Part 19: Bicycle Coast to Coast Across America—Kansas and the Pony Express

By Frosty Wooldridge

“Continents come in big sizes.  Until you ride your bicycle across one of them, you cannot realize the enormity, the expanse and the sheer magnitude of the landmass.  That goes for North America.  On a cycle, the land swallows you up. It leaves you gasping for a sense of size, but the horizon keeps growing before you.  Nonetheless, you pedal onward expecting to see something in that vast expanse of nothingness.”  FHW

(Frosty Wooldridge standing beside his iron horse in front of a statue of a Pony Express rider in Maryville, Kansas.)

We reached the Kansas State Line with little more than a dull blue sky, prairie sagebrush and a few birds flitting from fence post to fence post.   The “Wheat State” featured spring green blades exploding in a 360-degree circle for as far as the eyes could see.

In some cases, huge tractors pulled 40 to 50 foot wide drags that broke up the fields for new planting and huge combines pulled in the winter wheat like multiple sharks feeding endlessly upon the catch of the day.

St. Francis, Wheeler, McDonald, Atwood, Oberlin and Norton passed beneath our wheels.  Hayden, Kansas housed the 41^st Government of Kansas.   Whatever that meant!

We pushed headwinds all day.  They beat the crap out of us.  It’s like cycling purgatory that forces you into a “grind” with your body and mind.  Sure, we possessed the legs to pound out the miles, but it’s not fun. It becomes a mental exercise in tenacity. It’s a hard-core push.  Of course, the devil sits on your shoulders suggesting, “Rent a car, take a train, and hop on the bus Gus.”

“I’m stronger than you devil,” I muttered.

“What’s that?” asked Wayne.

“Just a little conversation with Mephistopheles,” I said.   “Can’t beat him, but I won’t let him get me down.”

“No doubt we are being tested by this headwind,” said Howard.

After passing through the Civic Center of Mankato, we hit the geographic center of the United States.  It featured a nice plaque in the center of a roadside park.

We busted our butts to Scandia through the last 20 miles of exhaustion.  We hit the Scandia Bar and Grill.

“I have been dreaming of a chef salad, home fries, and a lemon meringue pie,” I told the waitress.

“Got it all,” she beamed.  “Except not the lemon pie, but we do have raspberry cheesecake.”

“Knock yourself out,” I said.

(Folks like to create special mailboxes along the route.  A tractor makes everything possible on a farm.)

We slept in a nice park with a delightful shower house. Nice surprise for three busted bodies too exhausted to complain about anything.

We returned to the restaurant to the same cook and waitress.  They cooked up a great breakfast for the three of us. 

I asked her, “What do you do for excitement around here?”

“Mostly farming, watching TV and taking care of kids,” she said.

I’m always curious what makes people tick, how they choose their lives or how they fall into them.  To live in Kansas in a small town for your whole life takes an average mindset with minimal aspirations, but most live that life around the world.  I wonder how I lucked out to gain a zest for world travel. What separated my brother Howard to ride his horse across this vast expanse of North America, and Wayne at 70 years of age to ride a bicycle across a continent?

“The prospect of a trip, an adventure, an expedition overseas, is all too often something we only dream about. As soon as you make the mental commitment to do it, suddenly achieving it gets easier, and steadily the dream becomes reality, and all the benefits start to flow. The motivation and pride that I have seen grow in young people, especially those who thought that they could not, is immense, and I personally have never see it as strong as this anywhere else.”BSES Expedition Leader, Svalbard

I compiled a Baker’s Dozen reasons to pursue adventure at whatever level and activity you choose:

* When you pursue adventure, you must engage physically—you get sweaty and dirty.  You smell.  You work your mind and body to make you more intent on living. 

*In the outdoors, where most adventure awaits, you gain greater mental and physical health because you move into the natural world where you began as a primate. 

*As 70 year old Wayne proves, you can adventure at any age—thus move into your highest and best.

*Adventure engages your intellect via new input, new understandings and greater comprehension.

*While adventuring, you may become uncertain, you also grow greater confidence as well as tolerance for other human beings.  Travel creates wisdom on multiple levels.

*Adventure allows you to come into contact with different mores, cultures and ways of life. Such variety adds to your own understanding of yourself and your world.

*While on an adventure, you enlarge your ability to dream bigger and think in greater dimensions.  Once you complete one adventure, you most certainly begin thinking about the next one.

*At birth, every human being enjoys “wanderlust” from the moment they step out of the crib to the day they ride their bicycle down the street or take a hike with their parents.  That primordial lust to travel germinates in every human being.  Many follow it or wish they could. When they do, they benefit for their entire lives.

*Adventure travelers understand their world better. They become motivated to correct wrongs they may see. 

They inspire others to take action—social, cultural, religious, intellectual, environmental and much more.

*Adventure is flat-out fun!

*Adventure gets your blood moving.

*Expands your spiritual being.

*This 13th reason comes from a man I respect throughout my lifetime of reading him.  Mark Twain once wrote,

*“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

(Doll collection by a lady who loves fancy dresses.  Everyone chases their own dreams by their own choices.)

We pedaled into Maryville with a Pony Express barn and stable museum.  In 19 months, 120 boys from 14 to 18 rode 650,000 miles to deliver mail from the East Coast to California.  Buffalo Bill Cody started his career at 15 riding for the Pony Express.

The National Museum reported, “The Pony Express was founded by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors. Plans for the Pony Express were spurred by the threat of the Civil War and the need for faster communication with the West. The Pony Express consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000-mile trail. The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The first westbound trip was made in 9 days and 23 hours and the eastbound journey in 11 days and 12 hours. The pony riders covered 250 miles in a 24-hour day.

“Eventually, the Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses. The express route was extremely hazardous, but only one mail delivery was ever lost. The service lasted only 19 months until October 24, 1861, when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for its existence. Although California relied upon news from the Pony Express during the early days of the Civil War, the horse line was never a financial success, leading its founders to bankruptcy. However, the romantic drama surrounding the Pony Express has made it a part of the legend of the American West.”

Today, you may visit the barn, stable and museum.  Outside, a statue of a Pony Express rider in Maryville gives you a hint of the America’s past and the need for faster communication.

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Frosty Wooldridge

Golden, CO

Www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com

Www.frostywooldridge.com

Six continent world bicycle traveler

Speaker/writer/adventurer

Adventure book: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World

Latest book:  How to Deal with 21st Century American Women: Co-creating a successful relationship

[email protected]

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Frosty Wooldridge, six continent world bicycle traveler, Mexico to Canada summer 2013, 2,500 miles, 150,000 vertical feet of climbing, 19 passes, and a whole lot of fun! Yahoo!