TRANSAMERICA BICYCLE 2015: Days 35-39: We're off to see the Wizard!...errr.. I hope not!

"Nothing is impossible if you want it badly enough and if you have the imagination to dream and the energy to make your dreams come true." ~Osa Johnson

Day 36: Pittsburg, KS to Walnut, KS (28 miles)
Day 37: Walnut, KS to Chanute, KS (32.8 miles)
Day 38: Chanute, KS to Eureka, KS (63.7 miles)
Day 39: Eureka, KS to Newton, KS ( 77.7 miles )

Ear Worms:
Simon & Garfunkl - Sound of Silence
Tanya Tucker - If Your Heart Ain't Busy Tonight
Lucinda Williams - Lafayette
Shortening Bread

Things I've learned about southeastern Kansas so far:

1. It is really beautiful country
2. It is not flat.
3. Busch Light has replaced Bud Light as the beer of choice on the roadside depository (although I must say that the actual trash on the roadway is next to nothing)

The wind is coming in straight from the south, a nice cross-wind that makes riding west a fun game. Looking left, I can see the dark storm getting closer. After taking a quick glance at the radar on my Weather Underground app I know I need to try and find some kind of covering pretty quick. It's mind shift time. Into triathlon peddling mode I go. "Maybe I can outrun it." I think. Ha!!!!!! That's a good one Coty. Pretty soon the wind is picking up pretty strong and the sprinkles start coming. I've still had no luck in finding any place to pull over. Now it's coming down pretty good and I pass a dirt road. The next thing I know the rain is blowing sideways and I'm getting blown all over the place, not able to see any more than 15 feet in front of me. Off the bike NOW. I push the bike back to the dirt road, by this time completely drenched. BOOM. Thunder rolls through the sky. "I don't know what to do!" I say out loud, even though there is nobody there to hear me. It is clear there is nowhere to go until this passes. I drop my bike, take a deep breath, and crouch in a cornfield with my rain coat draped over my head, not that it did much good other than just made me feel a little invisible from any any lightening bolt out there looking for something to strike. Ten minutes later it was over. And I stepped out of the swimming pool because that might might as well have been where I was! And then what do you do? The only thing there is - hop on the bike in your sloshy shoes and keep biking! But a quick glance at the radar and I could see another cell moving through. Nope. Not going to risk that again. They say that third times the charm but it's also three strikes and you're out.

Well that was fun!

Shelby and Dustin and family - amazing Kansas generosity

Because this was actually the 2nd storm I got caught in on my way to Newton from Eureka Kansas. About eight miles into my ride another storm came in and quickly drenched me. Then the thunder came and a flash of lightening. Fortunately I saw a house maybe a quarter a mile up the way, got to the place and knocked on the door asking if I could dry off on their porch. What I ended up with was experiencing first hand the genuine hospitality that Kansas is so famous for here on the TransAm trail. I was offered food and water and dry towels and hung out in their living room chatting until the storm passed. I was even given the best souvenir so far. A tank-top shirt designed by Shebly herself! I was blown away by the Shelby and Dustin and their two kids kindness to a complete stranger muddy and wet on a bicycle. And now I finally have that special shirt to remember this awesome and challenging face the elements day here in Kansas!!

But these experiences seem all to appropriate as I was already planning on dedicating this blog to some amazing women that weren't afraid of big challenges that I had the opportunity to learn about at the Martin and Osa Johnson safari museum in Chanute. If you've looked at a couple of my mileages from the past few days you probably noticed that a few of them were kind of low. I've been forced to slow a bit due to waiting for a package being sent from Ortlieb to Newton to fix my busted pannier. (I've got a nice duct tape / bunjee chord set up going on for the past week) But it's been a great exercise in taking it easy. About remembering why I'm on this tour. In doing exactly what Willy Weir said: slow down and get to know the places you're cycling through. So I got to enjoy a great community lunch at the Immanuel Lutheran Church just outside of Walnut. And then I to spend an afternoon in Chanute and learn about these amazing women. I got to see how Osa had no fear about treking with Martin to all places on the globe, them becoming some of the first wildlife filmmakers in the 1910's through 30's, setting the standard for generations of outdoor filmmakers to come. I got to see the personal photographs of Lizzie Le Blond, one of the first women documentary filmmakers. See her defy all odds and go bicycle touring and trek mountains and break ice skating records, all in her Victorian dresses.

Lizzie LeBlond

"I owe a supreme debt of gratitude to the mountains for knocking from me the shackles of conventionality, but I had to struggle hard for my freedom."

Martin and Osa Johnson

(I took a bunch of photos of these people and info on them. Scroll down for more and/or read more about them here:
Martin and Osa Johnson:
http://www.safarimuseum.com/

Lizzie LeBlond
http://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/elizabeth-lizzie-le-blond--2

And boy, I was I thinking about them today. Huddled in that cornfield I just thought about Lizzie and her bravery scaling mountains and Osa and how she went fearlessly into the African jungles for months on end. What a great way to start the 2nd half of this ride. I'm halfway across the country!! I'm here at the "Oasis in the Desert" at Newton Bike Shop after taking an amazing rest day here at the best hostel ever. And now I have these amazing women to inspire me as I head into the "grass desert." Several hundred miles straight into the west. Let's do this!

MORE PHOTOS: