Day 5

Post date: May 10, 2010 3:22:07 PM

Route

70E to Vandalia, IL. 450 miles today felt great. PR’d at 140 miles in a single run. Butt conditioning. Camped out in a field under the stars behind Walmart.

Environment

Eastern Kansas, from Topeka onward, begins to look like home: deciduous forests, cottonwood cotton floating on the breeze, meandering hills, muddy rivers, indescribable air texture, and familiar architecture. It’s good to be out of the windstorms. Lightning to the southeast that night.

Technical

Towed into Junction City, Kansas at 10:30am. None of the mechanics found a darn thing wrong with the bike, but I did learn that the wiring harness had been recalled and repaired on my bike, so apparently there’s a history of electrical doubt. Well, there magic fingers wiggled the wires right. They put me back on the road to Ft. Wayne. My worry: what about if they wiggle wrong again? We never found the actual ground. My one consolation: I wrapped the tank bag strap directly around the frame this time so as to completely avoid those wires. Even though nothing was pinching before, you never know…

Social

DJ, my mechanic and tower for the day, is a swell kid who loves dirt bikes and fishing. We chatted about good catfish bait, weather, and hunting. Just looking at him, who was born and raised in Kansas, you see a steady quietness completely missing in any San Diegan you’ll ever meet. I love Kansasans.

Psychoanalytic

“On the Road Again”…

Weird and Wild

I ride right past campgrounds and hotels to find an abandoned field behind Walmart to throw down my sleeping bag and cook up a box of Garlic and Olive Oil Pasta Roni. Can’t remember the taste of green food. It’s been Pasta Roni, Ramen, PB and apples, and Burger King for the last five days. I love it.