What's Fred Up To Now?: Day 15 - Sunday June 3; Nickerson, KS to Larned, KS (59 miles)

Nickerson, KS was another very nice little Kansas community. You could tell from the store fronts that times are hard, but the people were all very friendly and helpful. I was glad I put my tent up under the pavilion. A thunderstorm came through about 4:00 AM and light rain continued until I left the city park at 7:30 AM. I stopped at the Kwik Shop before leaving town and ate a light breakfast and bought two bottles of Gatorade for the ride to Larned. There are no services on the route between these two towns. The Kwik Shop has two booth-style tables and there were eight local men “telling lies” and ribbing one another. This must be "the" place in Nickerson for early Sunday morning chit chat. I talked with them for a few minutes and then was on my way at about 7:45 AM. The ride started with relatively cool temperatures and an overcast sky. It looked like the rain had passed and the sky ahead showed signs of clearing at some point so I didn't put on any rain gear.

About ½ mile out of town I noticed my bike speedometer was not working. It had only clocked 0.27 miles and was reading 0 mph. I rely on the computer to judge where I am relative to roads/turns/etc. shown on the maps – so I don’t overshoot a turn because I wasn’t paying attention to road signs. Nothing I did seemed to make it work so I pedaled on while wiggling the wiring at each tie-down point. When I adjusted the tilt of the computer on the handlebar – “bingo” it started working again. I think I lost about two miles. It did the same thing a couple of more times when I stopped for one thing or another but I quickly got it working again each time.

About 20 miles into the ride I met Caroline and Lindie Cosgrove from Chamberlain, SD. They are riding the TransAmerica route in three- to four-week segments. They started their current segment just east of Pueblo about a week ago and will cycle east for a couple of more week until they need to return to their farm in South Dakota to harvest wheat. They parked their car in Colorado Springs and will take a bus back when it comes time to end their trip. Not a bad strategy.

At about the halfway point of today’s ride I passed through the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge where I saw quite a few bird species and a couple of deer. The refuge has a salt lake which I didn’t expect in the middle of Kansas. Of course no one misses an opportunity to pump oil from the ground. There were many, many small oil wells and sets of storage tanks. I don’t have a problem with this, it’s just not very scenic. During this stretch I came across Jose Merlos who is cycling all of the 48 lower states as part of a fundraising campaign to build a waterwell in Cameroon, Africa. He has four states left. You can check out Jose’s web page at www.josemerlos.wordpress.com.

By shortly after noon, I was 20 miles from Learned and stopped at the intersection of KS19 and US281 for a PBJ and banana. Then it was on to Larned. The terrain turned very, very flat and wide open after crossing US281. I could see Larned from about 14 miles away (that’s over an hour of pushing the pedals while looking at water towers and grain elevators located at my destination). Wheat harvest is in full operation around here. There are many combines and trucks in the fields. I crossed the Arkansas River just before entering Larned. It was bone-dry. I sought the first place I could find to sip a cold fountain soda. This ended up being a Kwik Shop all the way across town on the town's main commercial street. It didn’t care, I was thirsty for something other than water.

I then rode back to the downtown area and filled out a form at the police station that allows me to camp in the city park, which is on the side of town I came in on so I’ve ridden across town and back once already. The park is very nice and they let me use the showers at the pool to clean up – all for free. All the places to eat are on the other side of town so I guess I’ll go across and back again for dinner. Pizza Hut with salad bar – me thinks. A local couple, Stan and Susan Bryant, just stopped by to chat. They are acquaintances of a couple who operate a B&B in Bazine, KS. I’m not planning to stay in Bazine, but may try to stop in to say hello. A few photos from the day follow.