6/2 49 0mi chanute,KS

Mike, Framk and Ralph left early this morning and so now I'm alone here. Did some laundry and asked about a clinic. I walked over there and they let me see a doc. When I showed it to him he said, 'that's impressive.' He cut it and pushed all the fluid out and told me not to ride on it for a day to let it drain out. He also pushed some gauaze in there to keep it open. Had my vitals checked and my resting heart rate is 47 and my weight is 177 pounds, I lost about 10 pounds since I started. Sat around and watched some t.v. and watched the UW womens softball team wih the national chammpionship which was kind of fun. Watched earth 2100 on abc which was very interesting. Could almost fall asleep in a normal position.

6/1 0mi chanute,KS

woke up and had bled/pus all over the sheets. I feel really,really, bad for the roomservice lady. Walked to walmart and bought some fruit,yogurt and stuff to make sandwiches. Sat around all day and took some epson salt baths to try and bring the swelling down and infection out. Heard a knock on our door and frank and ralph greeted us. Ate dinner with them and caught up with frank about how his trip was going. Its tough because I can't sit down normally and have to keep shifting from cheek to cheek and laying on my back for the most part. Swelling went down a bit from last night and it was easier to be comfortable.

5/31 47 70mi 6:09 Chanute,KS

today sucked.Didn't sleep very well at the park. I have lots of insect bites all over me now. I woke up covered in sweat once , that was really sweet. Then a breeze came througha and I got chilled. oh the joys of sleeping in the great outdoors! It was o.k. though. Ate the last of my organic northern california oatmeal. I have been carrying that stuff forever. Its hard to eat oatmeal in the morning when you are sweating standing around in your boxers at 8:30 in the morning. Hot food just isn't really appealing, I don't know why. I never really got comfortable all day. My ass was in agony all freaking day. Stopped in a little town to eat and met a 91yr old man named glen. We talked to him for a bit and then headed on our way. Mike was struggling the last half of the day. I was in pain from my infection, so we didn't talk to much. Had a little bit of confusion trying to find a road but found it right where it was supposed to be. Ran into a guy from holland travelling east. He told us the store that we were planning on stopping at was closed on sundays. We got to the store and found a pump in the back so We could fill our bottles. We dranka bunch and then just sat around for about an hour. It was excrutiating getting back on the bike. I was walking around like a bow legged cowboy and I couldn't get comfortable on the bike. I had been riding all day with as little of my right side on the seat as possible. My knee was sticking out a good 2 inches from normal so that I wouldn't put pressure down there. I smacked my handlebars a couple times out of frustration. We ate at a salad and pizza bar for dinner and I wanted a hotel room, so we split one. Plan to take a rest day tomorrow and hopefully figure out a way to heal up. Don't want to quit. not this 'close' to the end. The hard part is over, just have to finish these last ~1700 miles.

5/30 46 78mi 5:24 Eureka,KS

Woke up and susan,Ray's wife, had made us french toast which was great. A couple of the girls had drawn us some pictures/notes for encouragement and that was really cute. Headed out and felt o.k. Had a tailwind and crossed paths with some charity ride. Met a guy from switzerland named mike who lit up a cigarette when we were talking to him. He was traveling to Oregon and later an older guy fron amsterdam named Gaap showed up. It was fun talking to those 2. Coming into Rosalia I was on my last legs. Stopped and grabbed a couple of gatorades and a mountain dew. Chatted with the owner of the place joe and signed his guestbook. Shawne Camp was there 2 days ahead of us. Learned a little about ranching from joe and a bull will eat 50lbs of hay and drink 35gallons of water a day! Also heard a story from joe about a boy who fell and broke his leg in a pigpen and a pig bit the bone that was sticking out of his leg and started swinging the kid around. He screamed for about 10 seconds before he passed out. Hopefully no one just puked on their computer screen. Anyway mad e it into Eureka and had 2 bison doublecheeseburgers for lunch at a littel drive up joint that were really good. I can't sit down normally anymore and I try to lay down flat on the ground if I can. Camping at the city park and jumped in the pool after everyone left to wash all the grime off our bodies. It rained for a little bit, maybe a half hour and there was some thunder, but it wasn't a full on storm.

5/29 45 82mi 5:48 newton,KS

Woke up and had some swelling down by the right side of my perenium. It took me agood 10-20 minutes to get sort of comfortable on the saddle. My right testicle didn't hurt anymore which was good news. Had a tailwind today and it felt awesome. I was climbing standing a lot more and I felt really fatigued whenever I would get off the bike. I hated to stand around and would sit if I could and lie down whenever possible. I have never felt this level of fatigue the whole trip. Finally made it into newton and ate at an all you can eat buffet. I wasn't walking normally because the pain between my legs was so great. We were going to camp down the road a couple of miles when a guy in a company van stopped and invited us to sleep in his house. His name was Ray and he had a bunch of little grandkids over. He put us upstairs in his huge house and we each got a room to ourselves. His house was old but well maintained and I took a bath in a claw footed tub. I haven't taken a bath like that since, well I don't know when. Read a little bit and then fell asleep. It felt great just to rest my legs and get a shower. It has been really hot lately especially in the middle of the day.

5/28 44 94mi 6:35 30mi W of larned,KS

Woke up and headed out around 9am. Rode with micheal all day, we seem to ride about the same speed. He is from boise,ID and wants to be an RN so he can travel the world. I couldn't get comfortable on my seat all day and every time we would stop my right testicle would hurt for about 10 minutes. Like I had just gotten hit there or something. Stopped in a grocery store in Larned and bought some groceries and had some subway. Heard that the public pool was free for bikers so we headed over because it was so hot out. We were the oldest people there by far. It felt a little bit weird. All of the staff was like 15-16, so it was odd to see bo adult supervision at all. we just stood in the shallow end and talked for a while. The water was pretty cold and we went down the waterslide before we left. Pushed on toward mickerson which was over 50 miles away and rode until it was dark. Camped on a dirt road next to an aminal wildlife preserve and we could hear all sorts of animals all night long.

5/27 43 67mi 4:44 bazine,KS

had the leftovers from last nights dinner and rode out to an overcast day. Stopped to update my blog and came back out to sunshine. Got into bazine around 4p.m. and took my time today. I am staying at elaine's bicycle oasis and I planned my last two days so that I would stay here tonight. Dan is her husband and is a rancher. He told me he bales hay/alfalfa for people. Had ashower which was wonderful and a guy named micheal showed up. He had broken a spoke and walked 3 miles to get to the oasis. I had an extra spoke and changed out his broken one for him. We had 'haystacks' for dinner and then dan made up some popcorn. We sat around and talked and then me and mike slept out on their porch. You can't beat that for $10. It has been a while since I slept in my tent.