My 500 200 150 mile bike trip
Alright, I’m finally getting to actually telling the story of the trip… most of you have heard it, but for those of you who have not here it is. The trip started out really good, I followed Barry Road all the way into Liberty where it ends and I had to turn onto 152, followed that to N and went out that until I reached EE and was going to go all the way to Old 210 but that was closed off where I was so I had to take 210 out. Anyways it still worked out well because as you’ve seen in the pictures I got to stay outside of Cooley Lake (still don’t believe it really exists) on the shores of the Missouri River. This was the only time that I actually stayed in a designated camping area. After that I rode about 65-70 miles further east on 210/10 highway. I didn’t get as far the first day as I had hoped because I left at noon and had to stop by some places for some last minute food supplies and stuff. After a while 10 takes an abrupt turn north… which I didn’t want to go, everything I was looking for was south and east of where I was… so I kept going straight on some gravel roads… eventually I gave in and turned north to meet back up with 10 but not without getting a nice sized thorn in my front tire. I had to take care of it on the side of the road using the only spare inner tube that was with me. After which I went another 10 miles or so and stayed the night under the radio tower. In the morning getting ready to head out my rear tire was flat!!! so I patched it…. which was an all day event because you must allow the glue for the patches to dry for several hours. So I stayed another night under the tower and really didn’t “fix” the tire at all it was just a slower leak now. Either way I had to come back because you can’t ride 400 miles on a tire that must be aired up every 5 miles… Making it back about 20 miles or so the pressure from constantly airing it up got to the tire and the valve stem separated from the rubber… not exactly something that you can fix, and especially not on the side of the road. I used duct tape to create enough of a seal to hold 5-10 PSI on a light load. So now I was airing the tire up as I went along while walking…. I walked a good 20 miles or so and was resting at one point. I just layed down on the side of the road with my bike beside me… didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me, there was nothing to sit on, and my feet were killing me. After a little while I got back up and started to head out again… 3 cop cars flew by with their sirens on, then a fire/rescue truck, then an ambulance… I was just thinking it would suck to be out there in the country if you had an emergency because it would take FOREVER for them to get to you… heck there was nothing behind me, and the nearest town in front of me was another 5 miles (from the direction they came too). Then as I’m just rounding this hill the fire/rescue truck pulls in behind me… I stopped and kind of staired at them as they chatted away on their radio, but weren’t getting out to say anything… I was a little worried since it’s illegal to ride your bike on the highway… and although a small road 10 highway where I was is still technically a highway… After a while they finally stepped out and asked if I was ok and everything… still confused I just told them what was going on and that I was fine. Then they explained to me that someone had called in that there was a motorcycle accident or something on the side of the road. Alright first off what kind of jerk does that? “Oh hey, there might be someone dying on the side of the road but I’ve got to get to wal-mart so I’m not going to see whats going on or if they need help I’m just going to call 911 and let someone who’s a minimum of 5 miles away handle the situation that I’m right next to.” Thanks jerkoff… No seriously… besides the fact that I was fine and calling 911 was a waste of valuable resources that could save someones life what if I was hurt and bleeding to death on the side of the road? Even if you’ve got minimal knowledge of first aid just staying with that person and keeping them concious for the 5 - 10min that it takes for an EMS to arrive could save their life.
Yeah, so enough of my rant and back to the story. After the fire/rescue truck arrived and they finally got out and asked what was going on the ambulance arrived and they got out to see what was up as well. They kept asking if I needed anything and I finally said “well if you’re willing to give me a ride that would be awesome.” I figured it was a long shot but it never hurts to ask right? One of the EMS guys was like “yeah sure!…” *looks over at his partner* she just says “I don’t give a crap if we give him a ride” so they stuck my bike into the back of their ambulance and headed back to the town. They explained to me that if they got a call they’d have to dump me on the side of the road… and honestly I didn’t care, anywhere they dumped me was further than where I was at the moment 
After eating at the Subway, and waiting around for a while I had most of my strength back and started out again for another 10 miles or so in the dark. I said to myself that I would walk day and night until I reached home not stopping for anything and contemplated leaving my bike since the only thing it was good for was transporting my tent and sleeping bag which I wasn’t in need of anymore… a couple of hours later I stopped to rest and nearly fell asleep… unfortunately the ground wasn’t flat so I had to keep going until I found flat ground… any flat ground. The nearest thing I found was outside of this corn field there was a grassy area… which proved to be wicked comfortable too all the grass layed over under my tent was not only insulating from the cold ground but it was squishy! I woke up late that morning at about 7am since I got to bed so late in attempt to walk all night. After a bad start I started packing up quick and realized that I was also out of water… I saw a building nearby and went to it, it turned out to be a Jehovah’s witness church so I tried to sneak on get some water and leave before people started to show up… somehow it got to be 10am and as I was filling my many water containers (I carried about a gallon and a half of water at all times on the trip) here comes a couple of vans. They kept me around and were talking to me trying to convince me to come in for the meeting… I didn’t really want to and only finally agreed when one of the guys said that he would give me a ride if I stayed for the service… sounded like a deal to me! So that’s what I ended up doing, and I was glad to shave off the last 50 miles that would of taken 2 more days walking.
The journalings from the trip will be published later…. wish I could of gotten everything up faster, but seeing as I usually publish something on here once every 6 days or so seems I’m doing fairly well. Now it is off to walk to the bike shop to get a new inner tube… I really don’t want to… I’ve been putting it off all week. I need to go to the UPS store and send off my PSU so that I can get a new one (thank goodness for 7 year unlimited warranties!) and I also need to mail off a bracelet for one of my friends in Texas… which the post office and the UPS store are at opposite ends of the spectrum so I really need my bike… I just don’t want to walk… no problem with ridding my bike 50 miles to get some errands done… but walking just no fun. That’s why I’ve been putting it off all week… don’t know if I’ll get anything other than getting the inner tube though since I still have TONS of work to do here online… and walking cuts a good hour at least out of my schedule.