I went and checked out a few bike shops for a replacement part for my rack that broke in Arizona but no luck. I opted to spend the morning in the centre of town to do some sightseeing and leisurely riding along the Arkansas River. Interesting to note the heavy interpretive focus on Native America here, although it's hard to see its true influence on the daily life of the city.

The Arkansas River

The Keeper of the Plains

As I was riding out of town after a good lunch I heard a snap and a strange grinding noise. My fear had come true — the other post on the rack had broken and was rubbing on my gears. And just my luck, it did not look like I was in a nice part of town. I performed the same quick fix similar to what I did to the other side, but this point I realized I really should address this issue seriously, and possibly just get a new rack. I googled the nearest bike shop and they had quite a poor selection, so I went on towards the next. Along the way I came across an Ace Hardware and went in to see if by chance they had a half-inch steel bar that I could fashion a new bracket with. Rowe, a guy who worked there, asked if I needed help, and after I described my problem to him, he actually offered to cut the bar down to size and drill holes since it was a really slow day! It was a cheap solution that worked like a charm, and the steel will hold up way better than the original aluminium. Rowe was a hero, he wouldn't even accept some extra money I offered for the trouble of doing all that.

Such a simple part made with the wrong material :(

It was getting late in the afternoon after looking after all that so all I did was ride out to the northern fringe of the city to find some cheap accommodation. A short day, but I'm glad I had a nagging problem solved.

Emerald City

To my slight dismay, the strong northeast headwind prevailed when I set off from Guymon, OK. One of the websites I regularly check is Wind Map, which neatly shows wind patterns in the USA  in real time. Normally winds come from the south through Texas which mean a somewhat favourable side wind for someone travelling diagonally across the Great Plains. The only good thing was that the wind was cool and the skies were overcast, which kept the temperature at a sweet spot.

One of the reasons I took this route through Oklahoma's Panhandle is that I was advised not to ride on US 54 in Texas as it is very busy with trucks and has no shoulders. The Oklahoma section, though, is nice and wide and a great road to ride on. The towns and services are also nicely spaced so I don't have to worry about carrying extra water.

Yup, I'm in farming country

This part of the US sits on a huge reserve of natural gas, and these are a regular sight

Might as well go all the way when your town's name is made fun of

I entered Kansas at Liberal, reputedly named after a generous land owner who offered free water to travellers ("How liberal of you"). One of the town's attractions is a house identical to the one in "Wizard of Oz" which they've declared as Dorothy's House. It's a kitschy kind of stop, but a fitting welcome into Kansas.

I just hope they're not liberal with the branding iron

Dorothy refuses to get on the bike

The headwind was wearing me out so I settled for a peaceful campground ten miles out of town. It was quite a ways down a dirt road, but it had great facilities and cost only $5.

The wind had lightened up the next day and shifted slightly coming from the southeast. The land was flat with some occasional dips, and since the highway was parallel to the railroad it was lined with grain elevators that are visible for a long distance. No sooner would I pass one and the next one would pop up on the horizon 10 or 15 miles away.

Cycling in flat terrain gets me into a meditative trance.  My mind would completely empty itself and be at rest. It's an extremely peaceful feeling, and once in a while I would ask myself what I'm thinking of and the answer would be nothing. Just an existential visual processing of the road, the fields and the sky.

Historical plaques here seem balanced, you can read the pain on both sides

One of the places I really wanted to see in Kansas is the town of Greensburg which was completely flattened by a tornado on 2007. I saw a documentary on the rebuilding about five years ago, and it is a neat story of hope and renewal. The town's leaders decided that they would rebuild using the highest environmental standards, and they now have the highest ratio of LEED Platinum buildings per capita. The town is still struggling, only half of its former population has returned, but what they do have is a good seed to start off with. 100% of their electricity is produced with wind turbines and they have excess that they sell off

I took half a day to tour some of the buildings, and I was lucky enough to tag along with a group from Kansas State University who had a guide take us through the new school and its unique features. One of the great ideas that were built was a "Business Incubator", a building that houses and encourages new small businesses to grow. The new main street, although still a little toothy, is a model of a pleasant walkable street with wide sidewalks and plantings — a humane step in the right direction instead of succumbing to the easy mediocrity of strip malls and big box stores. It's still too early to tell how Greensburg will fare in the future, it certainly has had its successes and failures. But it is nice to know that good intentions and bold ideas are alive and well in America.

Greensburg's new main street

Greensburg claim to fame is the Big Well, the world's largest hand-dug well

The funky new school decorated with recycled barnboard

It's nice to see that they thought of the arts as one of their rebuilding priorities

A relatively short 50 km ride to Pratt capped the day, where I have some awesome hosts welcoming me with a comfortable bed and a meal.