Day 40: July 31, Cope, CO to Atwood, KS 102 miles

Colorado turkeys

Friday, 7/31/91
Atwood, KS

Very good day today I set a new personal record: 110 mile. And this was without a tailwind. I left camp at 6:30. I got a flat just before the Kansas line. It was a thorn. I replaced the tube with my thornproof.

Rainstorm near Anton

Entered Kansas and Central Time Zone at 10:20 thus, 11:20. At St. Francis (65 miles) I showered and did laundry for 60¢! The rest area had free showers and the laundromat had old 30¢ machines. Fantastic. Spent 2 1/2 hours there avoiding 95° heat. 45 miles further, I'm camping at Atwood beside a dry lake bottom in unmown grass. They didn't have postcards here. I'm tired but I've been worse.

That night over that dry lake bed (which was plowed and planted), was the first time I ever saw fireflies. I was completely fascinated and intrigued by the little guys.

--> The only trouble was that there were 6,000 other species of bugs about, also, forcing me to eventually try to sleep on top of a picnic table. This put me directly in line with the headlights from cars traveling up Main Street. It was also very humid, so that the sweat on my skin would never dry, causing my sleeping bag to stick to me in a most uncomfortable manner. This might easily have ranked as worse than the night of the sprinklers.