Day 2: 6/21/2022: La Cygne to Pittsburg, KS

Sometimes I wonder why bother to take a shower.  I crawled in my tent about 9 p.m. last night to go to sleep and immediately began sweating profusely.  I have no idea what time I sweated myself to sleep, but I did eventually nod off.  I actually had a good night's sleep and woke up with the birds at 5:30 a.m.

I broke camp and went to Family Cafe in La Cygne for breakfast (pic below).

I guess I'm scarred from all the gravel roads I rode on yesterday because for about 13 miles from La Cygne to Pleasanton I decided to ride on U.S. Hwy 69.  It was like riding on an interstate highway, speed limit 75 with commercial trucks.  It wasn't too busy, but still a lot of road noise.

One of the clerks at La Cygne City Hall is from Pleasanton and told me yesterday about a good blacktop route from Pleasanton to Fort Scott, Old Hwy 69.  I took her advice and rode that route between those 2 cities.  What a great change of pace it was from the new U.S. Highway 69.  Below are a couple of pics of cool bridges on Old 69.

As I was stopped taking a pic of the first bridge I was talking to Lisa on the phone.  She is tracking my ride with a tracker and pulled up my location on her phone as we were talking.  She sent me the pic below of my location.

It was as though she was there enjoying the experience with me, but with a bird's eye view.

The second bridge was narrow and from the pic below you can tell the side rails have taken a beating over the years.

Some scenery pics below taken on Old 69.

Interesting sign on Old 69.  I've seen ones that look like Amish buggies, but this one looks like a sports car version.

I went through the little community of Prescott on Old 69 and it was pretty dried up.  I couldn't help but wonder if New 69 killed this little town.  A few pics below.

My next little town on Old 69 was Fulton.  It looked to be in the same situation as Prescott.  A few pics below.

Just outside of Fort Scott I ran across the van pictured below parked beside the road.

I stopped and talked to the guys in the van and they explained they are an 8 person bicycle team completing the Race Across America (RAAM) bicycle race.  I saw 4 team support vans pass by me.  If I had that much support, I think I could ride across the US in 5 days:)  Their team holds the record completion time and they are trying to beat that time this year.  They are riding from San Diego, CA, to Annapolis, MD, and are shooting to finish in less than 5 days total.  Their riders are averaging 25 mph.  Below is a pic of the current rider from the Beer team passing by me.  He was really moving on and didn't stop to chit chat - go figure.

Pic of me by those high dollar bikes.  I was thinking about trading, but realized it would be a trade down for me.  They would have to come up with a lot of boot:)

Right after I stopped and talked to the bicycle guys, I had a flat on the front. It was caused by the valve stem coming loose from the tube.  I think the guys may have sabotaged my bike out of fear their guy might not be able to catch me:). Actually, I think it may have resulted from the abuse from the gravel roads yesterday and the extreme heat today.  A quick tube change and I was back in business.

Some pics around Fort Scott below.  It is still a booming town.  Old 69 and New 69 converge at Fort Scott.  Could be the reason for their survival.

A local at Fort Scott told me there are no good back roads to get to Pittsburg.  So it's back to New U.S. Hwy 69.  Right after I got back on 69 I met a lady pushing her bicycle up a slight incline.  She had several bags and baskets loaded fully with gallons and bottles of water.  She was carrying a lot of weight.  I stopped and asked her if everything was ok.  She said she was going to Arcadia and she had to go to Fort Scott to get water for her and her German shepherd.  I passed the exit for Arcadia about 13 miles after meeting her.  I hope she made it.

There was a lot of construction and traffic on the highway about 20 miles from Pittsburg so I had to do a lot of weaving and bobbing to stay out of everyone's way.  It was a pretty stressful 30 mile ride from Fort Scott to Pittsburg.

I went to Subway in Pittsburg and downed a footlong and drank several cups of Root Beer.  I sat there and cooled off, ate, recharged me and my electronics, and worked on this blog entry.

At Subway I met Mike (Greenville IL) and John (Greensboro NC) (pic below) who are cycling from Yorktown VA to Astoria OR on USBR 76.  They met about 3 days into their trip and have been traveling together since.  Today was a rest day for them in Pittsburg.  They provided me useful information about possible places to stay in Missouri.

Tomorrow I will begin riding USBR 76 and will be on it to Marion KY.

Tonight I'm camping at a Parks and Rec campground in Pittsburg.  I waited till about 8 p.m. to take a shower.  The bathhouse is a block building with no AC.  It was like a sauna in there when I walked in so I decided to take a cold shower to cool off.  To my disappointment the shower would only set to warm water.  So I took a quick shower and sweated the entire time I was taking a shower.  I didn't even bother to dry off knowing I would just get wet again.  It actually felt cool outside when I walked out even though it was still about 90 degrees.

Tomorrow days begin getting shorter so I guess I had better hammer on the pedals harder to avoid running out of daylight each day;)

Total miles today: 80.9