Day 29: Kansas City, Missouri: "Keep On The Tightrope"

Not to start this entry on a low note but I gotta vent: Missouri, your drivers are rude. You win (or perhaps lose?) at having the meanest drivers of any state I've biked through so far. Seriously, I'm 5 and 0 as far as getting yelled at on the road, and it's not because I'm being a dumb biker. Far from it. I'm hugging the shoulder every day for fear of getting smacked by a truck. Bikers are just not part of the equation for drivers here.

THAT BEING SAID, our hosts have been delightful. I enjoyed sleeping on my couch in Washington and felt quite refreshed and ready that next morning for our ride to Jefferson City, the state capitol. Our route was very similar to the day before. We basically spent the entire day on the Katy Trail.

Overall the team is over the trail, and I can understand the frustration. The gravel's a bit annoying, and if we stopped pedaling mosquitos would swarm on us like in a D-List horror movie. There was actually a moment straight out of a cliche when I was having a great talk with Joe. He catches a flat and I stop with him. 30 seconds later, there's buzzing all around my head, and I'm slapping myself to avoid the legitimate threat of death from blood loss. Joe said "just go on without me!", so like any good horror movie protagonist, I did exactly that. When I saw Joe's back at lunch I felt very guilty, however. His back was like a topographical map of Indonesia.

I had a lot of things on my mind that day and tend to do my best thinking alone in the woods so I made an effort to break away from the group and get some time to myself. I was the first to finish lunch, and hopped back on my bike a good 20 minutes before anyone else, which left me alone to enjoy the tranquility of the trail and to reflect. To quote Kerouac (who's work I've been reading to keep myself in the traveler's mindset), my one and noble function was to move, and I moved. I took the things the were laying heavy on my mind and put all of it into pedaling my bike. I was getting dog tired but didn't want to stop. That day was a day for pushing. I thought of the adventures I was having, about the adventures yet to come, and I thought a lot about all the times I doubted myself, or when other people in my life told me I wasn't capable of something. I wish they could've seen me then. I was gritting my teeth, pedaling like a maniac, making myself fly through the forest.

Then I caught a flat and was forced to mellow out a bit.

By the time I changed out my tube, Will Green and Derrick caught up with me. They're both fast riders, so I settled for the goal of just keeping up with them. We strolled down the rest of the trail and joked, and celebrated when we eventually saw Jefferson City's skyline through the trees. After a brief but hectic hop over the highway we made it to our host. I helped myself to their lovely piano.

Our night in jeff City was relatively mellow. I did enjoy some great pizza, which is something I've sorely missed out on the trail, and a few friends built a fort and snuggled inside.

We all got great sleep and sprung into action the next morning to head out to Sedalia, the home of the Missouri State Fair, which is apparently a very good one. before we left Jeff City, however, we made sure to swing by the state capitol to admire the architecture. Greco-Roman style buildings are so awesome. They get me innappropriately excited about things like democracy and legislation. There was also an impressively tall, though not very flattering, statue of Thomas Jefferson on the steps of the capitol. Being a UVA boy I got to thinking about the amazingly broad impact one man could have on a nation. over 1000 miles away from Virginia, jefferson's legacy is still fully intact. It was one of those moments where I appreciated that despite how huge and diverse this country is we're still the United States for a reason. We have shared heritage, and it's great to celebrate it.

Our time traveling to and living in Sedalia was like a sandwich with really good bread, but on the inside there was gravel. The morning started off smooth and pretty, as I traveled with Jen, Jesse and Heather and Jesse and I swapped hilarious stories.

Then I ran over a staple and caught a flat. I changed the tube.
A quarter mile later my tube popped. I switched out the tube again.
A quarter mile later my tube popped again. Sweeps (Sarah Crawford and Lindsey) caught up with me and helped me make light of the situation.
I changed my tube and tire, but just before I rolled off I noticed that the supposedly new tire had a huge gash in it where the tube was poking out like a scared little turtle.

So we called Sharif and shared life stories a little bit. It was borderline farcial. inside 24 hours I had to change out either my rear tube, tire, or both 5 times. Sarah and Lindsey were great though, and their lives are so interesting. Sarah wants to work non-profits, and Lindsey works publicity for NBC out in LA, so she's met lots of famous people. She told us who was awesome to work with (Tina Fey) and who was crazy (Chevy Chase), and we kicked back and enjoyed some subway while we waited for the van to bring a new tire.

I should stop to mention one other thing: The Subway where the three of us got lunch was (pardon the pun) sandwiched in between two franchises of the exact same gas station. For real. There was a Phillips station, then the Subway, then another Phillips. It was like that bit Lewis Black has in his standup routine about the place in Texas where there are two Starbucks franchises right across the street from eachother. I can't help but ponder the relationship between those Phillips stations. Like, are they bitter rivals, or are they united in the campaign to peddle gas to the people of Missouri? Which has better candy? Which has stickier floors? It boggles the mind.

Once I finally fixed my tire I got to roll over some good ol' fashioned Missouri-style humid-windy-rainy-hills. At this stage, though, when we hit stuff like that, all you can really do is laugh. Whether you're high or low, as Janelle Monae says, you gotta keep on the tightrope. I wound up singing that chorus a lot, in between the moments where the nasty-smelling animal trucks would blaze right past me.

So I made it to Sedalia and then immediately turned around to do laundry, which is part of my chore group duties this week. Lemme tell you, doing laundry for 30 athletes and one Will Paradis is an adventure. A little girl in the laundromat was speechless when she saw the tarps full of sweaty stanky clothes we brought in. We wrangled it all into the machines, and then I sat down to watch some cartoons while Laura and Jesse read.

After laundry we came back to the best spaghetti I've had on the whole trip, which is really saying something when, like, every other host decides to make spaghetti for us. I also had an awesome conversation with a church employee named Tom. I played a little guitar after dinner and we got on teh subject of classic rock, which is a topic I haven't gotten to really explore with anyone for a long time, so I immediatley perked up and got to sharing the passion with him. He lamented about how there aren't any good bands out there these days. Naturally I told him to check out My Morning Jacket and assured him that, while they were certainly modern, they're keeping the faith. He told me he'd look into them and email me with his impression. I'm very excited to hear back. But that was only the start. Are you ready for this?

The church hired out a masseuse and a chiropractor to work adjustments on the whole team. I got my first chiropractic adjustment ever, and it was hilarious and fascinating. I felt like if the Doctor wanted to he could've just as easily permanently disable me. There was one moment where he looked me in the eye, grabbed boths sides of my head and, without warning, twisted my neck and cracked apart years of bad posture. I swear my life flashed before my eyes. And then, to top it all off, when I walked back into the dining room there were fresh, warm brownines and vanilla ice cream in little bowls waiting for all of us.

We all worked to get good sleep for todays ride to KC. At 93 miles, it was our longest yet, but it was also the loveliest piece of Missouri we've gotten to roll through.

I feel like in the last several entries I've brought up how flat the heartland is without really expanding on the idea.I understand that the idea of biking through fields for two weeks sounds boring, but the views really our breathtaking. The sheer magnitude of these wide open spaces quiets the soul and forces a man to listen and think. There were points in todays ride where you could look all around and see so far out on the horizon that the clouds were rising and setting. The colors were also breathtaking: the golden wild grass, the emerald green trees, and a sky of the most perfect shade of blue. The only sounds were that of the crickets, the cows, the birds, my wheels, and my breath, which came in deep and slow to soak in the sights.

The ride basically stayed that beautiful all day. At first lunch we found a shady park to eat in, and at second lunch I napped in the shade of a Masonic hall somwhere in the 'Burbs of Kansas City. I also stopped in a gas station at one point to get candy bars and wound up having a 20 minute conversation with a lovely elderly cashier named Betsy. She totally dug the idea of Bike and Build and told me about how badly she wished she could take an adventure like this one day. I told her the key is to just stop thinking about it and go one day. I really hope she takes that advice to heart. It sounds naive, but it's true. Bike & Build's teaching me that life's too short to be reserved. This might be all we get and you gotta get the most you can out of it.

I really hope she at least goes to Colorado. Her eyes lit up at the very idea. She was a very sweet woman.

And then after a little more biking we got here! I was dreaming of mexican food all day and it seems my wishes did not fall on deaf ears. The church provided a full taco bar and I ate a pretty disgusting amount but GUESS WHAT?! It's cool 'cause I weighed myself in at the Y and, while I don't like being the guy who brings up sich things, I've lost 40 pounds since I started training for this trip.

So go me.

We will be spending the next two days in KC volunteering. I'll be sure to keep you posted!