Today our plans included picking up the badly needed supplies in Ford KS via General Delivery and to continue onto the famous western cattle town Dodge City.
As every morning our first stop of the day is to stock the bikes with fluids and food. We pulled into one of the Love’s Country Stores. They are a large chain of convenience stores in this part of the country.
We were wondering around the store looking at our choices when the District Manager who was talking to the store manager asked Ken about our journey. After giving him a quick run down he said he admired us for what we were doing and then told us to take what ever we needed in the store it was on him!!! FREE!
“Get some drinks and food …you got a cooler on those bikes? Fill them up”. We grabbed a few things and the manager was looking around the store trying to find us some other goodies. Amazing how a nice a perfect stranger treated us. We almost felt bad taking the supplies but knew he wanted us to. Just another example of good people in this great country. Remember when you travel…Love’s Stores are the right choice.
The wind was blowing 25 to 35 mph but lucky for us it was coming out of the southeast. This gave us a stiff cross wind but a slight push from the rear. The forecast was for increasing winds with gusts over 50mph in the evening. We would be safe in Dodge City by then. We had a mostly sunny day but ended up traveling on a busy road for a few hours. It had a very wide shoulder so it was safe but noisy.
Our travels took us through the town Greensburg destroyed by a F5 tornado just a year ago. (Worth doing a Google Search). We were told by one of the locals who went through it and survived the tornado was just under over a mile and a half wide! Can you imagine what something that big and nasty looked like bearing down on you!! No thanks.
The damage was still evident even a year later. Any building now in town was new and all the trees still standing were snapped half way up. The town still looked like war zone in some areas.
After seeing all this we hear the weekend forecast is for severe weather where we are headed tomorrow. The storms are due in the afternoon and we have a 100 miles planned to make our next rest stop. Hopefully we can beat the worst of it.
Just past Greensburg we came across a huge collection of metal sculptures on the edge of a field. Hundreds of them!! Most were very comical.
When we arrived in Dodge City dinner was the first order of business after securing a room. We asked the motel clerk if she could recommend a place we could get some pasta. “PASTA?!?!” she replied….. “Not in this town, don’t you know where you are? This is cattle country.” Steaks, beef, ribs…. We realized we had almost violated a city ordnance by asking for a non-beef product and went to the closest steak house.
You know you’re in cattle country when the pie on the dessert menu is Beef Pot Pie…not Apple Pie.
Once back at the motel we did the necessary bike repairs and tire swapping from the supplies we picked up at the Post Office and laundry.
Kansas has been nice but is is time to “Get out of Dodge” and head for Colorado and the Rockies.
Once back at the motel we did the necessary bike repairs and tire swapping from the supplies we picked up at the Post Office and laundry.
Kansas has been nice but is is time to “Get out of Dodge” and head for Colorado and the Rockies.
4 comments:
Youd better keep an eye on the weather.in the mid west if one of those funnel clouds gets a hold on you youll be going for more than bike ride. be safe.!And Circle for Safety!LOL
Your doing great! Excellent update guys,I feel like I'm with you! Nice to see you getting some help from some true AMERICANS.
My wife's cousin loves that area and says it's great, but sometimes the weather s.... and gets real bad.
Keep them sneakers to the metal!
We do keep an eye out for the funny looking funnel clouds. We still have not come up with a good plan on what to do when we see one. Hide behind some stalks of wheat? Looking for some fresh ideas on that problem Steve. Look at the above photo of Kansas Nothingness......where do you go?
Diamond Dave your wife’s cousin must not have seen any other parts of the world yet!!!! Well I guess if you like tornados, blowing dust, and meat milkshakes. This is the place. They even sell meat filled donuts here.
Honestly, the people here are real friendly and helpful. Everyone asks us about our journey and seem to be truly interested. Here anything that does not look like a cow or a stalk of wheat sticks like s sore thumb …. so we get plenty of attention.
You still have time to buy a bike and join us if you want.
Thanks for the comment we get a kick out of them. Say Hi to the boys in the trenches for me…….
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