Montevideo to
Hutchinson
July 22, 2022
I almost did not put the fly on my tent last night as it was
hot and the fly just makes it hotter in the tent however as there was a 20%
chance of rain at 2:00Am, I did put the fly on the tent and sure enough about
2:00 AM there was some rain. It rained
for about 2 hours. It was so nice in the
tent listening to the rain. I don’t
think it was too hard as nothing was wet this morning.
The route took us way down south and followed a secondary
road. The direct route was 17 miles
shorter than the official route, and I was all set to take the direct route but
somehow I let others influence my decision.
DUMB DUMB DUMB! So when it came
to make the turn south I made the turn. It was a dangerous left turn across a
busy road and I knew better but there was a break in traffic and I made the
turn. The secondary road was totally
horrid. There were expansion cracks every 10 -15 feet. Not just little ones but bone shakers. I had
estimated that in the section of road to picnic there were 25,000 expansion
cracks. Another rider has said there were
75 cracks per minute. Meanwhile several
of the other riders took the direct route and reported having a great ride. Busy
road yes but nice shoulder, and a great spot for lunch in a shady park.
On the official route picnic was in Olivia under the giant
cob of corn. It has been painted since
2018 but it is still a shabby 1960’s tribute to the primary crop of the area. Just
as I was coming into Olivia I was buzzed by a crop duster. I wasn’t able to get
its picture but when I came around the corner the crop duster was lined up at a
drive through hanger to pick up another load.
After picnic the road was considerably better and the cracks
were probably more like 75 feet apart however they were bigger. One of them was
so big it knocked my chain off and I thought I had hit the shallowest
part.
The scenery today consisted of endless corn fields
alternating with soya bean and sugar beet fields. The first of the sugar beet processing
facilities appeared today. There were no
climbs or descents today and the total climb was only 906 feet over the 84
miles.
Even though I took the long route I was still in camp by
1:10 pm.
3 comments:
Ride safe big guy.
I remember days upon days of seeing the same crops. Also using the big chain ring exclusively for a week; no big climbs.
Calgary Ken C.
Good to see you are getting your money’s worth doing the whole ride. Hang in there.
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