This is in some ways the hardest part of the trip. There are no hills at all, just a very slight constant uphill, almost unnoticeable. There is usually a crosswind and sometimes a headwind but never a tailwind somehow. I can see nothing for miles but just more road, pastures on my left and salt marsh on my right.
Last night we rode into the night to get to the next town. Riding at night is totally safe because you can see a car coming from about 5 miles away and we are on roads where traffic is so light that I was passed by about 10 cars in 2 hours of riding. The strange part is riding towards a distant light on a horizon for 2 hours and watching it get no closer at all.
I was wrong about good morning america, I should have said the title was 'city of new orleans'. Jake and my mom are right. I had never heard the song before in my life but felt that I knew it anyways. Another song that gets played a lot on country radio is 'green green grass of home', the kenny rogers version, which i remember listening to on the car radio as a small kid with my mom. The best country song I've heard int he past few days is "the race is on" by george jones. I advise anyone who makes this trip not to bring an ipod because firstly it's unsafe, secondly it will break and thirdly it won't give you weather reports. Get an AM/FM radio with a speaker, it's the only way.
I saw some camels and fed them grass through a fence, also a zebra, I took pictures but they won't let me plug in any devices to their computers here, I'll do it later. I'm currently in the town of Larned, Kansas and it will be a couple days before I get to Colorado. I'm about 1200 ft up right now, something like that but I think by the time I get to pueblo I will be at 5000 ft so it's a long slow steady climb.
Another thing that happened is last night Dan and I went to the only business in Larned open for labor day, a smoky bar. We had some coors draws and we met an older drunk guy who wanted to show us pictures of his grandkids. He also complained about the kansas city royals, who were on TV getting pasted by the yankees. apparently all of the beer in kansas is watered down by law. also there are signs that say that the jake brake is prohibited in town. What's a jake brake? is it unsafe? noisy? somehting truckers use? I know pete knows about this so let us know, peter.
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the term "jake brake" is kinda like the "kleenex" "xerox" or "coke" of the trucking industry. invented by the jacobs company, generally "jake brake" refers to a compression braking system.
basically, a compression brake vents compressed air from the piston, which retards the engine. it makes a very loud "brrrrrrrrrrrrr" noise which is why many municipalities prohibit them. a compression brake can provide 85% of the braking force to slow down a truck weighing 80,000 lbs. it only works on diesels.
if you ever take 80 westbound from NV to CA, there's all sorts of rad warning signs for truckers like "Easy on the Jake" "Wind 'em up, hills ahead" "Let 'er drift" etc. They are official government signs meant for a type of trucker that doesn't really exist so much anymore. A lot of truckers these days are Sikhs or Poles, etc.
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