Day – 50

Really a straight forward day. 70 miles east and golf after.

It was a big day though. First off it is hot again. Like 105 hot. The difference from Washington’s heat is there is humidity but also I am different. After 50 days in the wild my body has started to compensate and get used to extremes. I am not saying it doesn’t have an effect but I seem able to keep going unlike the first few weeks. Also the route I am on is crossing a small town every 15-20 miles. This allows me to stop into a gas station and get ice cold drinks and ice. It makes a huge difference.

Other big changes happened today including leaving Colorado and entering Kansas. From home to old home. Also I am now in my third time zone!

What made today special though was playing Lakin municipal golf course. This is only important because it is the childhood course of my good friend Josh. I have heard about this course for the past 30 years. Now I finally get to play it.

Upon arrival there is not much to look at. It appears a bit hard scrabble and unkempt. Add to that it is located right next to a natural gas pipeline pumping facility and it is not showing up on the cover of golf digest any time soon. The seemingly eight year old working the club house was very unconcerned with doing his job but took my $20 and pointed me to the first tee.

Hole one is the longest hole on the course (par 5) right into the teeth of the constant west Kansas wind. In other words instead of a nice handshake welcoming you into the round it is a fierce uppercut making you wonder if you misspent $20. I jest mostly because I was able to manage a three putt bogie.

Just as I had written off the course as a back and forth flat basic pasture course, hole three presented a forced carry par three over a ravine. Then much like my home course an irrigation ditch provides two more forced carries going down hill then uphill. Throw in a couple dog legs and the course is anything but boring. The greens are postage stamp small, fast, and deceptively undulating. They provide most of the course’s challenge. The greens were well maintained but the fairways and rough were marginal at best. All in all it was blue collar golf where untucked tee shirts and trucker hats are the norm and the people get tremendous value. In other words golf for the people is alive and well in Lakin.

I could have ridden across Kansas on an Adventure Cycling Association route (the people that designed the GDMBR) with the security of an established, nearly 50 year old, proven route with a compliment of information for each town, but the one thing they don’t know is golf. I can’t imagine grinding miles through the never ending farmland of Kansas without something to look forward to like golf. It is conceivable I could play every day on my route in Kansas but I also can’t wait to see my family and then there is Future Erich’s issue of getting to DC…