Flint Hills Sign

This is the new sign announcing the Flint Hills of Kansas on I-70 just west of the Maple Hill exit.
Click on the picture for a closer view.

I Made it to All 105 Counties

The day started out warm and muggy with a temperature of 72 degrees. The high for the day was 88 degrees with a strong south wind. I left Lyons headed south and east about 7:30 on hwy 96. The first stop was in Hutchinson in Reno County and this made number 100 counties I had visited. I am getting excited now.

I left Hutchinson and headed east on 50 hwy and arrived in Newton in Harvey County.

From Newton I headed north on I-135 to McPherson and hwy 56. McPherson was where we lived from 1970 to 1979 while I was a Highway Patrol Trooper stationed there. So I was familiar with the McPherson County courthouse. While I was there I went to the McPherson Sheriff’s office and visited with a long time friend, Sheriff Larry Powell. He has been sheriff there since 1992 and was on the Police Department when we lived there.

I headed east on hwy 56 to Marion in Marion County.

From Marion I headed east on hwy 56 to 150 and was surprised that this road had been rebuilt since I last traveled it. I went north on 50 one mile and at Elmdale headed east on a county road to Cottonwood Falls in Chase County. Their courthouse is the oldest in Kansas still being used and was built in 1873. It is currently being refurbished and they have a temporary courthouse now.

I left Cottonwood Falls and went north on hwy 177 to Strong City and on north coming to the historic Z-Bar Ranch. I stopped there for a spell and spoke with the Park Service attendant. I want to go back when I have more time and tour the house and even go for a hike on there trail. There are some good pictures of the ranch on this website: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/kansas_zbar_ranch.htm

I also took a picture of the school just up the road. There is an article about it at:
http://www.parktrust.org/zb-glim.html

The next stop was Council Grove in Morris County for county 105. I have now been to all the counties in Kansas. Heading home I continued north on 177 to K-4 at Alta Vista and took some pictures of old machinery at a museum of sorts. I headed northeast on the Skyline/Mill Creek scenic road to Alma to the courthouse where I first started this journey.

This trip was 2,177 miles visiting 60 counties. I averaged 41.6 miles per gallon mostly due to the high winds. I normally average from 45 to 49 mpg. I spent a total of $450 for motels, gas and food. I rode a total of 4,080 miles visiting all the counties and this included a trip to Edgar, Nebraska for a funeral. Some counties were overlapped due to several trips so with better planning a few miles could be eliminated.

I believe Kansas is even bigger than most people think!

Kansas as wonderful secondary roads with most having a speed limit of 65. I mostly ran 69 to 70 with the exception in Gove County where it hit 94.5 for a very short distance just to blow out the cobs!

Kansas is very diverse with urban in the east and very rural in the west. Western Kansas has great crops this year so it was a good year to travel out there. Some years it is so dry the crops are not good even with irrigation. Most farms have center pivot irrigation systems and one wonders how many years the water will hold out. The new wheat crop is looking good for next years crop so maybe they will have another good year next year. It should really help the economy with a good wheat crop and great fall crop. They will probably pay some big taxes this year.

Well it was a great experience to get to know Kansas better. When you ride secondary roads and drive through all the small towns and go into town to find the courthouse you end up with a much better feel for what the rural life is like. There are some really nice small towns in Kansas so maybe your next vacation you should pick out some counties and enjoy them. I could have spent much more time exploring in the towns and the counties. There is a lot to see in Kansas!

Northwest Counties and Heading Home

The day started out calm with a cool temperature of 43 and went to a high of 85. By 10 AM there was a brisk south wind blowing and by the time I got to Goodland and St Francis it was really blowing. The air was full of blowing dust and especially one field north of Goodland. They must have worked it too much because the dust was really fogging off and covered about two miles. I really had trouble with my eyes this morning. I rode 482 miles and went to 13 counties.

I started out with a big breakfast at the Mitten Truck Stop in Oakley. I put on some extra clothes and stared out west on 40 hwy. I have heated grips and seat but don’t use the seat except when I arrived at the motel this evening my backpack was very warm and when I tied in on the bike I must have turned on the passenger seat heater. I also have wind deflectors so I can adjust how much wind I get to a certain extent. When I came to 25 hwy going south I decided to go to Russell Springs to see the old Logan County Courthouse. The County Seat moved to Oakley in 1962. This is pasture area and not much farm land around Russell Springs. It was so quite when I stopped. There was not a sound except some turkeys talking. Two of them were near the courthouse. “Lola” was really agitated that I went off route but she ended cooperating and routing me out from the courthouse. I did not want to go back north as it was 11 miles and it looked like the paved road headed west for several miles before turning south. I could see that 40 went southwest so I ended going west across county to save backtracking. It worked pretty well except I had about 12 miles of dust and gravel roads. Shortly after leaving the courthouse more turkeys ran across the road and then further down I took pictures as a flock crossed in front of me. Then in about a half mile there were about 30 more in a field by the road. I also saw several antelope in a field.

I got back on 40 hwy heading southwest to Sharon Springs in Wallace County. There is some desolate county in this area.

From there I headed north on 27 hwy again. This has all been repaved and some of the road moved. It is really a nice road. I came out in Goodland in Sherman County.

I continued on north on 27 and this ride from Sharon Springs to hwy 36 near St Francis was a dream. With the wind at my back it was like floating and no noise. Then I turned west on 36 for 4 miles to St Francis in Cheyenne County and the wind was terrible again.

I headed back east on 36 hwy to Atwood in Rawlins County. The dust along this stretch was bad. I stopped and took Benadryl and more eye drops and it helped some. I had to dodge tumbleweeds several times to keep from hitting them.

Then I headed back south on 25 highway to Colby in Thomas County. This ride wasn’t too bad as I was heading into the wind. What a majestic courthouse this is. It may be my favorite by outside appearance.

I then headed northeast on hwy 83 stopping for gas at Rexford and then arrived in Oberlin in Decatar County.

It now seemed like I was heading home as I continued east on hwy 36 to Norton in Norton County. The wind did not seem as bad since there were more trees in this area.

I continued east on 36 hwy to Phillipsburg in Phillips County.

I then headed south on 183 hwy to Stockton in Rooks County. I stopped for a break and an ice cream bar and water that I called lunch.

I continued south to Hays in Ellis County.

I went further south to LaCrosse in Rush County.

I then headed east on 96 hwy to 56 hwy in Great Bend which is in Barton County.

Continuing on east on 56 hwy brought me to Lyons in Rice County and I am spending the night here. I should be home tomorrow. Once again I ate Mexican food since there was a restaurant by the motel.

More Southwest Counties

I left Liberal about 7:30 this morning with a temperature of 71 degrees and the wind out of the south. I rode 500 miles and stopped at 16 counties. The wind switched to the north about 10 AM and it blew hard all day. Most of the day I was either heading east or west, with an occasional trip north, so I always had a crosswind. The only thing to slow the wind out there are the power poles and they were usually on the wrong side of the road. At least I would wear one side of the tires and then change directions to wear the other side. The center probably only wore when I went north.

I went north out of Liberal on 83 and “Lola” was in a bad mood until I got out of town. She must not have had enough rest and I didn’t want to go where she did. The rest of the day we got along okay. I went west on hwy 51 to Hugoton in Stevens County. This was a nice town with a lot of activity. All the places today of course were in an agriculture area. Hugoton has a sign that says it is the “Natural Gas Capital of the World”. They have nice looking schools with gas and oil businesses.

I continued south west of Hugoton on hwy 56 and on the way stopped to take a picture of the small sunflowers. They must have been a variety of sunflower. While I was stopped several pheasants flew across the road and lit in a nearby field. I put on another jacket because it felt like it was getting cooler. This area has many hog confinment feeding houses and I was surprised that they did not smell. There was some on both sides of the road so they must contain the odor. Seaboard owns these and many of the grain elevators in the area. I continued on to Elkhart in Morton County which is in the very south west corner of Kansas. In this area is the Cimarron National Grassland. I had to ask where the courthouse was. They have streets running at angles and it made it confusing to me.

I headed north out of Elkhart on hwy 27 and hit the north wind. The temperature only dropped a few degrees but the wind made up for it. 27 hwy is a very good road and had recently been resurfaced. The next stop was Johnson City in Stanton County. I was having trouble with my eyes burning because of the dust and pollen so when I filled up with gas I rinsed them out and put in eye drops.

From there I went east on hwy 116 to Ulysses in Grant County. There were more piles of corn in about every town I came to. These piles will be really large by the time the harvest is completed because there is still a lot to harvest. A common site in the corn fields were 2 tractor trailer semis, a tractor with a large grain cart and a combine running. Many times the combine would be setting with the bin full.

I headed north on hwy 25 to Lakin in Kearney County.

I then headed back west on 50 hwy to Syracuse in Hamilton County and ate lunch there in a Mexican café. I spoke with a local there that had farmland and he was excited because he had some lease papers he was looking over to lease his land for wind chargers. He has high hopes they will get some there and they have plenty of wind for it. He said besides the lease they would get 4 percent of the revenue generated. If they like the site they will lease it for40 years.
I continued north on hwy 27 to Tribune in Greeley County. There is a lot of ground with native grass growing and they do not pasture or hay so it must be conservation reserve someone is getting paid for to leave idle.

Now I am headed east and leaning north on hwy 96 to Leoti in Wichita County.

And on east on 96 to Scott City in Scott County.

And further east to Dighton in Lane County.

And still further east to Ness City in Ness County. They have a beautiful old building built in the 1890’s and was the Ness County Bank. It is referred to as the “Skyscraper of the Plains.” For more information go to: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/NessCity/ncbb.html

Now I headed north hwy 283 to Wakeeney in Trego County.

I continued on north to Hill City in Graham County.

From there I went west on 24 hwy to Hoxie in Sheridan County.

Then it was south on 23 hwy and no wind. I went south of I-70 11 miles to Gove in Gove County. There is not much in this town. I am glad the officer in the car did not see me up the road when my GPS hit its maximum speed!

I came back north to I-70 and headed west to Oakley in Logan County and I am spending the night here. Once again I am tired after a hard days ride. Maybe the three Jack Daniels I had this evening made a little difference. The people at the motel tell me the courthouse used to be in Russell Springs until in the 1960’s when it was moved to Oakley. She said there was even a murder over moving it to Oakley and at the time Russell Springs had about 2,000 population and now just a few. The old courthouse is still standing and I may ride down there tomorrow as it is not too far out of my way.

Heading Southwest Day 2

Today had several highs and lows. The high temperature was 89 and the low was 45 this morning. The high wind speed was about 20 mph which was lower than yesterday and there was no wind this morning. I tried to eat lunch in Ashland and after waiting 45 minutes for my meal I left. Tonight in Liberal in a Mexican restaurant I was served in about 15 minutes. I traveled more miles yesterday than today with only 445 today. That was because of the 45 minutes wait in Ashland. I still haven’t forgotten about it. It might also be because I stopped to take more pictures too.

I left Pratt this morning about 7:30 and it was a beautiful morning. There was a heavy dew and the green fields glistened. While I was driving I took a picture of my shadow. I like the smell of fresh air, new cut alfalfa, recently turned soil, but not the feedlots. I went north on 283 hwy to St John in Stafford County.

From there I went on north to hwy 19 where I headed west to Larned in Pawnee County.

I then headed southwest on 56 hwy to Kinsley in Edwards County. Now you would think in a small town like this I could find a big courthouse, but no, I had to ask. It was not in the usual place near Main Street but north of hwy 56 which seemed a little out of place. Now when I headed south of Kinsley there are many miles where no one lives and I drove by three U-Haul trucks setting off the side of the road. I went about a mile and decided I had to turn around and get a picture of this for my good friend Pat Crahan of U-Haul International that lives in Phoenix, AZ. He would find this amusing, as did I. I suppose there was a number to call but there were no houses around.

From there I headed south on hwy 183 and east on hwy 54 to Greensburg in Kiowa County. Now the courthouse was not destroyed in the tornado but was damaged and still has windows broken out. The inside may be a mess. In some of the pictures I took, including this one, you can see "Tweety" on the back of my bike. When I was in Greensburg with the Salvation Army I recovered him from the rubble so he went back for a visit. There is a temporary one across the street. There are many temporary buildings including City Hall, other city buildings, schools and FEMA housing which are in the southeast section of town. There is some building going on but many are spec houses. The care home is being rebuilt and John Deere has a new building but very little machinery. There is a KWIK shop open also. It will take a long time to rebuild and will never be the same. I forgot to go by the well but when I was there with the Salvation Army everything above ground was destroyed.

After leaving Greensburg I headed back west about 9 miles and had to go to Mullinville and take pictures of the yard art a man has created. When we were driving back and forth to Dodge City we saw this each day and I wanted some pictures. I went back east to 183 hwy and headed south to Coldwater in Comanche County. We lived southeast of Coldwater after I quit the Patrol in 1979. I worked for the Merrill Ranch as a cowboy for about two years and the boys went to school in Coldwater. A lady took my picture at the courthouse.

From there I headed on south on hwy 183 to 160 hwy where I headed west to Ashland in Clark County. Enough said about Ashland.

From there I continued west to Meade in Meade County. All throughout the day there were many farmers in the field harvesting, sowing wheat, and putting up hay. It is a busy time of year.
I headed north on hwy 23 to Cimarron in Gray county. On the way before reaching hwy 56 there were many wind chargers and I took several pictures of them. These were right next to the road and they are huge. I saw more later northeast of Dodge City.

I headed east on hwy 400 to cow town or Dodge City in Ford County. The courthouse is on Gunsmoke Street.

I then headed north on 283 to Jetmore in Hodgeman County.

From Jetmore I headed southwest on hwy 156 which is a desolate stretch of 56 miles with a crosswind blowing. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be when I met the trucks and this road carries a lot of trucks. I made it to Garden City in Finney County and “Lola” took me right to the courthouse. She was in pretty good humor today. It amazes me no matter where you go farmers along the way have a sense of humor. Today I saw this real short, full size, windmill some one had taken the time to set up. Its only purpose was for our entertainment.
From Garden City I headed south on hwy 83. There were many harvesters in this area and many fields of irrigated corn, cotton, sunflowers, beans, and hay. I stopped twice today and took pictures where they a piling the corn on the ground. It looks like the corn is excellent as is most of the milo. The dry land milo is not so good. My next stop was in Sublette in Haskell County. I called Super 8 in Liberal from there but they did not have any vacancies.
I headed on south on 160 hwy to Liberal in Seward County and found a Rodeway Inn at a good price and am spending the night here.