day 48

we awoke in hartville to a once vagabond tent town to now a vacant lawn, it was just us again. we finally got up cause we had a great spot that shaded us from the sun so we slept in a bit. we decided to hit up the library to update the blog but they don't allow people to plug in outside devices so i could only write up a couple days and try and use evan's computer to upload the pics but they only allow you to be on the wifi and internet for an hour at a time. after 2 hours the library was about to close so we headed out to grab some breakfast at the restaurant. we met lu and su there who camped at the town before so we shared a table and consumed our morning share of food, which was a lot. we were both headed to houston so we said we'd meet each other there and we lead the pack while they went up to the store to get american flags.it wasn't a super long day and it was full of hills but nothing too crazy. evan was ahead of me and i saw this tower off to the side of the road so i decided to climb up it since it had not gate or anything. after a bunch of stair levels, i made it to the top. it was pretty cool to see where we biked from and where we were going. there were little pockets of houses and towns tucked in the lush green forests. i stood there in awe for a bit and enjoyed the site of hawks soaring way above the trees looking for food below. i felt so small and could see my bike leaning against a tree and just amazed how big and crazy this world is. sometimes you need to just step back or see everything from a different perspective. about 5 miles out of houston there was a sign saying houston was to the right and success was to the left, so what did we do? we made the bad decision and went to houston. hopefully there will be success there we thought to celebrate the 4th of july but when we arrived into town we found out that they celebrated the 4th a week early! we were baffled since that was june. how can you celebrate something that isn't even in the same month? we really wanted to see what the posters said to advertise the celebrating of the 4th of july in june. did they claim freedom from the british early? i don't remember reading that in the history books. we rode downtown houston and the whole place was vacant, so we headed down to the grocery store to get some snacks. we heard about a good grill down the road so we went and got some dinner. after dinner evan sat outside getting their internet and i roamed around taking pictures of cows. gonna try to take series of pictures of animals, buildings, night time landscapes, and people (its always hard for me to just ask someone if i can take a picture of them, i need to get better). we then headed to the city park and we met up with lu and su who thought we ditched them. we shared a covered patio area where they made dinner and we just chatted until we went to bed.

day 47

we awoke and everyone was actually still there! we each packed up our gear and chatted for a bit until we headed off to the grocery store and they headed off to the wonderful west. at the grocery store, we bought some fruits, yogurts, and then some cereal. we ate the most horrible knock-off/knock-off cocoa puffs, they said they were from argentintia or something, we'd rather just eat the cardboard that they came in. we honestly, as hungry as we were, couldn't even finish the bowl we poured. we took off towards hartville to fight some more hills. it was a beautiful scenery change from kansas with more lush green and wild flowers, but there was lots of steep inclines but luckily our knees and legs were adjusting to the new riding conditions. i guess some of the mennonite population has migrated over to missouri too since there were several signs showing horse and buggys on the roads, sadly we didn't see one. we got to marshfield which was a huge town of 20,000 or more probably and it was super hot out so we stopped at dairy queen and got a blizzard, so refreshing. we decided to keep going to hartville. we got into town and had one brutal climb that was right before entering town, luckily we could coast down the other side. their only grocery store now, the other one got burned down a couple months ago, was at the top of the hill so we checked it out but sped down to the downtown where we stopped and ate at a family restaurant. we got a huge burger each and 2 egg biscuits (evan got them on toast). ha. we were stuffed. paid and headed out to our bikes; i put my helmet on and went to get on my bike and my shorts got caught on my saddle and i just tipped over and i hit my head on the ground and something in my ankle popped. a stupid mistake and after a minute or two on the ground, i got up and luckily my ankle didn't break or fracture or anything. i got lucky. i walked my bike up to the city park which was literally 30 feet away and was filled with tons of other cyclists. there were a couple groups there of older and younger people. we walked right in and the younger people came up and just chatted our ears off, it was wonderful that they were so friendly. we talked with them all night telling stories and telling of cool stuff up ahead. the city park was out front of the courthouse/library/police station and you could use the bathrooms inside. we hungout then went to bed.

day 46

today we went from pittsburg, kansas to ash grove, missouri; yes we crossed over another state today making it our 5th state accomplished! wahoo. we got up and headed to the grocery store to enjoy fruits, yogurt, and some cereal then we hit the road. it was literally like 5 or 10 miles out of town when we hit the missouri border and we almost missed it cause the sign was so small! it was at windfall charlie's, whatever that exactly is, and there was a fireworks stand there so we had the lady take a picture of us. missouri is the show me state, what does that exactly mean? not sure on that. leaving kansas and hitting missouri, we left the headwinds and the flat straight roads and started hitting the hills. it was a bit of a brutal shock at first cause there was some intense hills where you got to the top and then it levels out, it didn't just drop down the other side, then you had to climb to the top of another one, and then another one. very tiresome for our legs that were used to flatness. so we did a lot of up and down riding wondering if it would change, it doesn't (that's from the future me). it's hot and more humid here so that makes riding even more awesome :) ha (i think that might be the first smiley used in these blogs). we came out of this random small road and hit the freeway to kansas city so evan took his classic legs over the edge pic and could've spit on the semi that passed under him. we finally rolled into ash grove and chatted with the gas station attended who was answering my questions before i could get them out (he did not answer them in the order i asked them). we tried to hit up the library but it just closed but we met up with a cyclist from scotland and we chatted with him for a bit then went to the grocery store to find some food for dinner. we hadn't cooked in awhile so we decided to cook up a stew with hot dogs, beans, and beef stew. we found the city park and plopped down at a covered picnic table and started making our crazy concoction. sadly i don't remember the scottish guy's name, but he shortly arrived and we started swapping stories and telling of upcoming awesomeness! then up rolled two more cyclists, a guy from oklahoma and his girlfriend (sadly i can't remember their names either) she was from delaware. so all of us sat around and just talked till super late, it was so much fun. we then called it a night and retired into our tents.  

day 45

we always tend to get up at 9am and whenever we stay with other cyclists they are always gone at like 6am. we were shocked to see that sebastian and stephanie were still around when we got up. i had a rough night of sleep since i decided not to use my sleeping bag and just use my sheet, it got too cold and i couldn't sleep. a real rookie move, i know. we started packing things up when we said our goodbyes to sebastian and stephanie, they were on their way westward and we were getting ready for the day to head east to pittsburg, kansas which is right on the border. we headed to the local grocery store where we got yogurt, fruits, milk, and cereal. we just enjoyed the a/c while we ate but luckily the weather has been cooling off. we had to take a detour off our cycling maps since one of the roads was ripped up so we went up and around and the terrain has changed from flat fields to more rolling hills. just getting your body adjusted to the new riding style takes about a day or so. we finally arrived to pittsburg which is on the border of kansas and missouri. we went and ate at an all you can eat chinese buffet called yummies. we ate plateful after plateful; we were super full. when we were eating a lady came up to us and bought our dinner since she saw our american cancer jersey's. we talked with her for a bit and took a picture with her and went back to eating. we headed to the city park which was huge and we weren't really sure where to camp since there are signs saying the park is only open from 7am to 11pm but after calling the parks service and the police department (the first number was disconnected) they said we can camp anywhere there. they have a train that goes around the whole park, a roller coaster, and some other rides for kids as well as a concertorium and a fountain area. the park was hopping with lots of people and kids, its nice to see so many people outside. we sat and read for a bit then when it got dark out i decided to take some night time pictures. it was a lot of fun to have some time to just relax and do whatever. we finally crashed around midnight with our tent strategically placed to avoid the sun for the morning.

day 44

we got up to the sun blarring on us so we got up a little early. we road around town to find a gas station, grocery store, or even a restaurant but there wasn't anything. the nearest town was eureka about 20 miles away so we filled up our water bottles at the baseball field where a lady was teaching kids how to bat, she was very intense. the terrain started to change a bit today with some hills that were spaced out a bit. we got to eureka where we grabbed some food and kept heading eastwards. as we passed through toronto there is a big lake/reservoir as well as a wildlife preserve and the hills started to roll. the reserve seemed to be a flooded treed area so it did not look like kansas but maybe somewhere in africa. it was pretty cool to see. it was a hot day with humidity so whenever you'd stop you'd just be drenched but then when you started biking again that headwind would make it a lot cooler. after a lot of riding and a false "welcome to chanute" sign, we finally made it to the actual town of chanute. for some reason they decided to have their welcome sign like 5 miles out of town. we hit up a gas station to find out where everything was and met with some local cyclers there who told us we should go eat at opies, a pizza buffet, which was downtown. we headed downtown and found opies and we just ate a ton and it was awesome: pizza, mashed potatoes, desert pizza, salad, rolls, they even had an ice cream dispensor! it was a great find and we just enjoyed the cushioned seats for our tired bodies. we found out that the city park was way on the south side of town so we made our way down there and saw that the bigger box stores were down in that area. the park was a big one and hard to figure otu where in the world we could camp but we eventually found 2 other cyclers and we threw down next to them. stephanie and sebastian were both super nice and helpful with giving us suggestions of places to stop and see on our way east. we stayed up late chatting about our travels and everyone we've met and everything we've seen. even though we've met other cyclers coming from the east, their stories are all different. its great! they shared some of their chicken pasta with us and it was great. we pitched our tents next to the golf course and hoped no one would give us any problems. we then just called it a day.

day 43

we left jason and kalene's house and headed to the bike shop to get evan's bottom bracket checked out. we both decided it was time to replace our back tires since they were almost smooth; so we each bought new schwalbe tires. it took awhile to put them on the bikes since they are new. we finally took off, so kind of a late start for us. we headed towards newton, where we grabbed some sonic half priced drinks and some lunch. riding has been pretty much the same still with headwinds. we took off from there and rode a ways till we got to cassoday. i arrived there first and evan was shortly behind and it was around 8ish. i looked over to my left and there was a park and it looked like a tent city! bikers were everywhere and a swarm of them started walking over and then a handful were riding my way. evan then pulled up and we were both shocked at how many there were. we started talking to some of them and there was a group of 25 supported (followed by a van) and they are raising money for MS. most of them are from illinois and were really nice guys and then there was another group there then some unsupported guys tagging along with the giant MS group. one black guy came up to us and was just going nuts over our bikes and anything we'd say, it was super funny. they were all going west bound and we seem to be one of the few going east bound. the group on bikes headed to the only store/gas station to grab some food so we joined them. we enjoyed roast beef sandwiches, chips, and cookies for dinner. we chatted with the guys there for a bit then decided we still needed to try and get to rosalia to help us with our next days' mileage. so it was about 10pm and was dark but we still had 17 miles to go. i am not a huge fan of biking at night because it is very dangerous even though we have front and rear lights but they aren't that powerful. luckily the road was vacant, i think we saw 1 car the whole time we were on it. it was a pretty amazing ride for several reasons, mainly since it was pitch black out we couldn't see anything except some sillhoutes but there were tons and tons of fireflies guiding us to rosalia. it was quite the spectacle; we were flying down the road and we were so tired that i didn't even think of taking a picture of this experience. sorry. we finally arrived in rosalia where we heard there was a church that was open where bikers could take showers but the only church in town was already locked up since it was past 11pm. we looked around for a city park but there wasn't one since it was such a small town so we decided to stealth camp behind the church. we awoke the next morning noticing our stealth camping wasn't so stealthy. we also read the map and saw that the road we took at night to rosalia was in poor conidition needing work so be careful; we had no problems. amazing.