Any Motorcycle Riders?

[ShockerDropOut]

Nice buy. I would love a bike, but alas my wife has made it VERY clear that I cannot have one.

[SHOCKvalue]

Nice buy. I would love a bike, but alas my wife has made it VERY clear that I cannot have one.

Yeah... gotta use that as a qualifier at the dating level. Politics, religion/faith, things I ride with motors. No particular order. Fail one and they're off the list like a fat kid in kickball.

Not saying you should get rid of your wife or anything.

[SubGod22]

Nice buy. I would love a bike, but alas my wife has made it VERY clear that I cannot have one.

I get it. I was once looking into learning to ride and getting a bike when I met a girl. She had her reasons for being against it and since I'd never committed to riding I put it aside. But now that I have one it'd part of the deal. Which will either make getting a girl easier or ever harder than it has been.

Time will tell.

[ShockerDropOut]

Yeah... gotta use that as a qualifier at the dating level. Politics, religion/faith, things I ride with motors. No particular order. Fail one and they're off the list like a fat kid in kickball.

Not saying you should get rid of your wife or anything.

After 39 years I have come to the conclusion that I CAN’T do any better.

[SubGod22]

Due to car trouble, my recent vacation changed from a trip down to New Mexico and Arizona to jumping on the bike of the bike and bouncing around northern Kansas for a week instead.

I need to get saddlebags. They would have come in handy. I just crammed what I could into a backpack and secured it to the back rest of the second seat and went on my way. All in all I put about 1200 miles on the bike in nine days. I stay off the turnpike and often times tried to stay off the major highways when I could. I really enjoyed the more leisurely riding on old roads with little traffic that would wind through the Flint Hills and such. I'll go ahead and say that anyone that can't see or find the beauty in Kansas has issues or isn't even trying.

I have a friend that owns a bar in Baldwin City so I went up there for day one and hung out with her and did what I could to help support her businesses. Also supported a local Gambino's up there which was only about a block away from the bar. I crashed at her place before heading out the next day headed for the little town of Hanover. Unfortunately, shortly after I turned onto the highway headed for Topeka my bike went nuts on me and I had to pull over as the front tire had gotten a flat. Thankfully, another rider entered the highway shortly after me and stopped to check on me. He told me there was a HD dealership in Topeka that was open on Saturday and I should give them a call. While I waited to be picked up, I had four other people stop and check on me, one was actually going the other direction and turned around. A group of about 20 riders were about to pull over but I gave them the thumbs up so they wouldn't bother. Historic Harley was awesome. Within about 30 minutes they had a truck out to me to get me and the bike to the dealership and a couple hours later I was back on my way with a new tire/tube. Absolutely everyone I encountered at the dealership was great. Friendly and considerate as well as understanding of my predicament. The first rider that checked on me when I pulled over also happened to be there and came in and chatted with me at one point. There are a lot of good people in the world and don't let the news or the few dolts out there convince you otherwise.

I stayed in Topeka that night before finally heading to Hanover a day late. I also got delayed on this day due to a rainstorm that hit when I was about 15 miles outside of Marysville. I took refuge at a gas station, was planning to get gas anyway, and they even told me they had tables off to the side I was more than welcome to sit at until the rain passed. What I thought would only be about a thirty minute wait turned into nearly two hours. I did finally make it to Hanover and the Hollenberg Pony Express Station State Historic Site which I found pretty interesting. Was one of the first stops on the Oregon Trail and has a lot of history even outside of its time involved with the Pony Express. Staff was tremendous and the area is beautiful. I would recommend a visit if you're ever in the area. I also almost went up to Beatrice, Nebraska simply because it was only a few miles away and is home to one of the greatest Shockers of all time.

I headed for Concordia to set up shop and I wish I'd done a little more research before doing so. I was planning to check out the WWII German POW Camp Museum as well as the National Orphan Train Complex but I arrived Sunday evening and they are both closed on Monday and Tuesday. I'll have to make another trip up there at some point. The next day I made the trek out to Lucas and The Garden of Eden. This place has a pretty cool story about an eccentric retired farmer turned artist. It doesn't take long to get through but I found it interesting and enjoyable. I then rode down to Wilson and I don't know much about lakes in Kansas, but when going by Wilson Lake a few miles from Lucas I was impressed. It has to be up there with the best Kansas has to offer. I really enjoyed that stretch of my ride. Wilson also conveniently had these solar charging stations where I could charge my phone for a bit before I headed off towards Hays. I could probably spend more time in Wilson as well some day. I was excited to try this little sweet shop they have but they apparently closed it due to the owners having some health issues. I believe Wilson is considered the Czech capital of Kansas.

I didn't end up doing anything in Hays other than going to see the Deadpool and Wolverine movie. And I did it for half the price the AMC in Wichita wants to charge me to see it during discounted matinee hours. The next day I headed towards Great Bend and had lunch at a lovely Mexican restaurant called Los Dos Portrillos. The food I had had tremendous flavor and the chips and salsa were pretty good too. I then drove on through Marquette, which I'm told has a motorcycle museum so I may have to check that out sometime, and then up to Salina where I spent a couple of nights. I woke up the next day and decided I'd go check out the local zoo there. Rolling Hills is pretty good for a smaller zoo. I did have to keep reminding myself on the way in that it wasn't going to compare to Sedgwick County Zoo, but it was better than the Nashville Zoo I visited about 8 years ago. I was planning to head up to Rock City in Minneapolis but the heat was getting to me so I headed back into Salina to look for food. Luckily for me, when I pulled up my app to see what was near me when I stopped, The Cozy Inn popped up and I knew I had to go check it out. I ordered a small amount and enjoyed it, then went back and did it again before heading back to the hotel to recover. It's such a simple burger/slider but damn is it good. It rained the next morning which delayed my departure long enough that Cozy Inn opened up and I decided to eat and stock up before heading back towards KC.

On my way back to KC I came across Abilene and just had to stop and see the Eisenhower Presidential Museum. They've done a really good job with that place and I learned quite a bit more about him and his wife than I ever knew. If you haven't been, I highly recommend. I didn't make it over to the Library. I then went back towards KC hoping to get a room and watch the Chiefs game. I got a room, but the hotel didn't have the local channel that the Chiefs were on so I had to watch on my phone. Also wish I'd have checked my phone before getting a room as Baldwin City really wasn't far and my friend had offered her place to crash and I know her bar had the game. The next day (Friday) my friend wanted me to come to college night at her bar as Baker had just started up classes. So I got an early lunch at Joe's KC in Olathe and then rode down to Ottawa where I had a friend I hadn't seen in over 20 years was working at a gun store there. I ended up hanging out there catching up and BSing with her and a co-worker for a couple of hours before heading back to Baldwin, where I got more Gambino's and ate a Ghost Pepper because the bartender wanted to see a reaction out of me and a couple of the others had apparently tried it. I told them I was good with heat and they were disappointed that I didn't react. I then enjoyed my pepperoni and jalapeno pizza before getting my drink on. College night was crazy and damn it would be nice to be 21 again, able to drink, and not have crippling social anxiety. But it was fun.

I had been told about a place in Madison that was supposed to be a legit restaurant with Louisiana roots so I made the trip there only to find out that the restaurant closed at the end of July because the locals apparently didn't support it. I was pretty bummed, hungry, and working towards dehydration after that. Most of my stops to get gas on the trip involved me buy two to three Gatorade's and I'd chug one before I left. Having planned to eat and drink a ton of water in the process I hadn't worried about it. I should have done it when I got to Eureka but was eager to get home. But the rest of the way home was tough. Up in KC the highs were supposed to be mid 90s and I didn't realize that down here we were between between 105 and 110. The heat was getting to me and I was struggling to get and stay comfortable. I also ended up taking old roads and avoided El Dorado and ended up in Andover where I went to Spaulding's and enjoyed some food and a pitcher and a half of water before finally going home and seeing my dogs.

It really was a fun trip. I didn't realize I'd put so many miles on the bike, and my ass, but it was worth it and I really want to do something like this again. Even in the car just bouncing around Kansas and taking it all in and seeing little things and learning some history in areas we don't think about was a lot of fun. I want to go back north at some point but would also love to do the same in eastern and western Kansas as well. There are a lot of museums and such that would be interesting and some up there I skipped as I generally had all my stuff on the bike and was paranoid in certain areas about just leaving it all unattended. Again, most people wouldn't bother anything and there was nothing of high value in the bag, but it did contain all of my clothes and chargers. I may just have to target specific areas for even a long weekend sometime.

To sum up, Kansas has a lot more to offer than most realize. It's beautiful. And riding in the Flint Hills is a wonderful experience.

If you actually made it all the way through this, what is wrong with you? It was just the ramblings of a mentally ill guy trying to sell you on the greatness that Kansas has to offer. And college girls are pretty.

[RoyalShock]

Lol, I did read through it, mostly. Glad to hear you had a good few days on the bike!

[C0|dB|00ded]

Age 12, KX80. Helmet was on, hands were off. Five gears of wheelies. 8 hours of riding on Saturdays.

Driving on the city streets today is a whole lot more dangerous than my childhood airborne antics.

"Family bike" is a classic Yamaha V-Max whenever somebody gets the itch.