Rusty Crank Coast to Coast Bicycle Tour across the USA on the ACA TransAM Route

TransAm Day #24 June 18, 2018 Chanute, KS - Cassoday, KS 99 Miles Ride Time 7:38 Hours Tour Total  Miles 1779 details at: https://cyclemeter.com/4b2d99e24f1383f2/Cycle-20180618-0358-52807 I slept like a corpse in a morgue last night at the Knights Inn in Chanute, as Steve likes his hotel rooms below freezing. I had to chip ice off my laundry line this morning.  We had agreed that the only way to deal with this ridiculous Kansas heat and 28 mile an hour winds, was to start our rides at 4am. We got up at 3:30 and I, at least, was on the road on schedule. It was still dark, but I had my front and rear lights blazing. It wasn’t chilly. The temperature was perfect. Up above, the stars were twinkling and I could even see the Milky Way. I was unable to see my maps or anything on my bike, but it’s second nature by now and I could access my water bottles and gear shifters by feel. The route was basically a straight line. I just had to watch for potholes, and the...

TransAm Day #25 June 19, 2018 Cassoday, KS - Nickerson, KS 91 Miles Ride Time 6:55 Hours Tour Total  Miles 1868 details at: https://cyclemeter.com/4b2d99e24f1383f2/Cycle-20180619-0428-64223 I slept in my hammock stretched out in the Cassoday park gazebo last night as freight trains blared through town every twenty minutes. It wasn’t the most restful night’s sleep. I got cold in the middle of the night and had to pull out my sleeping bag. My alarm chimed at 3:30am, but it took me an hour before I was ready to ride. There was an issue in the outhouse trying to squeeze out what felt like a brick.  My map warned me that there were no services for the first forty miles. The ride was a perfectly straight line on a small county road. It was a smart idea to ride this in the early morning, and not under the blazing afternoon sun. The flatness, emptiness, and light spill from far away towns in the distance reminded me of my Sahara desert crossing in 1993. I’ve de...