Newton, KS – Rest Day
Today we took a rest day in Newton, KS basically because this place is so awesome. Dries and Max still had some stuff to get done on their bike and its kind of nice to just hang out with people who have a passion for the same thing. These guys live it.
I took the down time to sort through my gear and send some stuff home. In the end it wasn’t much, but I may be able to consolidate my tent and food into one of my panniers and get rid of a bag. Not that I was traveling especially heavy it just seems less cluttered now I guess.
Next I took the spare time to figure out the health care stuff. Went to the pizza/coffee place next door, because I knew I would want to get away from the craziness of the shop for this endeavor. Tons of bureaucratic BS. Kept getting the exact opposite answer from different people. Incredibly frustrating. In the end determined that Indiana’s state expanded Medicaid program, the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), doesn’t pay for anything that occurs out of state. So if I were to get inured it wouldn’t cover any of my emergency room visit costs even if I hit the deductible.
I decided to just go to Healthcare.gov and sign up on the Marketplace. I got the catastrophic plan which has a $6600 deductible and out-of-pocket-maximum for right around $200 a month. The plan essentially covers nothing until I hit $6600 dollars spent on healthcare for the year not counting premiums. Also, since all this occurred after June 1 I’m not covered until July 1. I mentioned that the first guy I talked to who submitted the application to the HIP program for me said that getting a retroactive start date to June 1 shouldn’t be an issue since my request was being processed by the State of Indiana and I had made the inquiry before then. The current associate I was talking to submitted a “claim” or something on my behalf so that someone will review it. I’ll have an answer in 2-4 weeks whether or not I can move my start date back to June 1, by which time it will basically be July 1 and I will have no need to back date it if I haven’t been injured – crazy. Worst case scenario I may still be able to COBRA if I were to get injured before July 1 and I’m not covered by Obamacare since I have until July 31st to opt into that. Unless purchasing insurance through the health insurance market place removes that as an option then I’d just be screwed. So incredibly complicated and impossible to get consistent information.
After that saga I went back and hung out at the bike shop for awhile and drank a few beers to settle down a bit. Took Marley for a walk.
When I got back they were filming a video for this thing they do called “What’s in the Box Wednesday”. Basically review a product they’ve been testing out and give people a chance to win it if they Like, Share, and Comment on the video.
Tied up a few other loose ends on my bike. About a week ago the bottom of my front fender broke off. I had been lugging it around planning on putting it back on with a combination of duct tape and super glue. Mike fixed it up by drilling a couple holes and bolting the two pieces back together. A fix that another shop may have charged an absurd amount was free of charge. Here he’s grinding off the extra length of the bolts.
Seriously didn’t know that a place like this could have existed on planet earth, but this place is heaven for a touring cyclist. I ran to Wal-Mart to grab some food and some other miscellaneous items. When I got back, made some dinner and rotated my tires. There wasn’t a huge difference in the wear, but it was enough that I decided to get ahead and do it anyway. While in the process Brandon showed up. He did 170 miles today. Basically our last two days combined. He’s crazy fast.
Now we’re just hanging out drinking beer and planning tomorrow. James and Heather informed us that sticking on Hwy 50 instead of taking the farm roads about 10 miles north as the Adventure Cycling Trans Am route suggests is better for services and shoulder. Sounds like everyone is going to take that route. I’m going to hit the Kansas high point which is north about 40 miles from the route right at the Colorado border, so it doesn’t really make sense for me to ride Hwy 50. Looks like I’ll have to make the decision tomorrow to either set out alone or increase the miles for my detour. Not sure I’m particularly attracted to one option over there other – maybe I’ll flip a coin.
