July 27, 2014 – Walnut, KS – population 219
Post date: Jul 28, 2014 10:56:02 PM
We spent 2 days in Pittsburg, KS. Yesterday was a day off. We took it a day early because of the expected high temperature and 30 mph wind. We were lucky to be inside, since the Shriners were in town. We called 7 motels before we found a room. We could have camped at an RV park, but being inside was a good way to pass the time in the heat. It worked out well because Doug’s sister, Hiedi and son Dustin met us here and were able to stay at the same motel, so we didn’t have to run off early in the morning and had more time to visit.
We spent the afternoon at the local theater where we paid $3.50 each for a matinee showing of Planet of the Apes. I filled up my gas tank for $3.19/gallon. I’m hearing gas is close to $4.00/gallon at home. I just had 2 people stop to ask me if I needed help. The first was a man with a little girl in the back seat. His wife is down the street cleaning the bank (9am Sunday morning). I actually saw her when I turned around to park. She must have asked her husband to make sure I wasn’t broken down or something, because he said she had mentioned me sitting here. I asked him for a food recommendation. It looks like it will be the local convenience store: gas/ice/pop/beer/deli/groc.
The guys decided to get out a little earlier than normal to beat the heat, so we were on the road at 7am. That will make the lunch stop really early, so maybe we will just get a snack and keep going. The problem in Kansas is that there are actually warnings on the map that there are no services for 38 miles/58 miles/58miles/58miles. So we will have to plan eating and camping carefully. I think the guys would like to get through Kansas as quickly as possible. There isn’t much variety here. Kansas also gets an ‘F’ for marking the bike route! I love it when the map says “turn left onto unsigned 670th Ave. then turn right onto unsigned N. 140th St.” One of the roads earlier today said, “Turn right onto unsigned road at power pole”. There are mileage markings on the map, so you can tell about how far you are between turns. I hardly had to look at the map in Missouri since they had bike signs at every turn. It was so easy. I wish Kansas and Kentucky would join in and embrace the fact that 200 bikers a year want to come through their towns and spend money at their stores and restaurants. They could make it so much easier for us! I’m thankful today for my TomTom GPS. I always enter the next town, and even if it suggests a different way, it tells me what road I am on and what road is coming up and if I get off the official route, I can take Tom’s route instead. Only once so far did he want me to drive onto a little gravel road through a corn field. I vetoed that and he rerouted me to a road I liked better.
In a matter of 5 minutes this morning I managed to hit a chipmunk and a bird. The chipmunk ran off after I heard it clunk around under the car. The bird ended up flapping around injured in the road behind me. That made me cry and then I couldn’t read the map, so I tried to hold it together until the next turn.