Day Thirty-Eight - Eureka.

Today I am in the small town of Eureka.

I set my alarm for 6:35 this morning, ambitious I know. I did get up then though, and managed to get on the road by 8:20. I was disappointed that the diner over the road wasn't open, and I had to go to McDonalds for breakfast. There are funny types at McDonalds early in the morning, they remind me of the guys that go to the pub at 9 in the morning. From what I heard, the only conversation topic was trying to describe to the other person where abouts they lived.

I quite liked being on the road at that time, the roads were especially quiet as it was a Sunday. I managed to hammer through the first few miles fairly fast, there was definitely a wind, but it wasn't very strong. I found myself going north quite a bit today too, again enabling me to have a relatively easy ride.

I didn't go past a huge amount other than fields today, there were a couple of towns though. The first was a town called Coyville, which had very little there. There was a sign with a little synopsis about the town, and how it was the first town in the county. Fair enough, I thought. The sign then proceded to list a massive list of other things that they were first to do, things that would happen all the time in any town if it were there. Things like 'the first marriage in the county', 'first hanging in the county', 'first school in the county', you get the idea. It seems a little unnecessary to me.

I proceded up to Toronto, where I planned on stopping in a cafe for a drink. The waitress reeled off a special they had going, and before I knew it I was eating a roast dinner. I'd got talking to a table just over from me about my trip, a group of four who arrived on two motorcycles. They weren't the biker type that you often see with long beards and black clothes, they were just people on bikes. Anyway, they took a massive interest in everything I was doing on my trip and in life. My bill came while I was playing on my phone (I've bought a game called Flight Control for 59p which is HIDEOUSLY addictive), so I didn't pay it straight away. About 7 or 8 minutes later, a waitress came over and took my bill away, telling me that the table I was talking to had paid for it for me. I was shocked, and wasn't really sure what to do other than say thankyou a lot. They told me that they'd probably see me when I was on the road as we were going the same way.

20 minutes passed, and the group caught up with me right outside the cafe. My bike lock had completely siezed up, and I couldn't do a thing to pull it apart. After I tried lubricating it all, a guy walked past who asked if I was having trouble, and I explained the situation. To cut a story short, he went into a house to find a guy who had some wire cutters, and cut my bike free.

After all this, I got on my way and polished off the last 19 miles in not too much time. The southerly wind had picked up by this point, and was blowing fairly hard. It wasn't so bad going directly west, but I travelled roughly west south west for a bit which was straight into the wind.

I arrived in Eureka at about 2:45, and after looking at what very little Main Street had to offer, booked into a motel. They've been quite cheap since being in Kansas. I didn't do very much else today, other than clean my salty clothes and go out to get pizza. I hate having the same thing twice in a row, but I got a truckload of coupons yesterday that were burning a hole in my pocket.

I'm heading to Newton tomorrow, a route that involves 17 miles of riding north, a 38 mile stint of not a lot, and I should pass my halfway mileage right at the end of the day. It won't be my actual halfway because of all extra miles I've done going off route and round towns, but it's as best as I can do. My actual halfway will be sometime the day after (or even the day after, I'm having a short day the day after tomorrow).

oh ps. my ahilles is better today having adjusted my saddle, let's hope it stays that way.