The omens for Day 6 were not good, with overcast skies and a forecast of rain, Gary taking ill and needing to return home from the trip, and Mickey’s puffy eyes making him reminiscent of a badger.
Surprisingly the MickRooCrew hit the supermarket for free toilets, and to purchase water, ice, coffee and Gatorade. By now all of these were morning rituals. Supermarket staff thought we were after the specials like Pensioners on pension day, but we only wanted their clean toilets.
The rain started just prior to Mickey’s departure and soon set in with temperatures dropping and ice forming on the edge of the road in some sections.1-2 buildings had ice on their roofs, and Stan took a lot of convincing that the white stuff on the roof wasn’t paint. Every 5 miles we needed to change Mickey’s socks and gloves, no mean feat in the cramped support vehicle, now a muddied and damp support vehicle with the heater maxed out. Mickey worked hard through rolling hills to a place called Kim, with little there except or a general store aptly named the “Kim General Store”. Mickey finished the stage and took refuge in the vehicle. Sage Rusty suggested Mickey wait 30mins and ride out the storm which proved a masterstroke as 30mins later the rain stopped, the sun started to break through and the wind whistled up to a strong tailwind.
Mickey had a grin from ear to ear and had never been so fast on a bike. He was doing 30mph without really touching the pedals. It was great to see him really enjoying himself and having a ball, even asking to be videod to be able to make smart alec comments eg “Mickey Campbell seeking permission to land” and videoing for Billy what real speed was like. Turning corners into crosswinds was like hitting a wall, but once he got the wind behind him again he flew, catching a racer whom had started this stage an hour before him.
We passed through Pritchett, a town with a bigger population in the cemetery than living in the town itself. Some of the team availed themselves of the local store toilets, with Dave now known as “no-flush Dave”, and Roger gobsmacked to see the little old lady whom owned the store online looking at lewd images on the internet! Roger was speechless, but we’re not sure at which bit. Rusty stated his intention to buy a number of investment properties at Pritchett given the unbridled development opportunities.
Mickey made it to the following town earlier than the RV, meaning the support vehicle crew had to take care of all business. Rusty showed his dapper hand at physio and sorted out Mickey’s feet. “If this works I’m going to set myself up as a physio – it can’t be that %^&*@# hard!!!!” The tailwind meant Mickey ate up the miles and it was a pretty obvious call to go as far as possible across the flat plains whilst the wind held.
Soon after we left Colorado and entered Kansas with Mickey excited to be out of Colorado and even waited and wanted a picture taken at the Welcome to Kansas sign. Ironically he was wearing Red! The race officials at the checkpoint at the following town gave Mickey a compliment stating he was in the best shape of any rider they’d seen. Mickey took it as an affront – he mustn’t be putting in hard enough.
He rode on through the night, skirting Dodge City and Boot Hill, much to the disappointment of Stan whom was hoping to go there (that gun thing again) and heading towards the Greensburg checkpoint. It had been a long 22 hour day for the team when we called it quits at Greensburg at daybreak. We had to call it quits as Celine hallucinated about vintage cars and horses coming down the road towards her when she was driving, and Roger in the other vehicle mistook trees on the roadside for skyscrapers.
We were all in bed faster than you could say “RAAM”.
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