Picture: Ride to Minden (photo courtesy Joyce Kurtz)
The Plan: Lunch in Lucas, KS then ride to Minden, NE for an overnight stay and tour Pioneer Village, Nebraska's number one tourist attraction, according to the brochure.
What Happened: The weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday was less than pleasant, rain, rain and more rain on Wednesday but clearing on Thursday. It was overcast but not yet raining when I met up with my Salina riding buddies at Spangles for coffee. Louie, Neil, Pat and Randy quickly informed me that I would be the sole Salina representative at the weekly ROMEO lunch so with the fore-drawn conclusion that I was going to get wet I set out on the Dubya for the 70 mile ride to Lucas. Actually I was looking forward to testing the rain covers for the saddle bags and seeing if my new boots were really waterproof.
It was a sign of things to come that just five miles into my ride I had to take a detour due to bridge construction. Rather than ride four miles of wet dirt and gravel I took the longer way around to stay on pavement. I kept waiting for the sky to open but the ride to Lucas turned out to be quite pleasant with just a few sprinkles to make things interesting.
Eight hardy souls turned out. Corwin pulled in right behind me on his big Harley that he had ridden 260 miles from Chanute, KS. Richard showed up last and very nearly had the long distance crown although he just came from Lindsborg. His little detour to Russel added to his mileage He probably wanted to make the drive interesting for his wife and mother-in-law who followed him in their car.
I was about ready to back out of the ride up to Minden but Richard, Corwin, Bill and Denny were for it so I decided to tag along. Besides that, we planned to stop at the Geographical Center of the USA just north of Lebanon, KS. How could I resist that calling card?
By the time we reached the GCUSA the rain was steady and the wind was blowing at gale force out to the NE (we are going N remember). No matter, the tour must go on. The five hardy souls enjoying the famous cultural attraction. L to R: Leonard (me), Denny, Bill, Corwin and Richard with the Dub on the far right. Note the flag in the background that has almost blown off it's halyard. Back on the road I didn't think things could get much worse until we hit what passes for road construction in Nebraska, just north of Red Cloud, NE on hwy 281. I was bringing up the rear following the big H-D and determined that I could make it if he could. I've seen motocross tracks that were worse but not many highways with 60mph speed limits. Those Nebraska drivers are pretty tough. After several miles of this slurry we stopped to consult the map (see top photo) then turned West. It was a welcome change to have the wind to our backs for a few miles. Can you see in the top photo what kind of car Joyce was driving? When the ROMEOs use a sag wagon we go first class! The Pioneer Villiage motel was a welcome site and Richard and I had small enough bikes that we could park under the overhang. The other guys with the Harley, Gold Wing and ST1300 stayed in the parking lot.
We all had dinner together and sat around a shot the breeze for a couple of hours in the rerestruant before calling it a night. Thursday was a lot better looking than Wednesday with blue sky showing and sunshine. The Pioneer Village was an interesting place with lots and lots of old things to see. It was a little run down but folks were friendly and they did have a few old bikes among the hundred of autos. Such as this 1908 Flying Merkel
By 11:00 am I had seen all the old stuff I wanted to see and the other guys were still looking so I saddled up the Dubya and headed home. It was a fantastic ride compared to the day before and a joy to see white clouds and blue sky.
Oh yes, the rain covers filled with water and my shorts got wet. The boots were OK with only a little water getting from the top. I should have worn my Frog Togs I guess.
I don't know what Yahoo's problem is today. The photo albums have dissappeared, the photos on this entry come and go, words change......we had a term for it in the Navy....FUBAR
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