Hello All! Welcome to email 2 of 3ish of Kroodsma and Kroodsma cross country bicycle adventures.
This email will follow the same user friendly format as the first email. I will provide you with a short summary followed by short blurbs about the trip. Skim and read only what you like. There is still a prize for reading the whole thing! (This time, I am also offering partial credit.)
QUICK SUMMARY
Since last episode, we have biked 1,400 miles through Southern Illinois, Southern Missouri, Kansas, and Eastern Colorado. The "Heartland" of the country continues to be full of cows, farmland, polluted rivers, roadkills, smaller and smaller towns, and people who are far too nice for their own good (actually, all of those people are in Kansas). We have visited exciting towns such as Chester, Illinois (the birthplace of Popeye the sailor man) and Cassody, Kansas ("The Hay Capitol of the World"). My friend Tom Hunt has joined us for the last few hundred miles through the great plains of Kansas and Colorado, and we have now arrived in Pueblo Colorado, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
NEW TERRAIN, NEW BIRDS--HELP ME CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT
Over the past few weeks, we have left the hardwood forests and rolling hills of the east and crossed the wide open great plains. This change of habitat means...you guessed it...new birds! The Baltimore oriole is now the bullock's oriole, the estern meadowlark is now the western meadowlark, the Carolina chikadee is now the blackcap chikadee. Each new bird requires a new early morning adventure. Extreme excitement. I am now addicted to caffeine.
GENERAL STATEMENTS ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN THE HEARTLAND
It is difficult to generalize about a huge region of the country, as each state was widely different, but I will do it anyway for your entertainment. The biggest changes have been a gradual decrease in population density, and a general change in the presentation of people. The people of the heartland, in general, seemed a bit more subdued in appearance and mannerisms than those of Virginia and Kentucky. The clothing was more casual, and the women wore less makeup. Of course, you might expect this anyway, given the smaller size of the towns. There has also been a significant decrease in lawn displays of national/religious pride. However there are still plenty reminders for God to bless America, and for us to Stand United.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS--NOT KENTUCKY
Not much to say about Illinois, except that for some reason, I felt about 10 times more at home in Illinois when I crossed the border from Kentucky. Maybe it was just the good cell phone reception. But I think it may have been different people--the Illinoisians seemed very different than Kentuckians, ala what I described above. Southern Illinois was much hillier than I expected, covered in forests and not farmland, and reminded me of my home in Western Massachusetts.
THE OHIO AND THE MISSISSIPPI RIVERS--YUM YUM We crossed the Ohio river to enter Illinois and the Mississippi river to enter Missouri. At these points, the rivers are about the same size—huge meandering rivers that are awesome to stand on the banks of. They also appear to be full of cow piss.
Unfortunately, the Ohio and Mississippi do not appear to have a monopoly on cow piss. Just about every river we have crossed in the past few weeks was unfit for touching. (Only one river--a protected river in the Ozarks—was good to swim in.) This could be due to the recent rainfall. But I think it
is the fault of agricultural runoff and cattle grazing, as I have seen brown water flowing from crop fields, and all cattle appear to be allowed to graze right up to the river's edges.
SOUTHERN MISSOURI--THE OZARK 'MOUNTAINS'
Southern Missouri contains the Ozark 'mountains,' the only area of real topography between the Appalachians and the Rockies. The 'mountains' are actually just extremely rounded hills that seem to stretch off evenly in every direction. Hardwood forests covered the area, and it felt like mountains in the East. (They get up to 1,500 feet high!) Despite the low grade of the 'mountains,' the roads are steep, narrow, and winding, and the biking was tough. Missouri drivers have been by far the most rude. (Apparently, the Ozarks were settled by people from the Kentucky Appalachians). In the western part of the state, the trees thinned out, the hills flattened, and the land became dominated by pasture land.
THERE ARE A LOT OF COWS IN THIS COUNTRY And they all look at you as you bike by, especially if you "MOOOO" loudly. Much testing has shown that they respond equally favorably to a loud sheep-like "BAAAAA."
TOM HUNT MAKES A CAMEO!
My good friend Tom Hunt joined us for the past week through Kansas and Western Colorado. You may remember Tom from such films as "Dave's roommate Junior and Senior year," "Adventuring with Dave in Alaska, Chile, and California," as well as the more recent/less popular "Ahhh! I'm in physics grad school now!" Tom was actually was planning to meet us in Colorado and bike the Rockies. Instead, because we were a week late, he got the plains of Kansas.
Tom is an excellent biking companion, a skilled mechanic, and exceptionally good at 'name that roadkill.'
KANSAS--FLAT AND NICE
The East half of Kansas was relatively well populated, with gentle rolling hills and much grazing land. There were occasional wooded areas, but most of the land was wide open. A surprising number of small oil rigs were along the road, and I learned that the Great Plains are one of the largest producers of oil on US soil. The West half of Kansas is sparsely populated, extremely flat, and covered in wheat fields. The wind always blew, and changed direction frequently. We fortunately had a tail wind for a significant portion, and averaged 100 miles per day across the great plains.
The people of Kansas were extremely nice. Even the teenagers were nice. We were given free meals at campgrounds, and one man stopped after seeing us bike in the rain to give us money so that we could buy hot chocolate in town. I am not making this up. Kansans also seemed cheerier than they should be, given the flat land and constant wind.
NEW GAME! "GUESS HOW FAR TO THE NEXT GRAIN ELEVATOR!"
As "Name that Roadkill" was losing its luster, we switched to a new game: "How far to the next Grain Elevator?" In Western Kansas a grain elevator always was on the horizon, ranging in distance from 4 to 10 miles away. This game was the most exciting thing for a few hundred miles. Each grain elevator has a small town surrounding it, usually of only a few hundred people. These towns had an extremely remote feel, and were the only place to find trees or buildings on the wheat covered plains.
EASTERN COLORADO--WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?
The plains climb gradually but noticeably from Kansas to the Rockies—about 3,000 feet of elevation in three hundred miles. We were surprised to find we could notice the inclination on a bike--about 10 feet every mile. The further west you travel, the drier the climate. As soon as we entered Colorado, the wheat farms and small towns completely ceased and were replaced by vast sagebrush plains used for grazing cattle. Towns of a few hundred were 60 or more miles apart. Tom and I grabbed a beer at a bar in Eads, CO, where a local Rancher and retired principle kicked our butt in pool, and then bought us $1 beer at the bar (A pitcher was $3.50).
SADDLE SORES
Ouch!
MY DAD TAKES PICTURES OF EVERY BIRD ROADKILL
It is disgusting. He usually picks up the bird and rearranges it on the road to get the pose he likes. Once, he even carried the bird in his pannier so that he could identify it later when we got out the bird book. I suppose this is the kind of dedication you'd expect to see out of a world famous ornithologist.
PUEBLO, CO--AMERICA!
I now write you from the city of Pueblo, CO. A population of 100,000, this town is much closer the the America I have come to know so well. Strip malls, chain stores, parking lots, and a dying down town. A blue collar town, it has lost a lot of jobs to foreign manufacturing (so the bike mechanic told me).
IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR
You get 25 points! If you have read half the email, you get 10 points!
OK, WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THESE POINTS I'VE BEEN ACCUMULATING?--ARE MY READING
EFFORTS WORTH ANYTHING?
Find out in the next email! (and probably no)
Hope all is well. If you're in Colorado, Whyoming, Montana, Idaho, or Oregon over the next month, let me know, and maybe we'll cross paths.
Take care, and send me an email if you get the chance.
