Day 21 Pratt to Park City,KS (73 bike miles;1489 cum miles)

The day started innocently enough. Charlie and Kris leaving the Econolodge in Pratt, where we had stayed for the night. Bill, taking advantage of internet connection, posted the blog for the night before and left about 30 minutes later.

Approaching a railroad crossing just before the City of Cunningham, KS, Charlie took a nasty spill when his front bike wheel got stuck in the space between the track and the road. He banged his head, hard against the ground. Fortunately, his helmet took the brunt and he did not suffer a head injury. But he sustained lacerations to his leg, badly bruised his hip and also hurt his shoulder. His bike also suffered damage. When Martha arrived in Tiggy, she and Charlie headed for Kingman, about 15 miles away where the nearest hospital was located. Kriss and Bill continued biking in the direction of Kingman.

About 5 miles up the road, Kriss and Bill spot Tiggy on the shoulder. The tread on the inside rear tire had unraveled, forcing Martha to pull off the road. Fortunately, a pick-up truck stopped and asked if he could help. Martha immediately replied: 'Could you take Charlie to the hospital in Kingman", which he immediately agreed to do.

Bill called the Road service and was told that the service person was coming from Hutchinson which was more than an hour away. Kriss continued biking to Kingman, while Bill and Martha waited for the towing service.

After waiting about 2 hours, the tow truck arrived and Tiggy was jacked up and tire replaced with the spare tire. Meanwhile, Martha had researched places to get a new tire using Charlie's GPS and found one in Wichita about 50 miles away that was open on Sunday. Meanwhile we heard back from Charlie with the good news that he had no broken bones nor neurological damage, but he was in a lot of pain from all his bruises, and of particular concern was pain and lack of motion in his shoulder.

Bill said he would bike to Kingman to meet Charlie. Martha said that she would wait a few minutes to give Bill a head start, and then go to pick up Charlie and then go with him to Wichita to get a new tire.

About 10 miles up the road, Bill gets a call from Charlie: "Bill, you need to stop riding". Bill: "Let me get to the top of the hill". Charlie: "You may not want to, since you may need to go back to Martha". Bill: "What?" Charlie: "Yes, the towing guy forgot to lower Tiggy from the jack and Martha can't move. Bill: "Gulp".
Charlie: "Wait a minute, Martha is calling". Charlie: "Its ok. The towing guy came back. He realized that he had forgotten the jack and returned. Martha will be heading to Kingman shortly to pick me up".

Bill decides to continue biking , but rather than taking the RAAM route that Kriss took which heads north around Wichita, he decided to stay on Route 54, which is where the tire store is located.

About 10 miles later, Route 54 turns into a 4 lane highway, with a 75 mph speed limit! Bill naturally is riding in the shoulder with cars and trucks whizzing by. This is NOT fun bicycling.

Shortly thereafter, the "rumble strips" changes direction. Rather than running just inside the shoulder parallel to the road, some highway engineer genious decides to have the strips run perpendicular t0 the road through essentially the entire shoulder. The only way to avoid it was right at the while line that separates the right lane from the shoulder. So that's basically where I rode, with cars continuing to whiz by me. I may have uttered a few works of profanity to several who got a little close for comfort. Getting near 5 pm , I call Charlie and he tells me that they are finishing up the tire balancing and they should be ready to go. After some difficulty, I finally get to them.

Now, we need to find Kriss. After several futile attempts to reach Kriss, Kriss finally calls and tells where he is. We head up I-270, go past where he is, get off the next exit, and then head back. Kris is waiting for a Days Inn is Park City (northwest of Wichita) and we decide to stay there for the night - with our usual routine - Charlie in the hotel room and Kriss, Martha and I in Tiggy. Being dinner time, Martha did her usual dinner research and came across a family owned Italian restaurant about 6 miles away.

The restaurant was exactly what we needed after what had been the most trying day of the trip. Charlie had scotch on the rocks and we ordered a bottle of Chianti with dinner. The dinners were all fabuous!!

And then back to the Days Inn and Tiggy for much needed sleep!