Mike Rides Bike
The End of The World As We Know It Midwest Tour 2023
More Stories
Day 49: Galesburg And Train
Day 49, doing laundry and stocking up in Galesburg, then on to the train for the trip home. Train is completely full.
Day 48: Macomb to Galesburg
Macomb to Galesburg, 49 miles. More raccoons, another root beer float and another carnival.
Day 44: Louisiana to Hannibal
Louisiana to Hannibal, 32 miles. Found a broken cable on the bike and fixed it just in time. Would have been bad if it had broken shifting going uphill.
Day 43: Cuivre River State Park to Louisiana
Cuivre River State Park to Louisiana 41 miles. More hills, but not too bad without so much traffic. First view of the Mississippi.
Day 42: Marthasville To Cuivre River State Park
Marthasville to Cuivre River State Park, 40 miles. A pretty grueling day of hills and heat.
Day 40: Marthasville To Chesterfield
Marthasville to Chesterfield. Skye's last day. Not too far to go, so lots of dilly-dallying and chatting with other people.
Day 36: Sedalia To Roundhouse
Sedalia to Roundhouse 44 miles. Lots of animals on the trail, fairly easy ride except for some hills.
Day 34: Roundhouse To Pilot Grove
Roundhouse to Pilot Grove. Rained all night. The paper map was a casualty.
Day 31: White Rose Farm
A day at White Rose Catholic Worker Farm. Not many notes considering what seemed like constant activity.
Day 24: Circle O Hedge School To Overland Park
Circle O Hedge School to Overland Park (Kansas City). While stopped for water by the side of the highway, a cop stopped and ran an ID check. He said it was legal but not very safe to be riding on the highway.
Day 23: Circle O Hedge School
Staying in the cottage. Tim working on "sylva culture," rows of a mix of trees with pasture in between where the sheep graze. Returned mower to neighbor Stew, a long-time alternative farmer.
Day 22: Lawrence To Circle O Hedge School
Lawrence to Circle O Hedge School, 14 miles. Coffee in the groovy part of Lawrence, lunch special eggplant parmesan at the Mad Greek.
Day 21: Ottawa To Lawrence
Ottawa to Lawrence, 38 miles. Nice paved back roads, and a bike trail around Lawrence almost all the the way to the hotel. Feels like coming in from the wild — so much pavement, so many people.
Day 19: Herrington to Allen
Herrington to Allen, 47 miles. Chain problems to start, hipster campground to end.
Day 17: Sterling To McPherson
Sterling to McPherson, 42 miles. Rear tire was wearing much faster than front due to the weight. Swapped them, but will probably still need new tires before it's over.
Day 16: Heartland Farm To Sterling
On the road again. Heartland Farm to Sterling, 62 miles. Narrow shoulder on U.S. 56, so went to unpaved road, but that had loose gravel and too much soft sand, so back to the highway.
Day 15: Heartland Farm
Working at Heartland Farm. Assembled benches, repaired and rehung greenhouse door, attended the changing of alpacas.
Day 12: Dodge City To Garfield
Dodge City to Garfield, 60 miles. Chinese for lunch. Second leg on the American Discovery Trail just as miserable as the first — this time instead of mud, it was sand.
Day 11: Cimarron To Dodge City
Cimarron to Dodge City, 25 miles. First day on the American Discovery Trail, but it was muddy.
Day 8: Dalhart To Guymon
Dalhart, Texas to Guymon, Oklahoma. 72 miles easy going. Confidence restored.
Day 6: Ute Lake To Dalhart, Texas
Ute Lake to Dalhart, Texas. 75 miles into 15+ MPH wind. A lesson in humility.
Day 5: Quay Cemetery To Ute Lake
Ouay cemetery to Ute lake. 45 miles. Headwinds and a little rain. 45 miles. Headwinds and a little rain.
Day 3: Vaughn To Fort Sumner
After a miserable night, day 3 is downhill overall, with a strong tailwind. It was really fast, average speed of 19.6 MPH
Day 1: Bernardo to Mountainair
Bernardo to Mountainair. 40 miles, 2,124 feet of climbing. Camped at RV park.
