I woke up before sunrise again, ready to get most of the riding done before the heat of the sun. The national weather service has an excessive heat warning in place starting Monday through Thursday, with effective temperatures between 43 to 46 Celsius (110 to 115), and for Sunday morning there were also some thunderstorm warnings in place. Before I had my accident I was actually in a great weather window, with below average highs and below average winds. Unfortunately the accident had pushed me into a higher than average window.

I left the hotel at 4 am and headed out into the slightly muggy night air, it was pleasant riding. I hadn’t gone more than a quarter of a mile before noticing the flashing horizon to both sides of me. The thunderstorms were illuminating the night. While it wasn’t forecast to thunder over me, I wasn’t comfortable heading out into the wide, open, and flat Kansas country with thunder clouds all around. I retreated back to my hotel room and the cool conditioned air.

If I couldn’t start riding early I would have to ride later in the day in the hotter weather, and the area I was heading into was as remote as the area I was coming from, there are few accommodation options. I was also finding that the swelling in my lips was not healing as fast as I would like, and while it doesn’t hurt it is making life uncomfortable.

I decided instead to just ride south to Wichita, the second largest city in Kansas, which was only about 25 miles to the south of Newton. It should have been a 2ish hour ride in normal conditions, but I was riding directly into a 20 mph headwind, it took me 4 hours of sustained effort as the temperatures creeped up to make it into Wichita. I was glad to retreat to an air conditioned room.

The outlook for the next week seemed like something to endure rather than enjoy. I have thoroughly enjoyed every day of the tour, up to the day I spent in the ER. I don’t want to struggle through the eastern half with my mouth hanging open in discomfort, so I made the decision to declare success and make my way back to California. I’m pretty much exactly half way, I’ve cycled in excess of 2,500 miles through 5 states covering the American west, experiencing the Pacific coast all the way to Continental Divide and down to the Great Plains, I’ve eaten several gallons of ice cream and still lost weight. Maybe another year I’ll come back and ride the eastern states, from the Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean, but for the rest of the summer I plan to rest up, let my face heal, and head to the Sierra Nevada, relaxing by the cool mountain lakes.

I plan to rent a car, drive to Denver, and take the California Zephyr, a train that crosses the Continental Divide on the tracks I rode alongside when I crossed Rollins Pass, and then continues on through Utah, Nevada, crossing the Sierra Nevada in California, and pulls in to the east bay just a few miles from San Francisco. I should be sleeping in my own bed by Friday.