Hairy Challenge Update III

Full disclosure: There's a lesson here. No one should ever publish a closeup of oneself like this.



However, the attempted beard has some benefits:



ENTOMOLOGY - A patchy beard coated with sunscreen turns out to be the perfect surface on which to collect species of local bugs. After cycling 80 miles in a day, I think I have enough for a thorough study. Since this is a cross-country trip, it could probably be used to document the change in local bug life as one travels from west to east.



SUPPORTING MY TEAM - My Chicago Blackhawks are in the Stanley Cup finals. They last won it when I was 4 years old, so this is a big thing. No one on the team is shaving until after the playoffs, so I'm feeling simpatico with them. I'm sure they feel the same about me. However, since they are manly men, their beards really look like beards.




WEIRD TAN LINES - Someone on the trip pointed out that I will have a very strange tan line on my face when I shave. However, bikers are known for weird tan lines, and are strangely quite proud of them. Here's a shot of my hand:

Note the usual lines at the wrist and the second joint on the fingers. These are the typical glove tan lines that cyclists like to show off at cocktail parties. I'm going to be the hit of the Westport social scene, due the semicircle of dots behind and above my thumb.



At first, I thought I had some weird skin disease. Then I tried to remember if someone or something bit me (on both hands). Not recalling a bite, I investigated further.

These are tan dots from the small holes in my gloves. I've been riding so much, with my hands in exactly the same position and my gloves in exactly the same place, that I've got a perfect dot pattern. Maybe I should open up a tanning salon specializing in dots.

The hairy challenge update comes on our rest day in Abilene, Kansas.

Abilene is best known as the place where Dwight Eisenhower grew up, and is now the home of the Eisenhower museum and library. The town has built a tourist business around the Eisenhower complex, including the national greyhound hall of fame. It's dogs, not buses, in the hall of fame.

The Eisenhower complex is worth a visit. The museum is very well done, and had a special exhibit "Eisenhower and the Righteous Cause: The Liberation of Europe". We were all pleasantly surprised by the quality of the presentations. East coasters - if you ever decide to drive to your Aspen chalet, you'll pass within 10 minutes of here on I-70.

Once again, we were shown that Midwesterners are REALLY nice. An older gentleman with a minibus picked us up at our hotel and drove us 2.5 miles to the Eisenhower site. He asked $2 per person for the trip there, and $1 for the return, giving us his cell phone number for when we wanted the return. When we walked out of the library, he happened to be driving by and gave us a lift to our restaurant downtown, and refused payment for it. 10 minutes later, he came into the restaurant carrying my hotel keycard, which I had dropped on the bus. As we travel East, I'm going to study the changes in behavior. I have a feeling there's a very steep gradient just before we hit the coast.