Splat - Day 57: Bennington to Washington State Lake, KS

We had tailwinds and an easy start today, but encountered a few more hazards to navigation than previously. Also, there was a distinct lack of interesting towns or people in general. In short, it was the kind of day that I think I enjoy more than most.

Deanna, Sonia, and I are all very used to being told what to expect and finding that advice to be totally wrong. Just yesterday, we were told that Bennington was about 30, 18, and 15 miles from Salina. It ended up being about 12. So, we didn't think much of Vanessa's warning that we would see "nothing out that way" leaving Bennington to go north, though I did pack a bit of extra food.

Turns out Vanessa was right. I didn't see a public-facing building all day, just corn, soy, and an occasional clump of houses that managed to earn a name on the map. Eventually, in Oak Hill -- literally, a hill with a few oak trees and a church -- I was able to find someone willing to let us refill our water from a pump in their yard. They looked pretty unhappy about it, but we would have been significantly less happy without water, so I didn't feel too bad about bothering them.

The main obstacle today was the fact that Google has few qualms about sending bikes down dirt roads, some with pools of loose dirt that did a great job of catching tires. This was a moderate problem for me with 26" x 1.5" (relatively wide, hybrid-style) tires on a mountain bike frame, but it presented some real issues for Deanna and Sonia on 700 x 23 or 700 x 28 (relatively narrow, road-style) tires. I definitely did my share of sliding and wobbling through soft spots, but they each took at least one fairly nasty fall. They had amazing attitudes about it, though. Deanna even seemed excited to have earned a scraped knee from having the kind of adventures that she hadn't had since middle school. In fact, the main problem seemed to be that I annoyed them by being upset with myself for having chosen the route on which they fell. They were right to feel that way, I think, because that attitude implies a lack of respect for their ability to choose for themselves. I probably wouldn't have felt so bad if it had been Ethan and John, for instance, so I was pretty clearly revealing some inherent sexism. That only made me feel worse, though, instead of relieving guilt about the route choice.

It was getting dark by the time we discovered that the last 5 miles or so would all be dirt. Sonia took another fall that involved some helmet damage, and by absolute luck, one of the few vehicles we'd seen all day showed up and offered to give us a ride to our destination. I had the same conflict as I did in Hutchinson, where I didn't want to take a ride but also didn't want to look like a macho asshole. Having already cheated on the route once, I decided to take the ride. Maybe it's just post-hoc rationalization to resolve cognitive dissonance, but it's probably good to remind myself to focus on the experience rather than the technicalities.