Some thoughts on Missouri and Kansas

When Matt & I crossed the Mississippi River at Chester, Illinois (Home of Popeye!), I was officially further west than I had ever been. The Mississippi River marked the beginning of the exploration aspect of the bike adventure. Though the changing scenery and culture are drastic and distinctly different one thing has remained relatively the same, the outpouring of generosity we have received from people along the way.
Missouri was a blip on my radar in terms of states that I was excited to visit. I had no idea what to expect. With states like Kansas I know I can expect pancake flat terrain and wheat fields. I knew Colorado would present us with the Rocky Mountains. Despite my lack of high expectations, Missouri turned out to be my favorite state, so far, to ride through. We spent a large portion of our 3 ½ days in Missouri riding through the Ozark Mountains. I think it is a stretch to call them mountains, but they were fairly taxing on our legs. The areas we rode through mostly consisted of huge farms and wine vineyards. The rolling hills increased in size as we went further in the state and then slowly as the days passed we began to see them flatten out as we came closer to Kansas. The only downfall about Missouri was that the roads did not have shoulders and the drivers were not very courteous to cyclists. It is interesting how each state has had distinctly different personalities as far as the drivers go (Missouri being the worst).
Kansas was flat. Matt & I made a pact going into Kansas that if we had cross winds of tail winds we would cover serious ground. We worried the whole way across Kansas about encountering severe headwinds (After all we are going against the prevailing winds). Fortunately, Mother Nature was on our side and we had the luxury of a tailwind for most of Kansas. This luxury also meant that Matt & I would have to stick to our pact and cover a lot of ground. We managed to make it through Kansas in 4 ½ days! We pulled a pair of 115 mile days as well as some high 90’s. That is a long way to go on a bike with 80 lbs of gear. Our last night in Kansas, 15 miles from Colorado, we got hit hard by one of those famous Kansas storms. We sat in our tents and rode out a thunderstorm that pounded us with 50 mph winds. This was one of those…”This isn’t good man”…moments. Our tents were not staked down, because we were staying under a gazebo on a concrete pad. We were forced to either sit in our tents to keep them from flying away in the wind or lose them. Against what our parents would have liked we chose to ride out the storm. We survived and are happy to report…We’re not in Kansas anymore!