andy reagan only the interesting stuff

More Kansas!

The past two days we have traversed the beautiful Kansas countryside, not at all flat or monotonous, it's been awesome! Both days, into Beloit and Phillipsburg we've got to swim in pools to cool off and have again ate great food.  Some of the sights today included being chased by a 3-legged dog that could run 18MPH (yes!), seeing a deer gallop through a cornfield which looked like a dolphin how it came above the corn haha, seeing what we thought was a real bison (but was really only a cut out far away) and just yeah, some great bike riding and fun.

Pictures into Beloit (6/23)

Kansas!!

And big farm equipment haha

It's really nice country, not a whole lot in terms of houses or people but nonetheless pretty

Not sure what this is haha

Zach and Alyson!

And Raleigh!

The roads headed due west, according to my stem compass

And then we saw WINDFARMS!

They were awesome, and added to the beauty of the landscape

And another farm was visible on the horizon

We stopped in some tiny town for homemade root beer floats!

Hiking into the biggest field of grain we could find (we didn't have to look hard, just to our right or left)

Yeahh! Sarah had a little trouble lifting her bike though haha

In Beloit, we went to cool old-fashioned soda fountain. I got another root beer haha, it was on tap

And the pool was awesome! Although I hate to admit, we actually failed at the human knot after 30 minutes of trying....

Complete with slide

And into Phillipsburg today!

Today I got a little late start, per usual but a group of 6 of us cruised pretty good.  I pulled from the host for about 8 miles, as we passed just about everyone else.  When I went to pull off, I looked behind me and the WHOLE TEAM had jumped on, I was pulling all like 25!! That was fun haha, and we didn't see below 20mph with the tailwind, all the way to... (at mile 19)

The World's Largest Ball of Twine!!

It's huuuuge haha. I climbed on top too, it was pretty easy

Just had to pull yourself up haha

In the sovenior shop, they had a map where people had come from to see it! (And I'm sure they came just to see the ball, there is nothing else for 100's of miles haha)

I put a pin in Marcellus NY and Emma got Blacksburg, neither were done! There were some Syracuse though.  I may or may not have taken a 3 inch sovenoir from the ball haha.

It was super nice again today

I peaced out after the ball and rode hard for a while out front, then waited for a group to catch up and we cruised all the way to lunch.  It was cool to hold over 20 for so long...

Seeing so much sky, and the clouds, are awesome

And the roads were pretty...how do you say... straight

Lunch was, not too suprisingly, next to a big ol' grain elevator. There were some on the way that had piles next to them that were bigger than downtown Marcellus. They were pretty much the only thing that made up the towns along the route

Chow time!!

After lunch, I went to the post office to mail Lindz a post card and piece of twine for her birthday, and ended up sticking the postcard and twine in an envelope...didn't want to trust that the tape would hold it on a postcard.  The postlady there was super nice, and I talked to her for awhile about what we were doing, and she made a $10 donation to the group!!  Thank you so much!  Again the generosity and goodness of people that we have met from east to west is enough to restore anyone's faith in humanity.  This country is just filled with awesome people, and that's easy to forget watching the evening news.

I was behind pretty much everyone, just sweeps and Jesse and Alyson were at lunch when I passed back by.  So I found some big gear and crushed until I caught the rest.  They were all pretty bunched up, in little groups spread over a quarter mile, so I just kept on cruisin through.  When I got near the front of the groups, we hit a pretty decent little hill and Zach was riding away from them a little bit.  So I got my sprint on, and yelled to him that there was "No way you're getting the KOM jersey that easy!" and passed him to the top haha.  We were by ourselves, and riding at a better tempo felt good so we rode fast for awhile.  I really enjoy riding with Zach, it's fun.

After 15 miles or so, sure enough Jesse had caught us...which must've been some chase because we were cruisin.  The country roads were still beautiful and we didn't see more than 1 car every 3 miles.  After some time of going real fast, and Zach telling Jesse and I how he was an old man haha, I spotted what could possibly be two riders ahead of us.  Impossible...Noah was on sweep and I remember passing Derrick...but I remembered that Heather and Jen had left lunch real early.  When we got close, Zach told Jesse and I to "go get 'em" like we were dogs or something haha, and I told Zach to come up beside us and we would see who could hold 25mph the longest (by which point I'd hoped we'd have caught them).  After a minute of pushing real hard, Zach dropped back a little and eventually Jesse faded as well, and I decided that there was no reason to hurt haha so I slowed down.  Jesse caught right up and then we were with Heather.  I was gasping for air by the time we caught her, and she seemed suprised haha.  I headed up to tell Jen how fast she must've been going because they were so hard to catch haha.  After another while I guess, Jesse and Zach and Jen and I took off pretty fast again.  We kinda left Heather hangin but I guess Jen figured she could handle it haha.

With only about 10 miles to go, we saw a couple riders pushing their heavily loaded bikes up a hill. We all stopped, but Zach kept going and Jen left shortly.  Jesse and I talked to the man and woman for a little, and turns out that he had a flat tire.  They were biking to the east coast, without too much plan it seemed and both of them with their guitars.  We offered a patch kit or one of our tubes but they wouldn't fit, so we wished eachother luck and headed off.

Jen was real hard to catch by that point, and after 5 miles we finally got her haha.  Then Jesse took off to catch Zach, because Jen said that he wanted to get there first haha ahead of me and Jesse, but I didn't really feel like working haha.  I rode out the last 5 or so with Jen and turns out that Jesse got him just one stoplight before the church.  Zach wasn't really trying to stay in front, but it was fun.

The United Methodist Church of Phillipsburg directed us to a pool and showers, which were awesome after we unloaded the whole trailer.  I tried to dive pretty unsuccessfully haha but it sounded entertaining.  Showers were nice and we went to the Chubby Pickle restaurant, famous for their Super Chubby hamburger, which I got loaded with homemade chili.  Swimming, good food, showers, wifi, a couch to sleep on and I was a very happy man.

We had a great dinner, talking to members of the church was nice, a chiropractor stopped by and then had a town hall meeting with the group.

In about 5 hours I'll be gettin up so it's time for bed for me though! Thanks for reading, more to come as we approach the Rocky Mountains heading into Colorado.

Clay Center, KS

Today was super short, at 40 miles, and we got to sleep in until 6! In fact, the ride was so flat and short that it really felt like another day off haha.

In the morning I was going to try to swap out my chain, which I thought was going to be real easy but turned out that I could not break my master link.  It's a link in the chain that should come apart so that I can take it off.  I was hoping to re-use that master link on the new chain, since I didn't know where the Shinamo break-off pin went.  After 20 minutes of trying and no luck...I gave up on changing the chain.  I really wanted to get it done though, because chains wear more quickly than the other gears, and can wear those gears if you run a stretched chain on them.  If you change your chain on time (before it gets too bad), it is possible to get three chains on one cassette.  Meaning, I only have to replace the back gears ($70) every three times I replace the chain.  But, my chain is way past gone (very stretched) so every mile is just wearing away my cassette.

I remembered the guy from the bike shop in town last night telling me that he would be in early in the morning to do a fit, and if any of us needed anything to give him a call.  But his card, with his number, was packed away in my bin in the trailer at that point.  Since it was on the way out (if I made it) I went through town to see if he was there and I could get my chain changed out, and if I needed, a new cassette.

When I got there at 8am, I saw that they weren't open till 10 and was a little bummed.  But I saw him inside and he came and unlocked the door, and I told him that I wanted to see if he could help me change the chain, and get a new cassette if I needed.  He was glad to help, like he said, and let me in.  There was another mechanic there, and a guy getting fitted on a bike, and we put my bike in a stand went to taking the old chain off.  He couldn't get the master link either, and just broke the chain somewhere else to try removing the master link off the bike.  After a little bit, he let the other mechanic try it, and after another little while of messing with it, he realized that it was one of the black SRAM non-breakable master links!! It was a one-use one, actually a power-link! I was cleaning my cassette real nice for the new chain in the meantime, and since I didn't have the breakable pin, or an old quick-link, he had a new KMC one, sweet! So we put that on, he showed me how to size the chain in small-small which was cool.  To test the cassette we looked at how it shifted, which would suffer if it was too warn.  Luckily, it shifted like a beaut and so I was good!  For all the help, I tipped him extra and was on my way.  I reset the odometer to track the new chain.

An hour had passed, but I wasn't worried at all and just cruised along at an easy pace.  The new chain was awesome, it was super quiet and just felt smooth.  After 20 miles of beautiful rolling KS hills, I arrived at lunch and had caught up with sweeps.  After explaining why I was behind them, Emily and Dave and I set out to finish the ride.  We had a noticeable tailwind which was sweet, and really nice roads.  The ride was awesome, we caught up with Raleigh when were getting close and it was starting to get really hot.  Dave sprinted up a few hills and I stuck with him, he's gettin freakin strong for not having ridden at all before the trip! Toward the end, we found Jen with a flat and waited with her to change it, and was we rolled out, my tire was flat! I figured it was another slow leaker, and after pumping it up, I figured it would hold that air for the last 3 miles into town, and it did.  I really do need to get the new tires on there I think.  I'm going to try to patch some of my tubes tonight hopefully.

After we got to the host, the AC was wonderful but I forgot my shorts to go to the showers, and luckily Noah let me borrow a pair.  We played some knock out at the high school there, and after getting back to our host at the First Baptist Church here in Clay Center I've taken a nap, munched on food, practiced on the guitar, worked on the affordable housing curriculum presentation that Will and I will be giving tomorrow, did the mid-trip leader evals, and typed up the day here!

I actually didn't get my camera out, in was in the rain fly because we felt some drops.  The country is pretty, but I guess nothing in particular sparked my attention enough to make me stop haha.  Tomorrow shouldn't be very long either, something like 57 miles to Beloit!

Lawrence and Manhattan, Kansas!

Yesterday we biked into Lawrence, college home of Christina at KU! It was a very interesting ride there, for sure, and I got to swim and check out a cool bike shop at night.  Today into Manhattan was long in miles, but flew by and was a great ride.  Our hosts here had an awesome array of food set out for us, and are making Lasagna right now!

To Lawrence in pictures (yesterday, 6.19)

On the trail, we first encountered lots of dirt, and sections of massive gravel, then there were DOWN TREES!

We cyclocross hiked over them, and Jesse and I were about to hurt Aileen lol (she planned the route)

I was in the front of a group of about 7 when I rounded the corner and saw them, and had to yell STOPPING haha

We decided that we would rename the day Bike, Hike, and Build haha

We could've petted a deer haha

And then after we got off the trail for lunch, they had found a really nice park!

And then after lunch, it looked like rain for sure.  We were on some really nice country roads, out in the middle of nowhere...and they turned gravel.  I wasn't a happy camper about that, but we made it over the gravel without flats so it was all good! We stopped to fill up our tires with air, and were dripping sweat with the heat and humidity after working hard across gravel.  But then, the most insane temperature change that I have ever felt took place, and it was windy and pretty cold immediately! The sweat and coldness made me a little cold, and it was definitely going to rain now.

We came to a closed road, and apparently some motorcyclists had come back and told other people that there was a bridge down.  I rode through the barriers yelling "Never surrender!" haha and really wanted to go check it out for myself (it was only a mile away and I'm almost certain we could have passed it on bikes) but the leaders told me I had to take the detour, lame.

As we were going around the bridge, the skys opened with a rain so cold and hard that people thought it had hailed because it hurt so bad.  I was yelling "OW!" and a few other things as we tried to push through it, Jesse Mark and I at the front now.  After a little bit, the water was getting in my eyes and stinging so bad I couldn't really open them so I reached into my bag and put on my swim goggles lol.  I couldn't see hardly anything with those either, but could see the white line on the side of the road and hugged that.  At a stop sign, a guy in a pick-up asked me if I wanted a ride, that we must be crazy, but I'm still determined to ride every inch although it was a tempting offer.

Eventually the rain let up, Mark must've been feeling great because he had ridden away fast and it was just Jesse and I.  We saw someone coming up to us, and we were by no means going slow, and Zach had caught us! He complained a little bit about how hard we were to catch (kidding) and I was really impressed, it must've been some effort.

Then Steak and Shake! We stopped in Lawrence and I got a butterfinger shake and chili cheese fries, it was good! I thought that I deserved a treat for myself after not getting struck by lightning or getting blown over on the way there lol

Then when we got to the host, they had a POOL!

And after a great swim, some of us went a checked out an awesome bike shop

Gary had owned the shop for 40 years, and showed us all the cool stuff in it. Turned out to be almost a bike history museum, sweet! This was a 10-speed demo thing to show people how to shift it from the table.

A cool wind chime haha

And they had a Di2 demo bike, and he let us ride it around!!

I was in love haha, it was a siick bike

I jammed it hard and the shifting responded effortlessly, I had some onlookers apparently haha, I was dusting off the crit cornering skills

It was a fun little ride, I think the bike came in around 16 pounds

And I had also tossed on the new Giro helmet, lightest one on the market at like half the weight of my Atmos!

Dave was lovin it as well

"I'll take it"

It was a little big for Jen haha, but I think she liked it

This bike, one of 550 made back in 1960, was pretty awesome. In mint condition, this baby goes for 20K!

The first model 10-speed bike ever sold on the left, and a bike he'd built for a midget who wanted a 10-speed back in the day on the right

Gary's first bike haha and one of the first ever Aluminum bikes, from 1930

Just another cool old bike haha, this one had fully functional head lights, tail lights, and horn. Built like a car, and almost as heavy as one haha

Soo cool haha, I'm totally making one next year from a fork!

Then we came back for dinner, another swim to cool off, and I passed out on a couch hard haha.  I barely even woke up for the security alarm that went off in the night.

Today's ride

Today started out again at 5AM, although I was so warm and comfy on that couch I bummed it till 5:30 haha.  They had Honey Bunches O' Oats which are quickly becoming my favorite cereal, and we actually got around to leaving by 6:30! I was on clean up crew, and didn't get out till a few minutes later after sweeping the floor though.

We started out at a relaxed pace, me on the front of a group at about 17MPH just keepin my pedals moving haha.  We saw some awesomely cool clouds, some that looked like glaciers beyond mountains.  I got some pictures when we stopped to prepare for rain (cover the camera, and others put on rain jackets).

Very ominous clouds, but we made it through dry somehow

They were so awesome though. Check this out...

My fellow Bike and Builders!

Lunch 1 at mile 35 (we had two because the heat index was at 104) was good, and we went pretty hard between lunch 1 and 2.  Zach caught up to us and pulled for 10 miles, Mark pulled for 10, and I pulled hard for another 10.  It ended up just being us three by that time, although Emily and Kristen weren't far behind at all.

At lunch a whole bunch of people caught up, and we took off with a big group to try a big paceline haha.  We were doing one mile pulls, and our goal was 17mph but with a strong tailwind, we were soon goin 23! Then not too far along, about 8 miles from the host, Zach got a flat.  Him and I tried to patch it, and after doing all that it was leaking, and we found another hole... So we checked it out again and put another tube in it.  It had been like 20 minutes, so we told the rest of the group to head on.  After about 30 we were back on the road, and basically just cruised into town, movin easily at 23 with that tailwind on the flats.

Our wonderful hosts at the First Methodist Church tonight had all sorts of goodies, an entire kitchen worth, set out for us to eat when we got here! They had gatorade and soda and water on ice and made us lasagna for dinner, it was awesome! Showers were over at the First Presbytarian, and there was only one so it was a wait but no biggie.

I got a chance to call my Dad on this father's day which was nice to chat, and talked to Mom for a little too, and sounds like they're doing well! I'm super glad for their support on this trip, it has been awesome!

That's all for now, I'm going to try to get some pictures in the last post, and check out the video that I'm going to put up of our build day.  Thanks for reading!