Simon's TransAmerica cycle ride - 2012: Day 43

Start time: 05.43
Start location: Leoti
Start State: Kansas
Start weather: Chilly
Total millage so far: 2215.24

Finish time: 14.00
Finish location: Eads
Finish State: Colorado
Finish weather: Hot & windy
Miles today: 81.02
Total millage so far: 2296.26
Today's top speed: 20.7
Today's average speed: 11.7
Today’s ride time: 6hr 54min 39
Punctures - 1 (slow back wheel)

Music played:
Spandau Ballet - Gold -The Best Of
Steps Gold the Greatest Hits
Take That - Greatest Hits
Soundtrack – Grease
Iron Maiden - Live After Death (Again, I needed some good music to get me through the day)
The Beach Boys - The Very Best Of
The Best Of The 80s (MetroLife Freebie)

Blog:

If you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all. Well, I was going to say nothing but as I’ve been through Hell, otherwise known as Kansas & Colorado, and I’m not one to keep my gob shut, here is today's story. It might be a bit frightening for kids and anyone else stupid enough to think about doing the TransAm!

Ok, up at 4am to beat the heat and possibly the wind. Cycled right across the “main” road and into a housing estate, lost in less then 10meters. Great start to the day. Oh, there could be some minor, ok major swearing in today's blog. So, there I am, its actually cold, yes cold, I have my arm warmers on and I was considering going back for a baselayer. The night before we had a small thunder storm which cleared the air, it also cleared any cloud cover such as we had the days before. Back on the infamous 96 and it was headwinds from the off. This was going to be a nightmare!! I had 80miles to cycle and was averaging 10mph. Simple maths equals that to 8hrs to basecamp, and I had to cook. The day was looking more bleak by the pedal of my feat, bleak and baron like the scenery. Of course, if that’s all there was, then that would be shitty, but of course you have to add in my damaged wrist which I was meant to keep straight – for eight hours!

If there was a “Get out of jail free” card today, aka, no cycling, then I would definitely used my card there and then. The birds were chirping away and I took a few photo’s of the upturned boots on the fence posts. Not cowboy boots unfortunately. While I remember, you sometimes still see people smoking at the petrol stations! I guess health & safety hadn't reached Kansas yet. There have also been less and less yard sales as we head West. The ride was going downhill fast with the heat starting up at 8.15am (mountain time), the sun racing up into the sky to give us a hard time, the headwinds slowing us down to prolong the pain and torture. Perhaps instead of water-boarding, make those terrorists cycle across Kansas! They will break in seconds. You get to the point where you keep stopping for water and pee breaks when you just loose it. You try and rest your bike against yourself and it just wants to move, it falls over, it rubs oil and grease into your legs, it rolls backwards, forwards, you peel a banana and the effing wind is so efffing strong that it breaks it off and it falls in the dirt, that’s when in the end you just pick up the bike and throw it into the grass!! No damage done btw. So yes, we have crossed into another time zone, gaining another hour, but making it harder to call home. There was some welcome bits of greenery along the ride scattered among the desert.

I got to another hell hole called Sheridan Lake. Christ, it looked like it had been nuked! There was meant to be a garage there for food and water. I had stocked up more than sufficiently on water to get me there, I’ve been drinking so much lately. But the effing shop was closed, I could have smashed the door and got in to get more food and water. I had bought lots of bars at the first petrol station so I had enough, but I was out of water just, the rest of it was nearing boiling point. I cycled up into the “town”, or maybe ground zero and found a nice church still standing in the middle of the carnage. The nice church people let me have ice and fresh water. Sorted!

Christ, got a nice quiet spot and now a bunch of other cyclists have gone and set up camp next to me, if they snore I’m going to go mental! Hard day you can tell! So back to the cycling, it was mostly uphill all the way, at the end of the day we are up to over 4000ft above sea level. I was hating every second of this ride, I could not get my mind on to anything positive , probably because there was nothing. The scenery sucked, the roads sucked, the sun sucked, the only thing which didn’t suck was the wind, that blew! I guess one of the funniest bits of today was leaving Kansas where their sign said “Come Again”! You got to be effing joking. Then the sign coming up was Welcome to Colorado, pah! Shitty roads, closed shops, boring scenery and headwinds. Up yours! By this time the sun was right overhead, cooking up my brain. (for the oldskool ravers). I’m not sure, but the clouds in the distance could actually be smoke from the many fires in Colorado. My arm was really hurting as I had to keep my wrist straight. Everytime one of the huge trucks carrying wind turbine parts drove past, they would throw me about like a rag doll. Where is the joy in this, its just torture. Without that church I would have died from dehydration. No sign of cactus to save my life. Maybe I would have wondered off into the desert never to be seen again.

A mirage appeared about 10miles from the end. A Princes riding a white stallion, Guinevere or Lady Godiva perhaps coming to save me. As it drew closer the shape changed into a white van, the chariot of hope and life! Water, I need water was all my cracked lips could get out. Beau Jest in the desert is something which sprang to mind. I was saved. I was also threating about having to cook after such a long hard day, and being up at 4am. I was shattered and planning Mutiny on the Bounty. Luckily Princess Nicole came baring more then water, a menu!! I was more then saved, I was snapped out of the spiral of dispear. Luck was on my side. Rissotto will have to wait till tomorrow now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18656648

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2166515/The-hottest-town-America-Kansas-sweltering-Hill-City-residents-suffer-115-degree-heat-A-WEEK-scorching-weather-set-East.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18675453