Sunday, June 19, 2011

Heartland Riders Tour Towns 3

After waiting about an hour for a thunderstorm to pass I headed southwest about 9:15 AM on Friday. On the way to the first tour town I passed Allen and Bushong for an extra towns.
From Extra Towns
From Extra Towns
A few more miles south I came to Americus.
From Tour Towns

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I had to go back north about ten miles then to US-56 where I headed west. I passed through Delavan where they have a pay phone by the highway so you can call 911. I didn't check to see if it worked.
From Extra Towns
I went on west to Herington and found Lost Springs!
From Extra Towns
I had lunch there in a Mexican restaurant and bar. For a small town there were about 5 nice looking girls working the lunch period. I remember when I was a trooper in McPherson I used to meet the Marion County trooper there occasionally for lunch. They had great fried chicken. The restaurant was in a different place then of course that's been 40 years ago! After lunch I headed west and came across where the real Lost Springs started. There are numerous makers in the area where the Santa Fe trail crossed and wagon ruts.
From Extra Towns
From Extra Towns

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I went on west and then north to the next tour town of Ramona.
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I headed back south until I came to a sign showing Tampa west. It was a good rock road and I must have gone about 8 miles west to Tampa.
From Tour Towns

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I headed southeast on county roads and saw a church in the distance. I turned south to Pilsen.
From Extra Towns
They had a beautiful Catholic Church.
From Extra Towns
And a gift shop.
From Extra Towns
On the way to the next town I came to Burns.
From Extra Towns
The next tour town was Elbing.
From Tour Towns

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The next town was Smileyburg and I was apprehensive about finding this place and did quite a bit of research on it. I have a hand held GPS I use for Geocaching and I put the coordinates in it. I tried to put Smileyberg in Lola and nothing showed up. I knew it was east of Douglass so I started east on a county road. My hand held showed 42 miles which I knew wasn't correct so I scrapped that idea. Dumb luck works pretty well.
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
Smileyburg was what we were supposed to find. Lola showed Smileyville. The map shows Smileyberg. So what is it? You ask the locals. So I pulled up at his place and asked the young man working on a car and he was not aware the bait shop was spelled burg. He went inside so I took the picture and got back on the bike. Probably his father came out and said,"Leaving so soon?" So I talked with him a while and he said the correct spelling is Smileyberg like his shop. He gave me a key ring with the shops name and went on to explain some of the history. The natives are friendly. I hate to make this so easy for the rest of the riders with all this good information but I'm a nice guy!
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I headed on east a county road and came to what I think used to be a town of Clay Center. There were two buildings that had Clay Center on them. This was the school.
From Extra Towns
Next tour town was Atlanta.
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
While taking a picture of the post office a lady pulled up and inquired what I was doing. I said I was touring the state for small towns. She said, "Well you found it here. There is an elevator and a bank." They did have a post office though.

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South of Atlanta I came across this neat farmstead.
From Tour Towns
Next on my list and the last tour town for this trip was Maple City. I went to where Lola said this is it and this is what I found.
From Tour Towns
Reflections!
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
Lots of antiques but no sign saying this was Maple City. There was a church but no sign. I tried to find some one to talk to but no one was around.

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I headed back northeast to US166. I was looking at my map when a car pulled up and wanted to know if I was okay. I said yes and asked if he lived around here and knew about Maple City. Why yes he did, in fact he was the pastor at the church there and no there wasn't any signs that had Maple City on them. He also told me of another town that used to be just south of our location but there was nothing there now. I thanked him before we parted ways.
I was hot and ready for a place to spend the night so I headed east to Sedan where they have one motel. I got a room, had my Jack Daniels, showered, talked with Mary then went next door to dinner. The motel was the Ranch motel and the restaurant was also the Ranch. I also ate breakfast there the next morning. It was a perfect day with light winds, sun and the Flint Hills. I headed north on K99 which is a great motorcycle road that runs from Oklahoma to Nebraska. The crops this whole trip just looked great. Most of the wheat in the southern counties was harvested and some planted to another crop, probably beans. Most of the area had received recent rains and some places quite wet. The corn crop really looked good. Of course the Flint Hills are nice and green. I finally reached the climax of my trip.
From Extra Towns
From Extra Towns
Yes there is a Climax, KS.
As I was riding along I stopped several times for pictures of the Flint Hills.
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
The sign says "eat beef". If these steers knew what it meant they might not be so contented.
From Tour Towns
Some of the blue skies and wheat.
From Tour Towns
Some Kansas beef!
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
Here some wind turbines off in the distance.
From Tour Towns
Some of the towns I came to along the way home.
From Extra Towns
From Extra Towns
From Extra Towns
When I came to Emporia I had to wait on two trains, one going west and then one headed east. Both trains had inter-modal containers and most from China. Each trains was over a mile long.
From Tour Towns
I came to the new overpass they put in over the turnpike north of Emporia that kept the stretch of K99 closed for several months.
From Tour Towns
And I had to stop and admire, Admire. This flagger gal was not very friendly and talked to herself. We were stopped more than a mile south of US56 and 2 miles from where the construction started.
From Extra Towns
This is what the process looks like and it is very hot. Wouldn't want this job. The company is Dustrol Milling.

I came on north on K99 to Eskridge where I took K4 back to Topeka. Along the way there is this neat rock barn.
From Tour Towns
Then I came to Dover.
From Extra Towns
I arrived home before lunch and traveled 493 miles. I spent $45.86 for gas and averaged 41mpg. I really enjoyed this trip. Many thanks to Steve Hart for putting these tours together. Every one who goes on these trips is a winner for all the great scenery and history we take in. In 2005 I went to every county and took a picture of the court house. There is so much to see in Kansas and even if you don't travel by motorcycle get out and tour Kansas! You too can be a winner! I have one more tour to the northwest to complete all the towns.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Heartland Riders Tour Towns 2

I started out by adding a couple of "extra towns". The first was McFarland on May 29th.
From Extra Towns
On June 2nd I was looking at some of the flood damage and added Willard.
From Extra Towns
Friday June 3rd I took off to tour southeast Kansas. I started with Vinland which is southeast of Lawrence. Normally you would go south of Lawrence a mile and turn east but they are working on US 59 and I came back 1 mile north then east a mile then back south.
From Tour Towns

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I then headed south through Baldwin City. My next stop was an "extra" at Lane. My sister-in-law was from Lane and I had never been through there.
From Extra Towns
The next tour town was Rantoul.
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From there I headed south to Garnett and fueled then on to Centerville. It seemed Lola took me the long way around to get here.
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From Centerville I headed on south to Redfield which is just west of Fort Scott.
Lola took me across some gravel roads to get there.
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It was really starting to get hot and windy now. I went into Fort Scott and at lunch at Subway. I then headed south to Arcadia.
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I went on south and picked up Mulberry which borders Missouri. This is in the area of the coal strip mines of years ago and there were many waterways that was probably good fishing.
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In 2005 I rode down in this area and went to West Mineral the home of Big Brutus the monster crane that dug many of the strip mines. This is me standing in the bucket.
From Al's October AR trip
Big Brutus
From Al's October AR trip
If you have never been to the museum it is worth a visit.
After that things got interesting when I tried to find Englevale which is just northwest of Mulberry. Lola took me one mile west of US69 on a rock road and said I was there but I didn't see anything resembling a town. A farmer was driving by but I didn't need help yet. I can find it myself! I went back to the highway and went north but wasn't finding anything. I was turning around on a side road as a car was coming from the west. I got off the bike with my map and the lady stopped and rolled down the passenger window. She didn't know if there was anything left of the town but it was abandoned many years ago. I thanked her and went across the highway where a Crawford County truck pulling a trailer was spaying noxious weeds. I asked him if he knew where the town was and he said, "Sure. Let me turn around and you just follow me." I followed him back to the intersection where Lola had taken me. He told me to go in front of him and showed me a building about a 1/4 mile south. I stopped at the building and the driver, Ed Fields, said this used to be a music hall. There was no writing on it though. He said there was a cemetery about a 1/2 mile west that had Englevale on the sign. There was another building just to south of where were were and we drove up there and it said Englevale on it. Eureka! This building was the meeting hall. So a big thanks to Ed Fields!
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
From Tour Towns
Even this map is not quite correct. Go south at the intersection.

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Instead of going back to the highway I went west from the cemetery and rock roads for about 5 miles. It wasn't the wisest decision but I made it. I headed south and west towards Labette, my next stop. I very seldom traveled on State of Federal roads but opted for paved county roads.
From Tour Towns

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I then headed back northwest to Lafontaine which is west of Neodesha.
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I went back to Neodesha with hopes of finding a motel. I saw one but it didn't look too good so opted to head on north on US75 to Yates Center. I found a motel there that wasn't great but but was clean and had a good bed. No ice machine and the window air conditioner was off but did work. It was 87 in the room but soon cooled down. I fixed my favorite traveling drink. This bottle has many miles on it and has been refilled numerous times.
From Tour Towns
I walked down the street a few blocks to a Pizza hut and had a pizza and a couple of Bud Lights. Saturday morning I took off about 7:15 and headed northeast to Neosho Falls. The road is paved coming in from the south.
From Tour Towns

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I headed north on a gravel road that wound around several miles. I finally came to a paved road and went north several miles then Lola headed me west about two miles the back north on a rock road. I should have backtracked to the paved road but I listened to a women again and it headed me to trouble. This was the road she sent me on.
From Tour Towns
Looks like marbles eh! Felt like it too! I finally came to a paved road and this meadow where lots of pretty flowers were blooming.
From Tour Towns
I made it to Aliceville.
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My next town was Michigan Vally and Lola gave me more gravel roads. I am going to have to start treating her better so she gives me better roads. On the way to Michigan Valley I passed through Waverly:
From Extra Towns
Melvern
From Extra Towns
and Quenemo
From Extra Towns
I made it to Michigan Valley with the last 4 1/2 miles gravel.
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Of course I couldn't overlook Overbrook!
From Extra Towns
I rode to US 75 on US56 but 56 is closed to the west and I wanted to go to Burlingame so I went south and then west to Osage City then back north to the Santa Fe cafe in Burlingame. The Heartland riders have a monthly meeting there at 10AM the first Saturday each month. It was time for breakfast! After the meeting I headed home. I mowed the lawn and went to 4:30 Mass. Then on Sunday I drove the car to Melvern Lake and went fishing with my brother. I had walleye and crappie for dinner! Yummy! So this completes all the tour towns east of US75. I will make a trip southwest and one northwest in the future. The rest of the Heartland riders that want to find Englevale should have a much easier time at it with my good directions.