Mile 10311.5 - Beloit, KS, Chautaugua Park

Phew, or ouch. 458 miles in one day. And all that, only to now find out that my friend in Tulsa that I specifically went all of this way out of my way to see has National Guard duty this weekend. Why she couldn't tell me this beforehand when I emailed her that I would come out to see her? Beats me. Of course, it is my fault for not telling her that I was coming this weekend specifically instead of saying I'm coming out there. I would have thought, though, that if you tell someone that you'll come to visit them, the usual response is "great, but not on these dates because I'm busy." So who's fault is it? Mine or hers?

Either way, this doesn't make my sore ass feel any better. Nor does it make the 350 miles I have to hump tomorrow just to get to Tulsa seem any shorter either. But hopefully, I can drop my bike off at the dealer tomorrow and then they'll have it ready Saturday evening and so I won't be beholden to staying in Tulsa. At least it appears from my GPS that the Suzuki dealer is less than a mile and half from my friend's place, which is eminently walkable in case I am on my own this weekend.

Meanwhile, my friend will try to rearrange her duty, but geez, I just wish she had told me this beforehand so I wouldn't have bothered to come all this way through the crap wind and long distances and just maintained and enjoyed myself touring through Colorado and Utah.

The sole consolation might be that at least I'm camping out for free in the city park here. I hope that it doesn't turn out to be sketchy, but at least they have power for my electronics. This will be my first night camping in quite a while, so hopefully everything will be ok and it won't get too cold. Of course, without my thermometer, how will I know anyways?