Day 24 : Digestion and Riding Are Mutually Exclusive

After a late start, we feasted on a hearty morning meal of oatmeal (our first time bolstering the hot cereal with the creamy power of milk; thanks to the Pham family Tony and Angel pictured with the trio above), chatted, and packed. Just a quarter of a mile outside of Bird City we noticed a brightly colored figured on the opposite shoulder of the road growing larger. It was our first encounter with a road warrior traveling eastward . The man was Doug Bahniuk, a 50 year old Cleveland man with Parkinsons disease riding to raise money to help fight Parkinsons (dougslastgreatsoloride.blogspot.com)


After riding for 10 miles, only a few miles from St. Francis we notice a nice farm house that is selling eggs, herbs, and such. We stop, are given cold water, chat about the problems of industrialized agriculture on the health of the planet and its people, purchase some herbs and jelly, and are directed towards a good lunch spot and grocery in St. Francis.

We decided to eat lunch at the St. Francis Dairy King, a greasy burger and milkshake joint that was completely slammed with business and too little employees (below). Our food took a long time and we decided to gorge deeply into the late afternoon, consuming burgers, fries, milkshakes, and cones.
(below: Thankfully Nick is entertained by a younger customer.)

(below: Luke, chocolate-vanilla twist cone in hand, mingles with the country folk)


St. Francis is only 15 miles from the Colorado/Kansas border. We decide to make a run for the border after 4 hours of gorging in the heat of the day. By 4:30 we are off. Just outside of town we notice another bicycling figure riding a half mile ahead of us. After 7 miles of riding Nick, who is uncharacteristically riding at a higher velocity than Luke and I, catches up to this enigmatic figure only to be snubbed. According to Nick, he peddled his ass off to catch up with the man. When he was 5 feet from him, the man darted off onto a nearby dirt road. After riding north on the dirt road for a minute or so, he allowed Nick to pass him by and headed back out onto hwy 36 for a little while longer before turning south onto a driveway. After a minute or two at the house he leaves the driveway and heads back east towards St. Francis. At this time, I am slowly pulling up the rear and pass him as he exists the drive (below: secret man dressed in jeans and long sleeve shirt with a bicycling cap adorned with a tilting mirror). At this time I was unaware about his snubbing ability, and went ahead to greet him, only to be snubbed with a snarling glar.

Only 5 more miles of flat terrain and we cross into Colorado and decide to take a good stretch and gather ourselves after the gorgefest. (below: Luke perches on the coolest state welcome sign)

(below: Sam stretches out with the state of Kansas behind him)

(below: Luke is pictured taking pictures of a sign describing good agricultural practices)


We road for 15 more miles from the border to a town called Idalia, Colorado. In Idalia we camped out behind a playground facility situated behind the high school football field. (below: dinner is consumed standing up)


Eastern Colorado is surprisingly flat but beautiful at sunset. I expected the Rockies to be a little rockier than this. Yeah that John Denver is full of shit man.


morale. B-
miles. 45
flats. none