The Road to El Dorado

Tuesday, July 25. Eureka, KS to Newton, KS.

Today we had more than a couple of route options. The short day would have been from Eureka to Cassoday, about 40 miles. The "classic" TransAmerica route from Eureka to Newton via Cassoday is about 75 miles, but between Cassoday and Newton there's nothing but cows. With today's heat reaching again into the 100's, we opted for the Adventure Cycling's wussy route. Still 70+ miles, traveling from Eureka to Rosalia, then on to El Dorado, Potwin, Whitewater and ending in Newton.

We were on the road before 7:30am, and for the first few hours the air was still cool. I may have been a little sleepy, but if Kansas flattened out overnight, I missed it completely. We're riding through the Flint Hills today, which is really lovely country. The type of landscape that I would expect to see in a spaghetti western--rolling hills, bunches of trees (with bunches of cows standing in their shade), and lots and lots of pasture and prairie. And the occasional oil well. I even saw a small herd of longhorns today. When I stopped to take a picture, all of them spooked and ran off--except one. And he was a beauty. A dark reddish brown color, fading to a lighter roan color with white spots on his rump. Even though he looked young (!), his horns were a couple of feet long on each side.

The winds today were out of the south and southwest again, and as the morning progressed, they got stronger. We were heading west, and managed to do a little wind-surfing again today, using the crosswind to help push us up and down the Flint Hills.

The road to El Dorado, our lunch destination, is actually Route 54. This road has a decent shoulder in some spots, no shoulder in others. The traffic isn't real heavy, but 2 out of 3 vehicles that passed us were 18-wheelers, making for some interesting riding. When a big-profile truck passes a small-profile bicycle in 20mph winds, the bicyclist knows it. The truck creates a vortex of wind as it passes, which simultaneously pulls the bicycle forward and pushes it outward. If there's no traffic in the oncoming lane, virtually all of the cars and trucks moved to that lane to pass us--and the vortex is too far away to affect us. But if the truck has to pass us in our traffic lane, the effect can be pretty dramatic. On an uphill, I kept checking my mirror to see if there's a big truck coming my way. It can be stressful to ride with these big trucks, particularly when the shoulder is narrow or non-existant. The cross-wind is loud, the big rigs are loud--and today, smelly. The wind swirls around your ears, making a constant noise. It whistles through all of our tires, and through the vents of our helmets. There is a lot of noise to contend with, along with the physical demands of trying to keep the bicycle and trailer on the road in between wind gusts. On one occasion today, I was riding behind (well behind) Matthew, and could see a semi-truck coming up from behind. Ahead, I could see a car coming toward me, and I estimated that the semi, the car and my bicycle would all pass each other at the same time. This part of the highway doesn't have a paved shoulder, but there is about a 6-foot gravel and grass shoulder--I decided to do a little cyclocross action and took off onto the shoulder as the car and truck passed me. Safe!

We stopped in El Dorado at the DQ, which is apparently quite historic and dates from the 40's, judging from the photos and posters hung in the shop. We didn't linger too long, though. The temperature was already 90 degrees at 11:30am, and we still had 40 miles to go!

The road out of El Dorado is Route 254, and it soon turned into a limited access road, complete with rumble strips on the shoulder. Seeing our next turn up ahead, we hopped the ditch between the highway and the access road to get to it. Once on Hwy 196, we took a right turn and had a tailwind! The wind noise that we'd been hearing all morning was abruptly gone, and the traffic dropped to nothing, too. What a relief to suddenly be cycling along a rural route with nothing but the sound of tires on the road. For the next 15 miles, we flew up and down hills until we had to take another turn, back into the crosswind. We went 7 miles to Whitewater, where we took a break and refilled our water. The clerk at the grocery store was also wishing the winds would calm down some. She's a windsurfer, but not experienced enough to handle the whitecaps that develop in these kind of winds. I asked where around Kansas she windsurfs; apparently the sailing is pretty good at East Lake in nearby Harvey County Park.

Back on the road, back in the crosswind, we struggled through another 10+ miles, passing a feedlot on the way (another great smell). Our last turn delivered another tailwind, and we flew the last 8 miles into Newton before stopping for ice cream. A film of salt covered us, leaving a gritty layer on exposed skin and turning our black shorts to a spotty grayish color. The straps of Matthew's helmet had turned white where the sweat ran off his face. Washing our clothes out required two rinses to get all of the salt out, but it was still so hot outside that our shorts, draped from our bikes, were completely dry by the time we got out of the pool.

Our lodging options tonight were either staking our tent in the city park, or taking a room at the Best Western. Guess which one we chose. Apparently, all of the hotels in the area are booked for the night. We managed to get one of the last remaining rooms, because we got into town in the afternoon. Sitting in the lobby tonight, uploading some pix, I heard several folks come in looking for a room. The only room left at this hotel is the honeymoon suite, also (conveniently) a smoking room. We've noticed (a lot) that outside of major cities, most restaurants and hotels will accomodate non-smokers--if forced to. More of their customers smoke than don't, I guess. Sometimes we get lucky. Tonight we are staying in a real non-smoking room, not one that has just had the ashtray removed. And dinner at Montana Mike's was completely smoke-free--and on a Tuesday night, we had to wait for a table, too. I was amused to see that Montana Mike's has about 20 locations in 6 different states--not, however, in Montana.

Tomorrow promises to be another hot one. We got an e-mail from fellow travelers Loree and Chris; they're back on schedule and nearing Pueblo, CO. They've come through the Appalachians, Adirondacks and the Ozarks--guess they're ready for the Rockies now. I doubt we'll see them again, but it's fun to hear where they're going and how they're finding the route. We're heading for Sterling tomorrow, instead of Nickerson, our original destination. Sterling has more services than Nickerson, even though it's off the route a bit. Maybe we'll see wheat tomorrow, or at least the remains from the wheat harvest. So far, though, I have to say that Kansans have been remarkably friendly. Cars roll by us, passengers and driver waving and tootling. Everyone we meet is open and friendly, even after they realize how crazy we are. It's a nice feeling.