Day 23: Hiding from the Sun

We left our cozy quarters in Ash Grove at 5:45 this morning, hoping to get some riding in before it got too hot.

Sunrise over hay bales, about five miles west of Ash Grove

After riding 35 miles, we arrived in Golden City hungry. As planned, we stopped by Cooky's Cafe to eat breakfast and sample the pies we had heard so much about.

The breakfast options at Cooky's left something to be desired (we're not quite sure why you would order a plain cheese omelet or bacon and eggs when you could make them better yourself). While we waited for our food, we found ourselves reminiscing about our many bike rides to the Blue Benn and yearning for their delicious and creative breakfast options (Southwest benedict, anyone?).

The main dishes may not have been thrilling, but the pie was good! We ended up ordering three slices: raspberry, strawberry rhubarb, and coconut cream. The raspberry and coconut cream were by far the best! We also really enjoyed talking to our waitress and hearing about her life/plans for the future.

Appetizer pies

Dessert pie

Writing in the log book for touring cyclists

Our ride following breakfast followed one very straight road for another 35 miles, directly into a headwind. We ended up switching leads every 6 miles or so to give each other a break. Although the distance seemed infinite at first, we found that we could make it more bearable by slipping into a sort of trance-like state. We were awake, but our minds were very much somewhere else. We emerged briefly only to cheer ourselves on as we crossed the state line into Kansas.

We headed straight to the Walmart once we got to Pittsburg, so that Alix could pick up a prescription. We also bought food there, which we ended up consuming at a nearby Wendy's (gotta love that a/c!). While we ate, it suddenly became too hot to venture outdoors, and we ended up camping out at the "restaurant" for the next three hours. As I write this, it is still too hot to ride (at 6:30pm!) However, we have shifted locations to a Starbucks so as to maintain some sort of dignity (the employees at Wendy's were starting to give us weird looks...).

Bringing our own food into eating establishments is starting to feel oddly normal

As soon as the sun calms down a bit (we assume this will happen eventually, but it feels very theoretical at this point), we plan to ride another 15 miles and camp in the town of Girard.

Neither of us has been to Kansas before! So far, its towns look exactly like all the others and its scenery is somewhat repetitive (its like having constant deja vu). But we'll see! We have a rather strong desire to hitch hike across most of the state, but we're trying to hide that fact from the locals, so as not to hurt their feelings.