Day 59: Lamar

Distance: 68 avg: 12.7

There are certain questions I thought I’d have to answer on this trip. And then there are questions I didn’t think about at all. Questions such as:

Can I survive a night in a tent with 60mph winds?
What is the best way to fend off a Rottweiler?
How do you know if you’ve got heat stroke?
How do I prevent rashes if I’m soaking wet all the time?
If you’re sweating so much that you’re not urinating, are you setting yourself up for a urinary tract infection?

These are just some of the interesting questions I’m currently dealing with. Feel free to comment if you have any answers.

I woke up in a pool of sweat and dew, and let my matress and tent dry off. I put on my wet cycling clothes, and broke camp. I headed out and I beat the heat to Pittsburg.

I found a sports store and bought some mace and a decent sized knife. My experience yesterday with dogs was a taste of what Kentucky is like (so I hear) so I figured I’d best be prepared.

I thought long and hard about my choice of weapon before deciding on the mace and knife. My other candidates were a machete or a semi-auto BB pistol. I thought the pistol would make for a questionable legal case. If I hurt a dog with it, it could be construed that the dog was not a danger to me because it was far away. With a knife there is no question that the dog is up close and personal.

I would have preferred a machete but they didn’t have one. So I got the mace (first line of defense) and a 4″ Remington blade (because some dogs are resistant to mace, and those are the dogs I am most worried about).

I relaxed in Starbucks afterward, surprisingly the closest coffee shop. I headed out leisurely, into some pretty intense heat. After an hour and a half I thought I might be overheating. It was difficult to tell, but as I got off the bike and doused myself with water it was obvious I needed to cool off.

I got back on the bike and within the hour I was facing a severe thunderstorm warning with 60 mph winds. I had just checked the weather advisories 2 hours ago and this was completely new.

I biked through the wind and had a tough choice: continue on through a 60mph headwind for 11 miles to camp in a park, possibly in the middle of the storm. Or go directly into the path of the storm to Lamar and stay at a hotel. This would also mean going 7 miles offroute, and not making my miles today.

I was actually very worried about this storm and called the sheriff, something I haven’t done before. The sheriff’s office said my best course of action was to go to Lamar because there were no other cities around that had a hotel. It was settled.

After sweating buckets, oh boy does a thunderstorm cool you off. Maybe some other day I would’ve been sour, but it felt goooood. Cool breezes, cold light rain, mmmmm! I must have missed the brunt of it.

I get to the hotel, and realize that I’m pretty itchy. I noticed my face was burning when I put suntan lotion on earlier. Turns out that when you’re wet all the time you get a rash. So my body is covered with many large rashes.

I’ve been wearing leggings and sleeves to protect from sunburn and to retain moisture. While this works great in the desert, it works too well in humid climates. The sleeves are skintight and soaked, which is probably perfect for rashmaking. I’m going to change tactics tomorrow, and ditch the full body glove.

I’m learning, and I’m sure I’ll have more questions tomorrow. 🙂