25 miles to Pittsburgh, Kansas
Vincent’s knees hurt too much for him to bicycle today, so I biked and we planned to meet at the bicycle shop in Pittsburgh. I made it there in less than 2 hours and sustained an average speed of 14.8 mph. That is probably the fastest average I have ever sustained in my bicycling history!! I got to the Tailwind Cyclists shop by about 10:30 and introduced myself to Roger. I explained that Vincent would be coming by and hoped Roger would have some recommendations to help with his knees. I asked him where the Wal-Mart was since Bob planned to park in their lot. I bicycled about ½ mile up to the road and decided to get my hair cut to kill some time. We don’t have a Wal-Mart close to us, so I have never shopped there much. Turns out the Super Centers have everything including hair salons.
Bob still had not shown up when I finished so I went over to look at cameras. Unfortunately, my camera fell out of my bike bag today and broke. Thank goodness I heard something hit the road when I was moving at 20 mph, so went back to see what I had dropped. I was shocked to see that it was my camera. Fortunately, Vincent was able to get the memory card out and now I have a nice, new, up-to-date Nikon Coolpix.
Vincent and Bob finally showed up and we biked down to Tailwind Cyclists Inc. Bob hates driving the trailer in town, even one as small as Pittsburgh, Kansas. Roger immediately said Vincent’s seat was too high (we had been adjusting it up over the course of the ride hoping that would help). He then checked Vincent’s shoes and we discovered his cleat/pedal configuration was all wrong. Apparently, the configuration (and it is way too technical for me to remember the specifics) created significant instability and caused his knees to function inefficiently, creating stress and strain. We were there for a couple of hours as Roger changed pedals, cleats and adjusted everything. Vincent drove out of the shop with a smile and hope that his knees will finally stop hurting. Given the amount of time we spent in the city, I ended up driving with Vincent and Bob to the next RV camp.
Roger gave us an update on Ad from the Netherlands. Ad lost more time due to the severe weather so he had Roger pack up his bike and he took a bus to Pueblo, Colorado. Hopefully, that puts him back on schedule.
We are now on Section 8 of the trail which will take us to Alexander, Kansas. Of note: there is no route elevation profile for this map. Nice flat route!
Vincent plans to take a few days off for his knees to recover. I think I could make pretty quick progress through Kansas, but much will depend on where we can find campgrounds.
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| Grains as far as the eye can see. |
Yay!! I'm glad Vince was able to get his bike adjusted..I hope that helps. :)
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