Friday, May 19, 2006

Day 45: Friday, May 19

This morning we rode through Alexander which marked the completion of the Seventh Section. Just before Fort Larned National Historic Site, we met our first west-bound TransAm riders! There were two girls who started in Yorktown and were heading to San Fransisco who met up with a guy along the way who was heading to Astoria. We rode almost 70 miles to the town of Larned where we stopped for lunch. One of the things we wanted to attempt on this trip was a night ride. When we stepped from the air-conditioned restaurant back into the heat, this seemed like the perfect opportunity. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the library and trying to take a nap in the park. By 6:00 that evening, the temperature was still in the 90s. We left Larned a little after 7:30. Just after the sun set, I got my first flat tire. It was an interesting experience attempting to fix it in the dark. It didn't take very long for the novelty of riding at night to wear off. We arrived in Nickerson at about 12:40 in the morning and set up camp at the city park. Unfortunately, I erased today's stats from my computer while working on my flat tire, but Shayne's computer indicated that we rode close to 130 miles total.