Days 21-24 - Entering The Great Plains

Not much time, but in fact... not much energy for writing these past few days. 6 days of 160-170 km, even if done at a leisurely pace, coupled with some nights of little sleep... could not muster the energy to write. But today I just made it into Colorado and that is a major booster :)
So here's what mostly happened the last umm 10 days (time really flies)...

It rained for two days almost continuously in southern Missouri hills or mountains how they call them around here. The first one I was planning to take off completely to give my butt a break, but there was absolutely nothin to do in the small town I was in, so I just rolled through the forest until the next one 45km away. Next morning just as I was about to exit town with big plans for the rainy day I see a cyclist inside a restaurant. Haven't seen a biker since Virginia I was eager to talk to one so I entered the restaurant, met Dane from Iowa who was going the same direction as me so we decided to team up.

Dane is 25 and loves to travel. So much that he convinced his girlfriend to let him roam America for 3 months on a bike. He started a bit earlier than me and had some company before, a couple on a tandem, and a swedish guy who just bought his first bike and started crossing America with it. But he had a different rythm and moved ahead.

He is equipped with an Adventure Cyclin Association (ACA) map of the TransAm route, one that tells you details such as you can camp behind this store because the owner is cool with it, or that bike shop has a hostel for bikers, or that church offers shelter for cyclists.
Dane is on an even tighter budget than me, and spends only one night per week in motels and the rest camping in such places. From him I learn it is acceptable to camp in most city parks on the route, and some of them have even unlocked showers.

With company, the rainy day becomes quite pleasant and at the end of it we can indulge ourselves and split the cost of room to wash and dry stuff.
Everyone I talked to says the weather is unusually cold. In our last night in Missouri we camped in Fair Grove city park on picnic benches. In the morning the grass had frost on it. Few days ago in Kentucky I had 30 Celsius now almost 0... I had ALL my clothes on (except cycling shorts and shirt), inside a 4 degrees rated sleeping bag, and also wrapped myself with  the tent sheet to keep myself warm. Dane does not seem to have a cold problem. At all. He rides in the morning at under 10 degrees in his t-shirt while I have a fleece and the rain jacket on, plus leg warmers and overshoes. We both optimistically agreed this has to be the last such cold night. And fortunately so it was, we had just experienced the last frosty morning of this spring.

Kansas greeted us with rain. It was afternoon 16th of May , we had just nailed the first 110km of the day gradually ending the Missouri hills. I think I thought to myself 10 times "this is the last hill" until it was actually the last hill :) and even then it was debatable because Kansas also begins with some lower grade climbs.
A storm was said to be between us in Golden City, Missouri and our destination for the day, Pittsburg, first city in Kansas. We had learned that two other cyclists might be in town and Dane enthusiasm for a cycle party at the city park plus the storm, convinced me to call it a day. But the city park looked empty and desolate so we returned to the original idea to go for the glory of a 170km day and Kansas.
Some people advised us about the storm, but we had checked the radar maps and it didn't look that bad. And it wasn't really, just rain and a nasty head wind for which we took turns, then boom! Kansas, baby!

Well I guess this post had ambitious goals, but will not get done today since tomorrow is one more 100 mile day to Pueblo and I really, really need sleep. But Pueblo is a bigger city, worthy of a day off, and will have a chance to tell more on the Kansas trip then.