Distance: 58.0 mi, Climbed: 1,198 ft
Completed: 1,828.8 mi, 96,597 ft
I had a big day planned for today, 57 miles. The forecast last night said it was going to be hot and dry. For the last few days, I have noticed myself dragging in the afternoon heat a bit. So today, I got up early to get in as many miles as possible before the afternoon heat.
I was ready to go by 6:00am. I walked out to the hotel lobby and was greeted by the owner. He saw that I was about to leave and told me to give him five minutes and he will put out breakfast. I was planning on having breakfast at Wendy’s next door, but I did not want to turn him down.
While waiting, I picked up my phone. I took a quick look at the radar, expecting to see nothing. To my surprise, there was a thunderstorm in Chanute, and it was heading right for me along my route for today. There was no way to escape the storm. I thought about trying to ride to the first town, Girard, but I would not be able to get there before the storm arrived. I was stuck.
It would be another hour before the storm arrived, and it took time to pass through. Around 9:00am, everything settled down, and I went back out to the lobby to leave. By the time I got from my room to the lobby, it started pouring again. I ended up not getting out until almost 10:00am. So much for my early start.
The first ten miles or so I rode in light rain before it cleared up for the day. I stopped in Girard about fifteen miles in for a quick snack. They have a lovely downtown square that was hopping. In the center of the square, they have a Vietnam Memorial with an actual UH-1H Huey Helicopter.
While I sat down to eat my snack, I had two separate people come by and ask me about my ride and offer directions. They each had their own ideas of which way I should go. I do get a lot of route suggestions. Mostly, I ignore them. I have learned to trust the official TransAmerica route. I have been burned a few times when I did not strictly follow the route, ending up on busier streets or at difficult intersections.
Most of the roads today were backroads with very little traffic. One of the roads had a big sign that said “No Trucks.” Even better. The scenery today was mostly large farms and cattle ranches. I saw lots of cows, horses, and even some small goats. Many of the farms were massive. A few had signs advertising the brand of seed they use. The phrase “Next Generation Ag” was everywhere.
I mostly did well with the longer distance today. About twenty-five miles in, I started to drag a little. I needed something to focus on to get my energy up. I tried singing out loud for a bit, but honestly, I do not know the lyrics to many songs. I needed something I could do for many miles.
I had an idea. I would give a graduate-level course on large language models to the wind. I am not sure why I thought that was a good idea, but it worked. For the next fifteen miles, I shouted to the wind a description of how transformers worked, how they are trained, what are some of their challenges, and some of the research directions on how they can be improved. It is probably the first time I have thought about artificial intelligence on my trip. Sometimes, it feels good to let out your inner nerd.
I have been watching the forecast and radar all afternoon because I knew there was a chance of thunderstorms in the evening. The National Weather Service put out a warning around 5:00pm of a thunderstorm and possible hail in the next two hours. I had ten miles to go. Time to go fast. I raced back and beat the forecast, but it was all for nought. The storm did not materialize, but at least I made good time.
