Celebration in Pueblo, CO!!!

Hey, everyone! Wes here! I've been in Pueblo, CO since Tuesday afternoon. I'm taking some time off just to celebrate how far I've come. More than 7 weeks on the road have brought me through Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. I've ridden more than 2,325 miles atop Fledge and am well past the halfway point of my trek. I have a very bad tendency to downplay my personal achievements and felt that I needed to recognize the monumental accomplishment I've achieved. Tomorrow I'll be starting the Rocky Mountains and some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. I don't have many details to share since Dodge City but thought I'd take a small slot of time to share what has gone down the last few days.


After leaving Dodge I rode about 70 miles to Lakin, KS. Got another flat tire on this ride but other than that it was great to be back on the road. The only public service building I could find open in Lakin was the hospital so I inquired if I could contact the police department using their phone (Mine had no reception.) The police referred me to a place about 2 miles south of town called Beymer Park. I ate dinner at the Subway sandwich place and then pedaled off to set up camp. That evening I listened to a podcast from my church back home, did some reading and then went to sleep. The park was far enough from town that I got my first glimpse of western stars that night. Had I not been so tired I'd have spent some time drinking in the night sky but after a 70 mile day I just needed rest.


From Lakin, I set off for Lamar, CO and Mountain Daylight Time! I was in a great mood by the time I reached my destination for the day. I pulled into Lamar's Walmart Supercenter, took a nice hour long cool down period, topped off my tires with a pump in the store (or at least I thought I'd topped them off, more on this later), and pedaled off to an RV park about 3 miles west of town. The RV park was miserable. There was standing water all over the ground, hordes of mosquitoes and deer flies, grossly overpriced soda in a vending machine, and no running water next to my tent so I had to use a hose in front of the office (The water tasted like rubber). Like I said, miserable. They did, however, give me a $5 discount since I was riding for the ALS Association, although I'm of the opinion that charging me $10 was about $10 overpriced.


The following morning I set off for Fowler. Glad to put that RV park behind me, I was in a pretty decent mood. That's when *another* flat tire happened. That pump at the Walmart was apparently a piece of garbage they'd mistaken for merchandise. It read that I had put a good amount of air into my tire but I must have actually lost some as it was a pinch flat that did me in that morning (A pinch flat happens when the slightly deflated inner tube gets pinched between the tire and the rim of the wheel.). Anyway, I changed the tire out on the side of the highway and just as I was finishing a friendly lady in a big van stopped to offer Fledge and me transportation if I needed it. As the tire was already patched up I thanked her then simply continued on my way. Made it to Fowler without any further complications. Fowler was nice! I caught my very first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains about 15 minutes before reaching my destination and was pumped to get into Pueblo the following day. For dinner, the lady recommended I order an eastern Colorado specialty at the nearby grill restaurant. The dish is called a Slopper and consists of fried beef patties topped with green chilies. Good stuff! After dinner I picked up a couple things at the Dollar General and headed back to the campsite. As the sun set, I drank a cold one and quieted myself for sleep.


The 35-ish miles to Pueblo the next day seemed long and drawn out. Time seemed to pass more slowly than it had on previous rides. After what felt like 2 hours I found I'd only been riding about an hour. After passing the Pueblo City Limits sign it felt like another hour before I actually started getting into town. I stopped at the Barnes and Noble on the north side of town and drank down a Starbucks S'mores Frappuccino. I contacted a guy on the Warm Showers cycling network. He lived towards the west side of town but was working until the next morning. He gave me instructions on how to get into his house so I pedaled over there and took a nice break before heading out for dinner. Mi Ranchito Mexican Restaurant. Best. Mexican. Food. Ever! Had a cold Dos Equis and hands down some of the best food I've eaten in my life! Came back to the house and crashed on the recliner.


Yesterday morning, Eric came home, we had some inspirational conversation together, ate eggs for breakfast and took some time to relax. Eric is an inspirational person to meet! He runs an organization that gets blind and visually impaired persons on tandem bicycles. Later on, Eric, his son Garrett, and I went kayaking at San Isabel Lake in the foothills of the Rockies. On the way home we stopped at Bishop Castle, pretty much the largest building built by a single person in the world. Great day!


So here I am laying low today in Pueblo, giving my muscles one more day to recover before tackling the Rockies. The most visually striking part of my trip still lies ahead! In other news, I've made the decision to cut the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas out of my route. Money is simply too tight and it's just going to tack on too many more miles and take too much time to justify the southern dip. My slated arrival in San Francisco is still the middle of July. It's going to be hard enough dealing with the heat in Utah and Nevada as it is. So that's where we stand now. Take care, everyone! Don't forget to take a gander at the pictures below!

Bishop's Castle; This place is amazing! Constructed by one single (very eccentric) individual! Not a team, no help from friends. Alone. He built this place!

He's extremely kooky but I definitely appreciate his passion. He's extremely anti-government! 

Kayaking on San Isabel Lake in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains!

Bad Weather in Dodge City, KS

Well here I am roughly a week after my last rest day and I'm in Dodge City, KS. I wasn't planning to take a rest day until I reached Colorado but the weather is keeping me from making progress.

After leaving the Holiday Inn Express in Marshfield I headed west bound for Golden City, Missouri but after about 15 minutes of riding I saw that I was definitely heading directly into a darkly clouded horizon and reports of serious thunder and rain. I made a U-Turn and headed back to hunker down for a couple more hours indoors. When I finally got on the road it was almost 11 o'clock and Golden City was too far to reach that day. Instead, I rode for Ash Grove. It was a pleasant, pretty uneventful ride but I was glad I'd waited that couple of hours as the weather turned out to be absolutely beautiful. On arriving in Ash Grove I pulled into an empty parking lot to get my bearings and figure out where to stay the night. As I was monkeying around on my phone a friendly lady named Brenda pulled in to talk to me. She identified herself as a former mayor of Ash Grove and asked if I needed any help finding something. She told me how to get to the town hall where they could get me registered for staying the night in the park. When I told her I was planning to pick up a few things at the grocery store to cook my own dinner she insisted on giving me some money to go out to eat with and recommended a pizza place. The people at Town Hall were super friendly too and gave me a key to stay inside a small house on park grounds as more adverse weather was headed in later. I got settled in and then walked to the little pizza restaurant on the edge of town. Good food and more friendly people. Four other cyclists arrived that evening and stayed in the house with me. Headed out early next morning for Girard, Kansas.

Since my last flat tire I'd been running with only the inner tubes I had in my wheels and was praying I'd make it to Pittsburg, KS where the next bike shop was. On Saturday morning I found out the guy closes on Saturday at around 4 pm and is closed Sunday. I wasn't really panicking but I was concerned and pedaled the 70-ish miles to Pittsburg in only 5-1/2 hours. As soon as I turned onto the street where the bike shop was I got my 3rd flat tire. I was praising God that it hadn't happened 10 miles previously. Got to the shop around 1:30, left Fledge in the care of the mechanic and walked down the road to an All You Can Eat Chinese buffet. On arriving back at the shop I was disheartened to receive a bill of about $180 for two new tires (which I did need) and some spare inner tubes. Having decided not to shoot for Girard that day, the owner of the shop recommended a campground that was free to cyclists on the edge of town and directly on the route I'd be taking. I swung by the Walmart to pick up dinner fixins and then pedaled off towards my campsite.

Sunday's ride was daunting. I made the questionable decision to try and make up the distance to Girard and then ride the full distance to Eureka, KS. The grand total was slightly over 120 miles. So I rode. And I rode. And then I rode some more. The headwind was annoying but didn't keep me from making acceptable progress. There were a couple decent hills, though, and I was super, super proud of myself when I arrived in Toronto, KS having completed my very first century on Fledge. As I took a breather a guy and his daughter or granddaughter pulled up next to me in a pickup truck. "There's a convenience store and grill about 2 miles down this road. You ride up there and I'm going to buy you a Gatorade!" "You're sure they're open?" "Yep! They're open! You ride up there and I'm going to buy you a Gatorade!" So I rode a couple miles and sure enough there was the place he'd mentioned. They were relaxing inside and when I stepped in I was told to pick out what kind of Gatorade I wanted and rip it open as he'd already paid for it. Talk about friendly people! The owner let me fill up my water bottles using the water and ice in her soda fountain and told me the swimming pool was open in Eureka and would still be open when I got there. Those last 20 miles were miserable. I shifted in my seat trying to find a comfortable position but my buns refused to be comforted and just wailed in pain from time to time. I knew there was no way I could camp tonight so I pulled into a motel on the edge of town and got a room before wandering over to the Pizza Hut to enjoy a protein-rich dinner of chicken wings and the salad bar.

The next day I was shooting for another century to Buhler but when I arrived in Newton I'd had enough. 75 miles was an amazing feat after 120 the day before. I went to the fire department and they directed me to this amazing bike shop that called itself the oasis in the grass desert. It truly was an oasis! Newton Bike Shop is probably the best place I've stayed at so far on the entire tour. They offer two separate packages for cycle tourists. I picked number one which simply included the bed, an unlimited supply of beer on tap, a load of laundry and use of the kitchen all for less than $15. The other package was about $50 and included a bicycle tune-up, cleaning the drive train and a couple extra things as well as what was included in the other package. If I hadn't had my drivetrain cleaned the previous week I'd have considered doing package number two but riding for charity dictates I keep my personal costs to a minimum and a bed with some beer well suited my needs. For some added excitement I got to hear a loud, angry customer chewing out the manager of the Dollar General where I picked up some groceries. Made me miss Walmart. haha

The next day I was really sore. I mean really sore. I knew 100 miles was well out of the question for the day so I decided to take it easy and pedal to Hutchinson which was just down the road about 30 miles. On talking to the owner of the bike shop I decided to deviate from Adventure Cycling's route and just take US-50 most of the way to Pueblo, CO for the next few days. So I took 50 to Hutchinson and took in the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum which had a great exhibit on the story of how we reached the moon. Fascinating history! Nazi missiles were the first serious attempts at rocket science and had Hitler never come to power we may still not have reached outer space. Also, the more I learn about John F Kennedy, the more I think the guy had some serious balls! Something I hadn't realized was that when he started talking about putting a man on the moon the vast majority of United States attempts to get things *into orbit around the earth* ended in serious embarrassment and failure. Russia was kicking our butt at the space race! The idea of not only getting a rocket into space, not only getting an animal into space, not only getting a human into space, not only getting a human to orbit the moon but to get a man ON the moon must have sounded like JFK was losing his marbles! But that's what happened! Unbelievable!

The next day I was planning to ride from Hutchinson to Offerle. The longer I rode, though, the more I thought Offerle wasn't a good plan. From what I'd seen on Google Maps there wasn't much there. Tiny little town without any grocery store or restaurant. So I decided to stop after 84 miles in Kinsley. Not a large town by any stretch of the imagination but they had a grocery store, a campground, a couple restaurants and a little hospital. So I picked up a couple things just to refresh myself at the grocery store and then rode to the campground where I cooked up a little sack of backpacker's food I'd bought a few days ago. As I was finishing my dinner a young man walked in and we chatted for a while about the insanity that I was doing of riding my bicycle across the country. Kinsley was a nice little place to hang out.

Early yesterday morning I hit the road trying to get to Garden City. There was a brutal headwind out, though, and I was riding about 7 MPH despite the fact that it was completely flat terrain. About halfway to Dodge City I decided my original goal was no longer tenable and that I'd go for Dodge instead. Of course after I made that decision the wind got a lot more reasonable and I felt like I could make it significantly past Dodge. But I'd heard the reports of bad weather by this point and felt that Dodge would be my best bet to stay safe. It has a population of about 20 thousand, several churches, a police station and other things that make me feel a bit safer in the face of heavy winds, rain and lightning. Plus there were things to see and do if the weather wasn't so bad that I had to stay indoors. The weather looks poor for the next few days so I'm just going to hunker down here until Monday or Tuesday. There's a shelter in town called The Manna House which the police recommended to me if I need to get in out of the storm. It's a homeless shelter but I'm sure they'll understand my situation and give me some kind of help. Right now, it's just cloudy outside and it looks like I may not get hit as hard as I was thinking. Still, it's best to be safe and be able to take cover in the event that things take a turn for the worse. One thing's for sure, the first chance I get to get out of Dodge I'm taking it and riding as far as my legs will carry me! With a couple days for my muscles to heal that might be a good long way!

Rest Day in Marshfield, MO

When taking a rest day today crossed my mind my initial thought was "Your last rest day was much too recent to take another one!" I can't believe it's been 9 days since my last break! It feels like 4 or 5 days ago! Honestly, the days have seriously started to bleed into each other. My routine is so similar every morning. When I'm camping I always hit the road by 8 am regardless of how far I'm riding. My endurance energy levels have taken a dramatic upturn too. The thought of a 50 mile ride often sounds too short and I find myself setting goals of 65-75 miles instead. Instead of a piddling 7 mph my speed has increased to about 10 mph and I'm able to cover the same amount of ground in a noticeably shorter time. Of course that has as much to do with the terrain as it does my leg strength. Looking back, I truly believe that the Appalachians were the hardest part of the ride. The Ozarks may be almost as bad but I find that, generally speaking, the roads are not as curved. I remember riding the ascent out of Hayter's Gap, VA. The road twisted and turned as I ascended. You'd see a seriously high grade ahead of you for about 300 feet and think "The road can't keep ascending at this grade much past that bend." But you'd get to the top, turn the corner, and find that the ascent continues another 300-ish feet. Often, there would be between 5 and 6 of those curves. By the time you hit number 4 your legs would be seriously feeling the burn and when you hit numbers 5 and 6 you'd often use some choice words to express your surprise at the length of the ascent. In the Ozarks, you see almost all of the ascents at once and can prepare yourself mentally for the full stretch.

Anyway, on to the details! On the ride to Sebree I bumped into 2 other touring cyclists named Monica and Rachel (and I am literally just now realizing how funny it is that they were named thusly!). They were sitting atop a hay bale just for the fun of it. Chatted for a couple of minutes and then departed leaving them behind. After arriving in Sebree, KY I stopped at a local church which had set up a hostel for cyclists in the basement of their building. Showers, mattresses, a full kitchen, etc. Another cyclist named Devin was there. The pastor, a friendly guy named Bob, informed me that all the cyclists were welcome to dine with him and his wife, Violet, following the Wednesday evening program at the church. I went to a small prayer group that evening. All we did was pray over a printed sheet of all the prayer needs in the congregation and over myself and the other cyclists with me for safety and for the Lord to use my ride in the fight against ALS. After that, Monica and Rachel arrived, having been spotted by Pastor Bob and talked into staying the night at the hostel. Dinner was fantastic! After eating, Violet brought out hordes of cycling memorabilia starting all the way from the 70s when they'd first started hosting cyclists. It was inspiring to hear all the stories of people they'd met headed across the country on bicycle and made me feel not quite so small or crazy.

The following morning I finally exited Kentucky! Taking that ferry across the Ohio River was a memorable event. I met a cyclist named Steven and his wife, Mary. Steven was riding unloaded along the route while his wife navigated more major roads in their RV. They'd started with a larger group but gradually all of them had quit and gone separate ways. Mary had never driven an RV before and with the obscurity of most of the small towns we pass through she was having an adventure of her own trying to figure out how to get such a large vehicle to the destination. About 3 hours into the ride we stopped at a small café in Clay, KY. 3 other touring bicycles were outside so we jumped at the chance to meet more cyclists! Turns out it was Megan (whom I'd been in contact with for several months about this trip), her friend Kristen and Devin! I camped out on Steven and Mary's campsite that night in Cave-in-Rock, IL at the Cave-in-Rock State Park. Having learned about my cause, they paid for my dinner in the quaint little diner that night and got me some dessert too! After dinner we went down to the eponymous cave right on the river front. It was a sight to behold! Robbers had used it as their headquarters back in the 1800s. They would pretend to offer help to weary travelers and proceed to fleece them of many of their possessions. The cave was their hangout and where they stored their loot.

The following night was spent in Ferne Clyffe State Park just down the road a piece from Goreville, IL. Steven and Mary were taking a different route after that day so we wished each other well and parted ways. They generously donated $50 to my cause on our parting. I swung by the grocery store to pick up some dinner to cook and on the way to my campsite I bumped into Devin who told me that Megan had had a semi-serious accident on a gravel road and was taken to a doctor's office. They were trying to find a cheaper way to transport her to a hospital than an ambulance. She wasn't in critical condition or anything, just a little bit cut up and unable to ride for a little while. They ended up renting a car and transporting her to a hospital in Indiana. Real bummer. She won't be able to ride for a little while but is planning to resume the trip after recovering.

I think I'd forgotten to mention the elderly couple from the Netherlands whom I had bumped into in White Mills. They were nearby when I had my accident with the dogs and we all stayed the night in Fordsville. Well I bumped into them again in Ferne Clyffe. They'd had to order a replacement part for one of their bicycles and were stuck there for about 4 days while they waited for it to be shipped to a local gas station in Goreville. Ferne Clyffe is a nice little park. If you ever get a chance to camp there, take it! The site comes with showers but they are a pretty long walk from the primitive sites so be prepared to walk about 1-1/4 miles. I got incredibly frustrated and spent almost an hour and a half walking around the blasted area trying to find where the showers were. I was about to give up when the couple from the Netherlands came along and they were headed to the showers themselves and offered to show me where they were.

The next morning I was debating whether to try for Chester, IL or Murphysboro (which was considerably closer). There was a Walmart in Carbondale that had asked me to stop by and say hello to them and a bike shop that I wanted to stop at before hitting the Ozarks so I opted to shoot for Murphysboro instead. Had a fantastic lunch at Moe's Southwest Grill with the manager of the Walmart and one of her assistant managers. Then I headed off to find the bike shop. The shop was across the street from an Amtrak train station and as the mechanic was looking over Fledge, a train pulled in. The last bit of the trip had been hard, lonely and less than ideal in terms of weather. When the train pulled in, a large part of me wanted to simply leave everything in the bike shop, jump on that train and then find out what transfers I needed to make to get back to Baltimore, MD. I didn't, though. That night in Murphysboro, it started to pour. I found myself in a Taco Bell/KFC franchise feeling cold, wet, alone and very discouraged. When I posted about all this on Facebook the supportive comments started flowing in and customers in the restaurant probably looked at me funny as I got all sniffly and teary-eyed reading the kind, gracious, supportive words of my friends. I pulled up my Warm Showers app and found, miraculously, that there was a lady in Murphysboro who was willing to host traveling cyclists. I had no running water apart from a spigot next to her house but I had a warm, dry place to stay the night and charge my phone up.

The following day I set a new record for myself! 83.5 miles from Murphysboro, IL to Farmington, MO! Bumped into Devin at the tail end of the ride. I made my way to a cycling hostel called Al's Place. Fantastic hostel! $20 donation requested but it's so worth it! A bed, a shower, laundry facilities-- essentially a cycle tourist's dream! Nice homey atmosphere! I grabbed the second to last bed as a group from Adventure Cycling was staying the night there also. After getting settled I enjoyed a large meal at a local Chinese restaurant and had a nice chat with the delivery guy. Great sleep that night!

By this point the weather had been cool and cloudy/rainy for 4 days. Cloudy is a great condition for riding in mountains but it has serious emotional side-effects as well. I'd been fighting gloominess for a while. I reached Centerville around 4:30 and set up camp near a couple of other cycle tourists from Switzerland. We were in the town park which has no bathrooms or showers. The gracious owners of the only restaurant in town let me bide my time after eating and I dove into Lord of the Rings for a few hours and went to bed shortly after dark.

While I was staying in Centerville the Adventure Cycling group had stayed a few miles east of me in Lesterville. They caught up with me during the ride from Centerville to Summersville, though, when I got my second flat tire. One of my inner tubes was unusable so I ended up having to use both spare tubes to get back on the road. They helped me get ready to roll again and I rode a good distance with them before they stopped in Eminence. I kept plowing ahead to Summersville and arrived there in the mid-afternoon. Found out about a friendly motel owner who lets cyclists take a shower in one of her rooms for $5. I jumped at that chance and then set up camp in yet another town park. Met another cycle tourist named Lydia at the tiny little library in town. She had left Colorado Springs and was headed for Florida. I grabbed my dinner at the tiny little grocery store in town and ate it back at my campsite. A word of advice: NEVER eat canned, room temperature asparagus. Nasty! Yech!

The following morning, I was planning to hang out at the library in town before taking off to Bendavis, MO but when I found out the library wasn't going to open until 11 am I decided to make a mad dash for Marshfield. Long ride! Longer than I was thinking! 86.8 miles according to Google maps! A new personal record! I was thinking it was about 77 miles but ended up tacking almost another 10 on top of that! Arrived in Marshfield around 6:30, set up camp at some fairgrounds and then decided to reward myself with a nice dinner at Pizza Hut. Afterwards, I hit the hay as soon as I got back to camp.

Woke first thing this morning and headed over to the Holiday Inn Express in which Rising Sun Snacks rented a room for me. Now to spend some time napping and watching TV!

From the shores of Illinois, looking back at Kentucky!

I've made it out of Kentucky!

The beach leading up to the cave

A sheer rock face bordering the cave

Nice and big inside!

Perhaps Steven is standing right where the robbers once stood!

The bridge from Illinois into Missouri!

Fledge and I are about to embark on Missouri soil!

Chester, IL-- the last small town before entering Missouri-- is where Popeye was created!

The mighty Mississip! Lewis and Clark camped out near here with the Corps of Discovery!