Pastor Joe continued on with his life story as I sat in a chair opposite of him with one of his dogs asleep on my lap. I was semi-asleep by this time, and had not had a bath, so the dog and I decided to just spend the night in the chair. I explained to Joe that I needed to leave at daylight so that I could get to the Eureka Post Office before they closed at ten o-clock, so he got up about 5:00 and fixed breakfast for me and I was out by six.
I knew in theory I could make the 44 miles in four hours, but that it was going to be very windy and I didn't know what the terrain would be like, so I really pushed hard to get to Eureka. It's good that I did because it was much more hilly than I expected and there was a heck of a cross wind. This is beautiful country side with rolling pastures and an expansive view from every hill top. Unfortunately, I was in too much of a hurry to take pictures. The last 15 miles was on state highway 54, a good two lane road with a wide shoulder, but a 65 MPH speed limit. Cars and trucks really whiz by when I'm going 8 MPH up a hill and they are moving at the speed limit plus. One of the things I've noticed here is that, because the roads are so straight, when a county road intersects with a state road, they build a curve into the county road so that a driver doesn't blow right through the intersection.
I got into Eureka with time to spare, but to no avail, because my package wasn't there, so I'm stuck here until Monday when I can either get my mail or have them forward it on to another town. After I left the library, I'm sitting outside a Sonic Drive in getting ready to check into a motel to wait for my mail when a lady walks up and introduces herself an asks if I have a place to stay. Turns out that Robyn has a spare house that she opens as a hostel for bicyclists. So, I follow her to the house where I'm staying until Monday. It's really nice, with a good shower, comfortable bed, and an very well stocked kitchen. In gratitude, I offered to take her out to dinner, but instead, we bought a couple of steaks and ate here at the house.
There is another rider coming in this afternoon, so she is cooking lasagna and I have volunteered to make a couple of fruit custard pies. This is only the second test day I've taken off since I started nearly a month ago, and it feels mighty good.
About 1:00 on Sunday, two riders show up within about a half hour of each other. One of them ,John, I met several days before and he had caught up because of my layover day, and the other, Patrick, is a 64 year old Retired attorney from New Jersey. He has been riding since May 5th and he has been down to Maryland, up to Pittsburgh, down the Ohio Valley and now on the Trans-Am to Oregon. John has come down from the St. Louis area and is headed to somewhere in Colorado and then back towards home. He is riding a beautiful 1984 Schwinn Letour touring bike.
On Monday morning both Pay and John left before me because I had to wait on the post office to open, and I had a flat tire. I fixed my tire, got my package at the post office, changed my seat, and finally left Eureka about 8:30.
I caught up with John around lunch and we rode together to a park out side of Newton Kansas where we camped. We got up at 4:00 this morning and started out in the dark to beat the heat. We stopped in the grocery store in Newton and then at the bike shop which would not have been open, but the leaders of the West to East Grand-Am bike race were coming through this morning and the bike shop is an official stop. When we got there they were interviewing the guy in second place and we had to wait until they finished. After we got what we needed we had squandered our early start, so we had to endure the heat and wind. We stopped in Buhler around 10:00 to get something to eat, and there was Pat sitting down to breakfast.
The three of us finished out our days ride together and we are staying at Hedricks Exotic Animal Farm and B&B. I'm going out now to take a few pictures of the place for you.
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