Day 47: August 7 Clifton, KS 30 miles

Friday, 8/7/81
Clifton, KS

Went for a 30-mile ride today around east of here. Strong winds from the north, but it cooled the temperature and humidity.
Got my KSU stuff from my girlfriend. Now I can leave tomorrow for Manhattan. Bert and Ed went to a wedding this evening.

Day 46: August 6 Clifton, KS 0 miles

Thursday, 8/6/81
Clifton, KS

A thunderstorm came through this morning, dropping the temperature 10° in one hour. Standing on that flat farmland and watching the storm approach, as the wind picked up the the fat drops started to hit me, is comparable to standing defiantly at the ocean's edge. It reminds me of a living entity moving over the land.

Look at the storm in this photo. Absolutely riveting. Bert and Ed thought I was nuts.

Thunderstorm approaching from the west.

Day 45: August 5 Clifton, KS 0 miles

Wednesday, 8/5/81
Clifton, KS

I went with Ed today visiting with neighbors and looking at culverts. All the rain this summer is washing the dirt out around them. The township is responsible for taking care of them and Ed is on the board. They've got a lot of work ahead of them. We watched tv at night.

Day 44: August 4 Clifton, KS 0 miles

Tuesday, 8/4/81
Clifton, KS

Slept in till 9 today. Cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast, then read Time magazine to catch up on the news. I went to town with Bert and Ed to run errands. Clay Center's pretty big--4 to 5,000 people. I walked through the cornfield--I love to do that. Watched tv all evening.

Day 43: August 3 Rest area, KS to Clifton, KS 78 miles

Monday, 8/3/81
Clifton, KS

I made it to Clifton! John and I had breakfast at a Mankato cafe and then split up. I headed southeast to Concordia for lunch at 52 miles. Ate lunch at city park and watch hundreds of swimmers at pool for an hour.

An aspiring cycle tourist in Ames invited me to spend the night, have dinner, a drink, the bathroom, etc. I used the phone and talked cycling and had a drink. Where was he when I needed this!?!

I made it to the farm by 6:30. Bert took two pictures of my arrival and I got to take an air-conditioned shower. Fantastic! We had supper at 8 and they answered my myriad questions on farming. Nice to sleep in air conditioning.

I arrive in Clifton.

Bert (Bertha) and Ed are my grand-aunt and uncle. They have farmed in Clifton, Kansas their entire lives. It was just a happy coincidence that they live 60 miles away from where I went to graduate school. I got to spend the next week or so with them before continuing to KSU.

Day 42: August 2 Norton, KS to rest area, KS 90 miles

Sunday, August 2, 1981
Rest area, Highway 36, KS

Dead tree near Agra, KS

Me at the Geographical Center of the
(Lower 48) United States

It was overcast when we got up. I had to change a flat in front. The clouds broke up by the time we got to Phillipsburg. Lunch at Kensington rest area. Humidity got worse as the day progressed. We turned off for Lebanon and the Center of the U.S. monument, but all the stores were closed. No water at Center of the U.S. rest area. I fixed a flat and John fixed a broken spoke. Went to rest area ten miles farther, still no  water. We ate my emergency chili and sandwiches and begged hot water off some travelers. Thousands of little red and black bugs were getting in our food and eyes and tickling us and driving us mad. They left when the sun set. There was a new moon with Venus and Jupiter and Saturn. Very dramatic. Humidity made me sweat crazily in the sleeping bag. I would have to get out and sit up to dry off. Mosquitoes drove me back in. I did get to sleep when it cooled off, though. Woke up still wet. 

That day, the temperature and humidity were both 90. I could hardly believe what I was experiencing. John, who had spent some time in Oklahoma, told me the humidity was only 40 or 50 and wait till it really gets bad. I was miserable because this was where I was going to spend the next four years of my life.

Old limestone house near Smith Center

Home in Concordia

Day 41: August 1 Atwood, KS to Norton, KS 62 miles

Saturday, 8/1/81
Norton, KS rest area

Bad day today. Only made 62 miles. between the hills and the strong wind and the 95° humid heat. Anyone who says Kansas is flat has an argument with me! Northern Kansas is nothing but hills. I never had lunch. I stopped for the day where I'd planned to stop for lunch. It was so hot. I sat under a tree reading until 7:00 PM. A Christian vagabond and odd-job type old man started talking tome and didn't quit till I left the next morning. 

I also met John, a 30-year-old blond bearded New Englander who's lived on the Yucatan Peninsula and was now cycling the U.S. A tremendous thunderstorm struck at dusk. I paid John 50¢ to walk during the worst of it 200 feet from our shelter and back. He took off all but his shorts and did it. Then a lightning bolt hit the water tower over our heads. 

The storm cooled the temperature like an air conditioner and I had my first good sleep since Denver.

I should explain about Kansas. Since there are very few scenic areas in the state, there are very few campgrounds and, as a consequence, they let you camp in their rest areas., which occur every 30 miles on all major highways. This makes the state extremely popular with bicyclists, who will take a free camp anywhere they can get it. The only problem is that rest areas, unlike private campgrounds in normal states, do not provide showers. Therefore, bicyclists don’t take any. Enough said.

I wrote more about my fellow campers in the narrative I wrote at the end of the trip:

That night, I camped in a rest area at the town of Norton. I shared it with two other travelers. The first was a man in his late forties who apparently made his living by traveling the mid-west in a dilapidated car and trailer painting signs for people—rather repainting signs suffering from the extreme weather there. He was a man of strong religious conviction and he was surprised and perhaps insulted that I did not accept the religious pamphlet he offered me. He was apparently very lonely too, as he followed me around like a puppy dog, offering opinions on everything under the sun with the most genuine convictions. By morning, I couldn’t move fast enough to leave him behind.

The other traveler was John, a cyclist who was going my way. He was a 30-year-old blond New Englander who had spent the winter living in Paradise on the Yucatan Peninsula, living on a beach eating cocoanuts and going spear-fishing for dinner. Now he was bicycling home across America.

A massive thunderstorm was moving in so we repaired to a restroom/information center building. The storm hit with the usual driving sheets of rain, lightning, lighting up the neighborhood, and thunder crashing. In the height of the thunderstorm, I offered John 50 cents if he’s stroll 200 feet to a picnic shelter and back. He didn’t even stop to think about it, he just stripped off all his clothes but his shorts and went. When he go back, he pulled out a towel and dried off and accepted my money. At least he got a shower. Shortly afterward, a lightning bolt hit the water tower directly over our heads. This time the thunder didn’t roll around. It just CRASHED same time as the lightning! It was quite an experience. The storm passed but left air that was cooled as of by an air conditioner. I had my first good night’s sleep since Denver.

Pretty crazy of us, looking back on it. But thunderstorms bring out the crazy in you--something about all those positive ions in the air. I don't think I ever heard anything so loud in my life as when that lightning hit the water tower over us. Maybe THAT's how I lost my hearing in one ear...