Day 11
Start
Overland Park, Kansas/Missouri City, Missouri
Finish
Brunswick, MO
Mileage
100
By Bruce Wood
www.biggreen alert.com
Brunswick, MO -- The whispers around Dartmouth’s Alumni Gym Thursday were that “Buddy had to pull the plug on his ride.”
To quote ESPN commentator Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend."
Told about the rumor that his bicycle ride from San Diego to the East Coast had been curtailed near the halfway point, Dartmouth football Coach Buddy Teevens was incredulous. “I wonder who started that?” he said. “They'll have to drag me kicking and screaming before that happens. It's been hard, but it's been fun and I’m determined to see it through.”
That determination was on full display Thursday when Mother Nature tacked another challenge onto persistent headwinds: flooding. Spring rains that dramatically raised the water level on several Missouri rivers also raised havoc with Teevens’ route.
“The Grand River flooded and I had to reroute twice, which added probably another 20-30 miles,” he said. “That’s hard because you are putting on mileage but you aren't getting anywhere.”
Teevens was able to ford one stretch of floodwater that otherwise would have required him to take a lengthy detour, but wisely thought better of a second attempt. "On the first one the water was covering the road,” he explained. “I took my shoes and socks off, rolled my pants up a little bit and walked through water that was knee-high to thigh-high, carrying my bike. It was probably 300-to-400 yards.
“When I came to another one I told this guy, Pat Barnes, a city worker, I wanted to go through. He said, ‘Man, I can't stop you if you want to start walking. It might be 3 inches, 5 inches, 8 inches. But then again, you might just disappear. And if you do, I'm not going to come look for you. Do what you want, but I'd suggest you backtrack and take 139.’ ”
Added Teevens with a laugh: “He was a craggy old guy but a neat son-of-a-gun, and I took his advice.”
That advice brought Teevens the long way around to Brunswick, not far from the world’s largest pecan. Tired and hungry, he was weighing his options during a quick stop at the local grocery when he benefited from what golfers call a "little local knowledge."
“The store closed at 6 and I'm wondering what I'm going to do for dinner and breakfast, so I grabbed a couple of cans of sardines, a loaf of bread, some peanut butter -- my staple -- and some fruit and yogurt,” Teevens said. “As I was going out I asked about a hotel in town and the lady instead suggested the Whitetail Run Bed & Breakfast across the street, which caters to hunters. There was just a little sign but I knocked on the door and the lady who runs the place, Mary Nicholson, had just come back after the flooding. Neat place. She had a pizza and offered to split it with me.”
As it turns out, the innkeeper had driven past Teevens and noticed him on the road only to be surprised when he turned up on her doorstep that evening. “She’s very, very nice, like everyone has been on the trip,” Teevens said.
Everyone including Mike Monohan -- father of Dartmouth baseball catcher Jack Monohan -- who hosted Teevens Wednesday night and got him safely on the road northeast of Kansas City Thursday morning. “Thank goodness he did,” Teevens said. “Riding through Kansas City would have been nuts.”
Thursday included a breakfast-time stop at the Cancer Survivor’s Park in Kansas City and a meeting with representatives of the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation. From there, it was off to the Kansas City Chiefs’ headquarters and a meeting with old friend Bill Kuharich -- Teevens is godfather to Kuharich’s daughter -- as well as a hello with head coach Herm Edwards. (Teevens tried to recruit Edwards’ son Marcus to play wide receiver at Florida. Although Marcus ended up at San Diego State, Teevens thinks he'll try to recruit him again -- to work at the Manning Passing Academy this summer.)
Then it was back on the road and into the wind, starting in Missouri City.
“It was a constant slog all day,” Teevens said. “I couldn't go over 12 or 14 mph. It was a lot of rollers and where they re-routed me it was all hills. I probably did about 25 hills like the one on the Lyme Road.
“I'm more frustrated than anything else. The road where I was re-routed was scenic, but not too good. The shoulder was non-existent and because of the flooding everything was re-routed the same way, so you are getting passed by trucks left and right.”
Sounding tired but not depressed after a 100-mile day, Teevens vowed to make up for lost time today. “It was pulling teeth. Glacial progress,” he said. “But I’m going to keep grinding away.
“I think I’m almost at the halfway point in terms of days. If I can just get a tailwind for a day or two I can really make some miles.”
SWEET EATS Teevens was on the phone back here Wednesday night from the Sweet Tomatoes restaurant where the Monahans had brought him. Mike Monahan was duly impressed when the coach put down the phone and picked up the fork. In an email, he wrote: “I never saw anyone eat that much!”
Teevens’ conceded the point. “It was a feeding frenzy,” he said. “I was so hungry. I was on the phone when they started eating, so I was trying to play catchup. I could have stayed there another two hours.”
According to Teevens, his weight is “down a little, but nothing worrisome.”
ONE STOP The late start and difficult conditions limited Teevens to one football-related stop at Hardin High School, a former Missouri state champion.
HEY PEYTON It’s still miles away, but Teevens is planning to go through Indianapolis where he hopes to check in with Peyton Manning. The Dartmouth coach runs the Manning Passing Academy for the Colts’ quarterback and his family, whom he got to know when he coached at Tulane. “I talked with Archie and he said Peyton’s working hard and to just give him a call,” the coach said.
SPEAKING OF INDY A big fan of the David Letterman Show, Teevens would love to meet the talk show host's mother when he hits town. So if you know her -- or Dave -- let them know ;-) I can see a Letterman's Top 10 list coming out of this ...
The DartmouthBiz blog writes about the ancillary benefits of Buddy Teevens' ride. ... Independent candidate Stephen Smith has been elected a Dartmouth trustee. ... Donations to The Prouty inspired by Teevens' ride have surpassed $4,000 and the Prouty home page now has a link to this blog.
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