Day 21: Getting Soft

First off, sorry for the lack of content recently: was busy hanging out with people. Will try to make-up for that tonight. So, back to Thursday:

I had always planned to do more Couchsurfing (of the couchsurfing.org variety) as I got further East (not farther, right?). Early in the week, I lined up a couch for Friday night in Topeka, but was still looking for one in Kansas City. Thursday night I had planned to camp out about 25 miles short of Ft. Riley and ride in the remainder Friday morning to visit 1-18 and visit LTC Cross.

I stopped to setup camp and was immediately swarmed by savage insects. But that is okay, because Kansas has provided me a nice training ramp to develop my skill at quickly setting up camp, saturating the area with bug spray, and getting in my bivy sack before getting light-headed from the blood loss. But, Thursday night my technique was not good enough for those relentless bugs.
I tried to just seal myself inside the impervious Gortex of my bivy sack for the night, and could hear the bugs swarming outside. I needed fresh air, so I setup a small hole to breath through and sprayed it with bug spray. This was working well enough, but as I was falling asleep it felt like a mosquito flew up my nose, I tried to blow it out, but with no luck, and suddenly my Eustachian tubes (or whatever the tube that regulates air pressure in the ear is called) started hurting. I tried to clear my ears for a bit, but with no luck. It was too painful for me to sleep, so I knew I had to break camp and get to the hospital on Ft. Riley. But, that is no simple task when your surrounded by a swarm of blood thirsty bugs.

I of course gotten some practice at packing up and getting moving quickly, but had yet to do this at night, or with a swarm this intense. I grabbed my bike shoes and put them on while sealed in my bivy sack, and then jumped out grabbed my stuff.and got moving as quickly as possible with my bicyclist sack waving in the wind as it hung over my shoulder. I then began a long process riding, stopping and packing, and continuing on when the bugs got too bad...of course with a lot of swatting in-between.

After a few hours of late night riding I made it to the hospital, yeah for still being on Tricare. The doctor told me it was anatomically impossible for a insect to in my Eustachian tubes, and that I had an ear infection and gave me some drugs for that. I was also able to get about a hour of sleep in there in the ER.

I went straight from there over to 1-18 and met up with LTC Cross. After spending the morning with him, I hit the road to Topeka, so that I could make the volleyball game with my couchsurfing host and her friends at 7. After riding all afternoon, I made it at 7:20 and was able to play for a bit and then go bowling with the volleyball team.

That night I still hadn't heard back from my Kansas City couchsurf requests, so I sent a few more. And, then Saturday morning sent some more before I left for Kansas City. I got into Kansas City around 6pm and still hadn't heard from my requests, so sent out about 20 last minute requests, depleting my phone battery in the process.

I went downtown to find some BBQ and a power outlet. Food some good BBQ, but no outlet :(. Went to a nice bar downtown...no outlet. It's 10:30pm at this point and my phone battery is almost dead, so I went and got a hotel room :(. Still surprised I couldn't get a couch surfing host in a big city like Kansas City. Put a damper on my half-way done celebrations, but I still went out and found some strangers to celebrate with. Apparently 3am is closing time in Missouri--1 hour closer to being as good as Europe.

Still managed to get up at 10 this morning. Took a bit for me to get on the road, but after getting an early lunch finally got moving. As I was leaving KC I got a nail in my back tire and had to change tubes; tried to find a open bike shop to get a new spare, but no luck...eventually decided to chance it and keep going and hopefully find a new spare before I got another flat. Also fell after hitting a savage pot hole on my way out of town, bruising my left thigh pretty badly when it hit my handle bar, making it a little stiff.

I wanted to make Arrow Rock tonight, but didn't make great time this afternoon. The humidity and bugs were even worse today, but at least the temperature wasn't as bad and it was overcast for most of the day. As I was coming into Marshall I saw an ad for a $25 hotel and was sold instantly, well worth it to avoid the bugs.