Simon's TransAmerica cycle ride - 2012: Day 38

Start time: 05.49
Start location: Newton
Start State: Kansas
Start weather: Warm
Total millage so far: 1946.48

Finish time: 13.38 (spent a few hours at the museum)
Finish location: Stirling
Finish State: Kansas
Finish weather: Dam hot
Miles today: 67.78
Total millage so far: 2014.26
Today's top speed: 28.5
Today's average speed: 16.9 (it was 18.1 when I got to the proper turning at 7.52 this morning)
Punctures - 1 (slow back wheel)

Music played:
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Queen - Greatest Hits (2011 Digital Remaster)
Ragga Twins - Ragga Twins Step Out
Rob Sykes - Juicy - NYE 2006

Blog for this day:

Interesting. I'm in a girls dorm listening to Oasis in the middle of Kansas! It's not as it seems though, thank goodness. We are staying in this dorm during the summer break, like we did before. No-one about, just us cyclists. I don't think I even saw anyone in the town when I cycled in this afternoon. Just having a look at the news and seen this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165156/Man-GORED-2-000-pound-bison-Yellowstone-National-Park.html

Hope for some excitement yet then! Ok, today. Up early again at just gone 4am. I wanted to go to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center to see what they had. I knew they had a SR-71 and as that is my Top Trump, i wanted to go see it again. It certainly is great starting early in the mornings, you can the most amazing coloured light coming off the harvested corn fields and the odd bit of mist too. It's a photographers dream. On the way out of town I quickly overtook three of our team with a gentle downhill and tailwind, I quickly got to the turning for the route 69 or straight on for Hutchinson. I was way early but headed on into town as I thought the museum maybe close to the high street. Of course, it wasn't, so I couldn't hang out somewhere cool for breakfast, instead I had to watch the college kids train for American football - what a drag lol. Shame I could not get closer though ;) As with yesterday morning, most if not all the big trucks gave me plenty of room which I was happy for. I did notice that there were a heck of a lot of dead skunks about! Not sure if it was National Squash a Skunk Day or what, but boy, did it smell out there on the roads.

In the past I have compared the heat outside to that of an oven. Well, till this point in time and my travels around the world, if you ain't been to Kansas, then you don't know what the heck your talking about. It is intense, constant and does not ease up with any wind there might be. As soon as that sun comes up over the horizon, you may have an hour to seek cover! There were a few funny signs and mailboxes I wanted to take pics of but if your whizzing along, by the time you have seen it and thought "that would make a good photo", you've gone too far to turn around. Cycle slower? Not on yer nelly. lol It's getting late here and I'm trying to remember what happened before I got to the museum, corn I seem to remember lol. So the museum, yeah it was pretty good. You have to be in the right mindset to go and really enjoy it, I kept clock watching and thinking about how rapidly the temperature was rising, with the thought of having to cycle another 20-30miles to camp. They had the usual V1 and V2 stuff, plus a lot of interesting notes linking it to the American space race. Then it was on to getting man into space and onto the moon, the successes and the accidents. They had the Liberty7 there and James Lovells Apollo13. All that was great to see, they had lots on the cold war, old duck & cover films and current missions. I kinda skimmed most of that as I needed to head out into the furnace. Given a choice to cycle in this heat if I were at home, or not, then hey, I wouldn't step outside the door! But with this adventure, I am having to do things through necessity rather than choice. you just got to knuckle under and get on with it. No use moaning about the distance, the heat, or rain. It is what it is. I would never ride to work in London if it were raining, mainly because there are no showers at work to wash/dry off, and the roads are too slippery with all the metal covers in the roads. Had too many near misses to cycle through choice, in the rain Here, if you don't cycle, then your screwed!

After I left the museum, which I was allowed leave my bike in as I had no lock with me, I headed back to the route again. I kinda zig zagged my way through some blind luck, back onto route. I'm sure I passed over the North by Northwest crossroads again lol

Not much else happened, it was all uneventful. A mixture of cross, head and tailwinds. Dam hot days riding though, lots of water being poured over my head which helps for a bit, but not for long. today was a one-off though, so I wont be doing that again in a hurry. Did my laundry which, hanging outside, was dry in minutes. Planning my scones with normal sugar and no clotted cream :( Hope it works out. I doubt if the septics will know the difference, but I will. (can I call them that or will I get lynched?)