Day 33: Viva la Vida

Friday, July 5, 2024

Strafford, KS → Dodge City, KS

75.8 miles, 942 feet elevation

The US-50 once again greeted us in the morning, with its wide shoulders and straight course towards our next destination, Dodge City. Our campsite was right on the US-50, so we had about three turns in the whole route. I like biking in Kansas (when there’s no headwinds, or thunderstorms, or…) because of how it makes me realize that I’ve improved as a biker. When it’s flat and straight, I like to focus on going a specific speed and holding that speed as long as I can. It’s like a controlled experiment. Although to be honest, I wish we had more elevation so that the Rockies aren’t as terrible. In my head, every foot counts!

The scenery of the 50 was the same swathes of field and dry grass that we’d had for some days. But I was happily surprised by the first sunflower fields I had seen in Kansas! The Kansas highways are all marked by a sunflower, so I was glad that Kansas finally put its money where its mouth is.

Over the past few days, I have been relistening to a fourteen hour podcast on the life and art of Frida Kahlo. It’s just as engaging and fascinating as the first time I listened to it, mainly because of how awesome a person Frida was. Her story contains lots of tragedy, but I was mainly interested in how she never shied away from life. When she was sick and bedridden at the end of her life, she had her bed transported to the opening night of her first art show in Mexico and made the bed part of the exhibit. The podcast ends with a discussion of her last completed work, Viva la Vida (Watermelons). At this point, she wasn’t able to paint much more than still lifes, but she still chose to celebrate life in her work. I don’t know, I just love it a lot. I wish I could see the world in so many different perspectives, not just my own. And her art helps with that. 

Viva la Vida (Watermelons)

Self Portrait as a Tehuana

The Two Fridas

Long Frida Kahlo anecdote aside! I met up with Sophia at a Kountry Kitchen, where we both chowed down on a slightly early lunch and I continued to word vomit about my podcast and how much Diego Rivera stank (he stank!). It felt blissfully normal, like I had driven there on my lunch break. 

Sophia's Kountry lunch

From there, we booked 10 more miles and reunited with the team and then entered the WIND FARM. 17 miles of wind turbines!! I had driven along the US-50 and seen this wind farm before, but that was nothing compared to biking through it. I had spent 15 minutes zooming through it then, while now I spent more than an hour with the turbines and the wind. I still have no idea how big they actually are.

After exiting the wind farm, I was motivating myself with a dream of an alleged boba shop in Dodge City when I got a flat. My first flat! It was only a matter of time before the shoulder of the US-50 would collect a toll from us (Hank got his first flat earlier that day too). Luckily, a few days before, at the suggestion of our wonderful Osawatomie hosts/doctors/bike mechanics/Kansas historians Jeff and Sarah, I had finally installed a hand pump on my bike. With JD’s motto of self sufficiency echoing in my brain, Cleo and I fixed my flat in a process that actually ended up being pretty rewarding.

Fighting my flat (eventually we won)

I rolled on 20 psi to one of my personal favorite stops of our trip, Paleteria La Michoacana, which reminded me of restaurants in Los Angeles that I go with my dad to. I lost my head and ordered both a lime popsicle and esquites with Hot Cheetos, which probably canceled each other out in terms of cooling effect after a hot day but made me exponentially happier. 

these changed my life

Bigger than JD's face

Since we were in Dodge City, we of course had to succumb to the tourist trap and head to a rootin’ tootin’ gun show. Unfortunately the gun show was over by the time we pulled up to the Boot Hill Museum, but we still entertained ourselves through cracking a whip, trying on cowboy hats, and drinking sarsaparilla, which is a leveled up version of root beer. 

Not even the full stock o hats

Did you know Cleo likes the US

Our favorite vegan Jess

I also bought some meaningful postcards that truly encapsulate the heart of our experience in Kansas.

So that we can always remember the thunderstorms :)

Today I thought a lot about what’s coming next for us, how Kansas is preparing us for long hard days in the Rockies and how every small decision we make as a team is bringing us closer together and making us better. We’re really growing as we do this and I love to think back to how we were at the very beginning, when we would take a lunch break at 20 miles in or when I hadn't had a one on one conversation with everyone. I’m trying to engage more with all the perspectives and small things and histories and quirks that make up this experience. And not just try to survive the days, but appreciate them all and engage as much as possible. Viva la vida, as some would say.

-Rebecca