Tour de USA | Stage 20 Liberal, KS 42 miles

Welcome to my 6th state and 5th stateline crossing.  What another beautiful day!  There were major storms that blew through OK last night with a lot of rain and hail, we missed it all.  The good news was it changed the winds and we had a slight tailwind today that pushed us on our northeasterly direction to Liberal, KS.  But before we get to KS I have to tell you that my morning started off great.  I got up at 6:00 and did some emails, facebook, texts, and everything else, then went to breakfast.  When I came back I started to pack up and get ready for my ride today, which had a late start of 9:00 because of the short distance (42 miles).  That’s when I noticed that my rear tire was FLAT AGAIN!!  To say I was not happy is a slight understatement. I called Paula, the owner, and told her, and we decided to replace my rear tire.  Not the most cost effective option, but clearly the best for piece of mind.  I rode 50 miles yesterday on that new tube and old tire and it was fine when I got to the hotel last night, and then in the morning it’s flat.  Simple decision for me, new tire!  If you aren’t a biker, trust me when I say no one likes to fix a flat 4 days in a row!  So hopefully we are good to go.  I brought some extra tubes with me, but I am now out, although I bought some more from the tour company, and I brought an extra tire, so no big deal.

But before we got to Kansas, we went through Hooker, OK. Not a lot in Hooker, except the Chamber of Commerce selling funny T shirts.

All of my friends are Hookers

And Tom couldn’t pass on this gem.

Today was a great day of riding as well, because of the low mileage, wind conditions, and because I rode with my new friend John G. ( pictured above with me at the Kansas welcome sign). Usually John leaves with the early group, and I leave later, so I usually just pass him on the road at some point.  But I told him that I wanted to ride with him today, and we rode the 42 miles together, went to the air museum and lunch together.  He is a very interesting man, and I told him that Dos Equis beer will be calling him to be the new most interesting man in the world.  He has started and run many different companies, used to fly planes, lives in Argentina 3 months each year, his wife is a world class ballroom dancer, and they compete as a couple as well.  Not to mention that he has picked up golf and biking after he retired.  Great guy.

In Liberal, KS there is an air museum, for a former 4 star general that was chief of staff for the Air Force and he was from this area, General Welch.  Here are some of the 99 planes that they had inside.

In case you didn’t know Dorothy lives in Kansas, and here is her house and the yellow brick road.  

Here is the map today.  Not a lot of miles were accumulated in the panhandle of Oklahoma. We will spend a lot of days in KS, so we should start to head a little more east.

This is an interesting look at the map of the US. The red “X” is where I am currently and all of the marks are the cities that I have been to to the west and the ones I am still going to to the east.  Look at how much ground I have ridden already.

Here are some of the data numbers from today.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Extra Extra

For those of you that aren’t on Facebook, I meant to post this in one of my blogs, but forgot to.  Below is an article that was published in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Newsletter, that I wanted to share with you.  Here is a link:

http://voice.vumc.org/son-beloved-vanderbilt-faculty-member-neil-green-biking-across-u-s-raising-funds-childrens-hospital/

Thanks again for following along.

Tour de USA | Stage 19 Guymon, OK. 72 miles

Welcome to Oklahoma, but before I get to that, let’s discuss the day.  We hit OK about 50 miles into today’s 72 miles, it is our 5th state, and 4th stateline crossing. Here is today’s video:  https://www.relive.cc/view/1606629914

Personally today was a much better day for me.  We still had the wind, but we got it figured out today, more on that later.  I only had 1 flat, and we figured out the issue, and it wasn’t a pinch flat, but a very small wire was stuck in my tire from probably days ago from the interstate.  It kept working it’s way through my tire and poking the tube a little, and then causing a small leak.  We thought this might be the issue yesterday, and 3 of us ran our finger on the inside and outside of my tire looking for it, and we found nothing.  So once we found it today, and 3 flats later (1 today, and 2 yesterday) I think we have solved the problem.

Here are some pictures from Texas, for such a big state, we were only in it for a short period of time.  Same with Oklahoma, just today, and in Kansas tomorrow.   

Big Tex says “Hands up boy!” Yes sir.

This is a group pic with the guys that I was riding with today.

This is my buddy Tom, the one that gets my bags to my room and on the foot of the bed on time everyday, and his mother, Paula, she is the owner of the tour company.  They both are doing a terrific job.


So today we had a major headwind as well, sooner or later we might, I hope, get a tailwind.  I mean we are going west to east, although we have been heading northeast the last few days, so one would think a tailwind should be in the cards.  Because of the winds, we as a group, finally got it figured out and we did a paceline, there were 9 of us for half of the day, and then down to 7.  Everyone pulls (leads) for a mile or so, and then it just keeps rolling through different leaders, then you go to the back of the line after leading.  Once you are in the back, it is much easier, and time to recover before your turn comes up again to fight the wind.  We tried this yesterday, but some of the people only wanted to sit in the back, so one of the guys that I was riding with said “let’s go” to me and 1 other at the rest stop and we left and did a paceline with just 3 of us.  So today, the others got the point, that it’s much easier if everyone helps out.

Boone Pickens is right, there is a lot of wind in OK, and that there is a lot of energy to be garnered from the wind.  We saw hundreds of massive windmills.

We went across the street to grab a mid afternoon snack after our showers and a quick change.

Green Chile Cheeseburger with fries, a strawberry shake, and water, hydrate!

Check out the map, you can see all of the state lines in pink below.  Tomorrow is a very short day to Liberal, KS, it’s just the way the hotels fall, and we need a shorter day after the last 4 long days, so no one is complaining, and we get to sleep in and leave later than normal tomorrow.

One of my friends/followers asked me what my favorite part or place has been so far.  This is a very hard question to answer believe it or not, because so much of it has been amazing.  What isn’t my favorite is probably: flats on the side of the road, riding on the interstate, although I felt safe, and the Texas Chip and Seal roads.  If you aren’t familiar with Chip and Seal roads, they are very rough, and jiggle you to death, and hurts your hands and butt through the vibration, and this lasts for many miles.  I would say 3/4’s of the road that we were on in TX was that type of rough road.

Some of the things that were awesome were Sedona, AZ, Looking out on the vista’s as they just open up after you have climbed for miles to get to the top of the mountains, and Manhattan Beach were awesome, and I had some friends meet me there, and see me off on this journey.

Thanks for the questions, and keep them coming.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 18 Dalhart, TX 96 miles

Welcome to Texas!  It’s our 4th state and 3rd state line crossing.  It was a brutal day, we had headwinds for 90 of the 96 miles.  I think it was from the storms in the gulf, and it was pushing the winds in another directions. We are heading to OK tomorrow and they had some major storms there ast night, so I hope they will be gone by the time that we get there.  I also had 2 flats today, the first was because I was jumping back and forth from the road to the shoulder, and each time that you do that to avoid the traffic, you go over the rumble strips, and I think that I got a pinch flat.  Then I changed it and clearly didn’t so a very good job, because I got another flat about 5 miles later.  Oh well, I made it in and tomorrow is another day. 

See ya later New Mexico.


Welcome to Texas, where it is hot!

We are staying in Dalhart, TX tonight. Not a lot of pictures today, for 2 reasons: 1) it was hard to take pictures with the wind, and 2) there wasn’t a lot to see.

Here is the map, you can see the state lines, tomorrow to OK, and then Kansas the next day.

Because of the wind, my time today was 30 minutes slower today than yesterday, and yesterday I rode 15 more miles, 110.




Look at the red circles above, I was on the road today for almost 8 hours, riding time 6 1/2, and “cafe time” 1:20.  The cafe time is resting, eating, changing 2 flats, etc.  I was out in the heat a lot today.  We also lost an hour today, as we entered the central time zone.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 17, 1000 Total Miles, Tucumcari, NM

Another great day, a little warm, but a great day, 110 miles, and we hit a total of 1000 miles early in today’s ride.  This was the first major milestone that we have reached.  Today is the last day in New Mexico, and we started coming down from the high desert, although we are still relatively high, above 4000 ft of elevation in Tucumcari, NM,

I rode today with my friend Barry, below from NJ, CA, and currently living in Venice, FL.  

The road was wide open today, and we also saw the terrain change as the day went on, early on were pastures.

Because we have been in the high desert for several days, with a lot of rolling hills, and climbing mountains, we lost more altitude than we gained today, and here is one of the views that we saw as we descended and picked up more heat as well.

Here are some of the hills that we climbed, and notice the changing terrain.

This was a big climb, although it doesn’t look like it in the picture, this is over a mile long, with a pitch of around 8%.

This was pained on the road at the top!


Here is the map, and notice the state lines, we will be in the panhandle of TX tomorrow, and then into OK the following day.

Here is today’s video with pictures, Check out Tour de USA | Stage 17, 1000 total miles, Tucumcari, NM https://www.relive.cc/view/1602497736

A little warm this afternoon.


Here are some of the data points from today’s ride.  We climbed a little less than yesterday, but lost a lot of total elevation.  I was on my bike for 6 hours today, and 110 miles.  Nice average speed.




Tomorrow is another long day, around 96 miles.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.

Tour de USA | Stage 16 Las Vegas, NM 75 miles and a lot of climbing

Another great day!! 75 beautiful miles with some climbing as well.  We are still somewhat in the high desert, so the temps have been ok, highs in the mid 80’s.  The altitude has been around 7000 ft. the last several days in Sante Fe, and I think we are a little lower in Las Vegas, NM. When we come down, soon, I will be killing it, as I already feel like I am in much better shape than when I got here.  We hit a high elevation of 7506 ft. today. 

I had breakfast with Rick, the pharmacist from TX, who is in his 20 year of  doing the tour yesterday.  He is on staff as a mechanic, but rides a lot of days.  He said you make it through the first week, and you are good, and you make it through the second week and you are set for the remainder of the tour.  You will be able to handle everything that is thrown at you from here on out.  I am feeling very good both mentally and physically.  I bought some headphones for music once we hit Kansas.  The funny thing is that there is so much to see that is visually stimulating, and talking with some of my fellow riders that I have yet to be bored, and want to listen to music.

As a side note, I am counting the rest days, as an actual day/stage number.  So today is stage 16, 16 days on this tour, but we have had 2 rest days, so 14 total riding days.  It is just easier to count everyday, and know how many rest days we have had (2) and will have (5) total.

We continued on a large amount of Route 66 today.  Just great wide open roads with very little traffic.  My knee got the much needed rest yesterday, and a call from an old friend, Randy Swift, threatened to do something ( not sure what, if you know Randy then you understand ) if I “wimped out”.  ( Not sure “wimped out” was the exact word he used, LOL ). I am all good!

Here are some scenes from today.

Practicing taking a shadow shot in the early am with no traffic.

Wide open roads, with rolling hills. 

Thought this looked like the typical old western post office in the spaghetti westerns.

Little old church










Pesos National Historical Park, see the background.

Rolling hills

Downtown Las Vegas, NM

A famous old hotel, Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.

A little data for my data geeks.




Here is the video with pictures added to it, https://www.relive.cc/view/1600463344

The next 2 days are big days, with tomorrow being around 110 miles, followed by 98 miles, so I need to rest and get hydrated.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

https://vanderbilt.ejoinme.org/bikeacrosstheusa

As a non-profit institution, the Children's Hospital provides care to the children who come through its' doors regardless of the family's ability to pay.  Caring support from the community allows this level of service to continue.