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Kansas and ME

The part of this journal that actually has some cycle-tourin' in it begins in a about ten days, which means it's high time I start developin' a more specific concept of a plan.   The problem is I don't know much about Kansas other than that millions of cows live there.   While Kansas' bovine population is an interestin' factoid, it's not at all useful for creatin' a bike route.

I've been to Kansas a few times in the past.   Unfortunately, all of those visits involved drivin' straight-through the state in a motor vehicle, stoppin' only to fill the gas tank.   Two of them occurred in the dead of night, in the midst of 20-hour marathon drives to the national parks of west Texas.  Kansas was invisible except for what I could see in my headlights.  Another memorable trip through the state occurred when I was about eleven years old.   More than a half century later, I am still haunted by that sweaty 110-degree, 400-mile drive across the state while returning from a family vacation in Colorado.   It was, in the words of David Bromberg, “a stinkin' summer trip through southern hell.”  It's nice to reminisce about those Kansas experiences but, again, they don't provide much information (or inspiration) for creatin' a bike route.

Also of little help is that I have never ridden a bicycle in Kansas.  In that regard, Kansas is almost as foreign to me as, say, Greenland.  It would be cool to bike in Greenland (while it's still an independent territory), but I don't think I have the skills to ride a loaded bicycle in a land with so few roads and so much snow and ice.  So Kansas will have to do for now, yet I'm not sure I even have the skills to ride in whatever conditions exist there either.  At least I know Kansas has many thousands of miles of roads.   I'm just having a hard time deciding which ones to ride.

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(I don't know why I go off on unrelated tangents like that Greenland stuff.   Furthermore, I don't know why I wasted so much time looking for maps, writing on them, and taking pictures of them.  I guess I had no other purpose than to perpetuate a dumb joke.   I hope it didn't bug you.  I hope I am better able to control myself once the tour starts.  I hope you don't abandon my Ersatz Cowboy movie before then.  Most of all, I hope I don't fall into disfavor with the Pulitzer Prize committee.)

Gettin' Serious

I usually try to keep my plannin' and researchin' to a minimum.   I am of the belief that knowin' too much about what's ahead takes away from the joys of discovery, spontaneity and flexibility.   I've bragged about that many times in my journals, so why get into that again, eh?

I'm not a complete fool though.  I've been looking at maps A LOT, and yesterday I went so far as to consult Google for places of interest in Kansas. Yeah, I know “places of interest” is just another term for “tourist attractions,” but I really needed some help figurin' out where to go.

Kansas has many places of interest but, oh man, there are some mighty long distances between them.   Kansas is a big state, and there's no way I can see it all in the two weeks available to me.  Feelin' the pressure of a deadline, I finally narrowed my sightseein' possibilities down to the southwestern sector of the state.   It looks like the kind of desolate area that could use a healthy infusion of cycle touring magic--and I'm the right cowboy to get things rollin'.

With its cowboy history, Dodge City is a logical startin'/endin' point for a lasso-shaped route.   I will proceed from there.  Side ventures are a definite possibility.   It will be fun, for sure.